saquigley@watmath.UUCP (Sophie Quigley) (03/05/84)
_0._1. _T_h_e _p_u_n_i_s_h_m_e_n_t The punishment proposed for this particular crime is to force the criminals to suffer the consequences of their crime, i.e go through with the pregnancy and the raising of the child or put him/her up for adoption. Sometimes, it is appropriate to force people to suffer the consequences of their actions as a punishment for having being irresponsible, but in this case, the ethicality of the punishment is highly debatable as it involves using the suffering of another innocent person to do so. The best analogy to this kind of punishment would be to refuse to give medical help to children who are wounded in car accidents because their parents neglected to buckle them up. Obviously, this is a case where "forcing people to live with the consequences of their actions" would be going too far. The first message that a society gives when it enforces such punishements, is that it does not really care about what happens to the children, because if it did, the last thing it would want to do is to leave them in the hands of irresponsible adults. Society is telling those adults: "you are irresponsible, therefore you will have children and that will make you responsible". A society that cared about the welfare of children would never say such a thing, instead it would say: "it is obvious that you are irresponsible, for the children's sake you should not have any until you become more responsible" This society is also saying on one hand that the fetus' life is sacred, but on the other hand is gambling with this life by using it as a weapon against irresponsible adults, and then leaving it at their mercy knowing very well that the majority of abused children are children who were not wanted by their parents. This shows, if anything, a terri- ble lack of responsibility from the part of that society. The second message given by society's use of pregnancy as a punishment is that it considers that pregnancy and childraising can be punishments. It is true that this view is not inconsistent with the one of the criminals receiving this punishment, but the difference is that the criminals never pretended that they didn't have this view. People who want abortions are not saying that they are against preg- nancy, or against children, but that they are against a par- ticular pregnancy at a particular time in their lives. A society that wants to promote a view of childbearing as a wonderful experience would avoid at all costs turning it into a punishment; so by not doing so, it shows how little respect it has for the whole process of pregnancy and child- birth, and how the only thing it considers important in the whole process, is the life of the fetus, not even its well- being. Unfortunate as it is, this fact is certainly not new. The effectiveness of this punishment as a deterrent from irresponsability is not known. What is even less known is the comparative effectiveness of this punishment with other punishments, such as letting the woman have an abor- tion. Much has been said about the availability of abortion encouraging people to be sexually irresponsible, but it is important to note that irresponsible sex existed much before abortion became so widely available. What is known is that abortion serves a as very good deterrent against "irrespon- sible" sex. Women who have had abortions tend to be much more careful sexually afterwards because they do not want to go through another similar traumatic experience again. It is my guess that abortion is as good a deterrant against sexual "irresponsability" as forced pregnancy. Looking at the crime: irresponsible sex, and what is being suggested as a valid punishment: forced pregnancy and 20 years of childraising or a lifetime of wondering what happened to the child one gave up for adoption, one is forced to admit that the punishment is disproportionately severe. It seems to me that a society who enforces such a punishment is not really interested in justice, but rather in making the criminal suffer. A more just punishment would be to let the woman have her abortion. The suffering involved in going through an abortion is enough to serve both purposes of punishment and deterrance. Finally, a society truly interested in the welfare of its citizens should be more interested in education and prevention of irresponsible sex rather than in its punish- ment. Sophie Quigley ...!{decvax,allegra}!watmath!saquigley