marty1@houem.UUCP (M.BRILLIANT) (10/09/86)
Maybe we need to reset the groundwork. Some of us are talking about whether abortion is wrong, while others are talking about whether abortion should be prohibited. Some acts are right or wrong in specific cases for specific people. If you ask whether going to school, eating human flesh, making love, killing, etc., is right or wrong, you get different answers in different cases from different people. I think abortion is like that. I have been staying out of the discussions under the title "Best for Others" because I think what's best for others depends on the beliefs and circumstances of said others. I'm talking about whether the state should prohibit or compel abortion. If you ask whether the state should prohibit or compel going to school, etc., you find that the state does compel schooling up to a point, prohibit the eating of human flesh, sometimes restrict lovemaking, and prohibit private killing while asserting its own right to kill. Most of us (not all) agree with these answers. But when we can't agree about what's best for others, it's clear (to me) that the state should neither prohibit nor compel. Whether the state should compel or prohibit an act depends on many factors. The people must agree that the act is right or wrong. The state also needs real power to prohibit or compel. The state must also be able to define the acts it regulates so that its power to regulate similar but different acts is not jeopardized. As a case in point, it has to be clear, and I think it is clear, that abortion is not murder as defined in law, even if some people find their pursuit of happiness affected equally by them. Fundamentally I accept the role of the state as an agent of the people, so arguing about what the state should do can ultimately affect what the state does. When Gary Samuelson rejected the taxing power of the state, he implicitly rejected the idea of the state as agent of the people. That undermined the ground of the discussion, as I saw it, and I can't continue until we agree on why we are arguing. M. B. Brilliant Marty AT&T-BL HO 3D-520 (201)-949-1858 Holmdel, NJ 07733 ihnp4!houem!marty1