abortion

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Fri Oct 11 09:00:33 PDT 2002


At 11:02 AM -0400 10/11/02, Gordon Fitch wrote:
>Yoshie:
>> > I'm concerned about logic, not logistics. I'm saying that it's not
>> > logical for anyone to consider a fetus to be a baby without
>> > advocating putting women and abortion-providers behind bars, unless
>> > he is also saying that genocide is OK.
>
>Dennis Perrin:
>> Conversely, if you think a fetus is a "parasite" then why would you be upset
>> with children starving or being shot? Isn't this the elimination of said
>> "parasite" at a later stage of growth?
>> ...
>
>Obviously, once the fetus is born, it's no longer an invader
>or parasite.

As Marta has criticized here, newborns with very severe disabilities are often "allowed to die" in hospitals, with parents and doctors' consent; Peter Singer has developed the bio-ethical philosophy that morally legitimates what has and is already being widely practiced, if you agree with him.

Setting the Singer controversy aside, women, doctors, and nurses are not murdering 1.3 million newborns and children per year in the USA, and those who do murder them are tried and sentenced to prison terms (it has been argued, though, that women who kill newborns are often sentenced to shorter prison terms than those who kill infants, children, or adults). If women, doctors, and nurses murdered 1.3 million babies per year in the USA, surely anyone would consider it to be genocide and advocate taking radical measures in response to it.

In marked contrast, 1.3 million women abort fetuses per year, an estimated 43% of women will have at least one abortion by the time they are 45 years old. If fetuses were babies, surely the number of abortions would amount to genocide by most thinking persons' standards. -- Yoshie

* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list