Posted on 11/06/2005 3:19:39 AM PST by Pharmboy
BOSTON Case study one: a pregnant woman wants an abortion. Her husband doesn't. Should he have a say?
Case study two: a woman wants to become pregnant with frozen embryos. Her ex-husband opposes the decision. Should he have a say?
The answer, legally, is no in the abortion case, and in the case of frozen embryos, almost always yes.
It might seem paradoxical, but it is emblematic of the way technology is changing the landscape of human reproduction. And it is the kind of paradox that could get more attention with the nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court.
Since his nomination, Judge Alito's most talked-about decision so far has been his dissent in the 1991 Pennsylvania abortion case, Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
In that case, Judge Alito wanted to uphold a Pennsylvania law that required women to notify their husbands when seeking an abortion. His view was rejected by the majority of the judges, and later, by the Supreme Court, which used the case as a vehicle to uphold the legality of abortion.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
But strictly in the part about Alito and husband notification, the writer correctly states that the case was merely about notification.
It's interesting that our discussion is a microcosm of the Alito/PA case, i.e., broad vs. narrow interpretation.
Yes...my point was that for people not following this as closely as you and I (and most other Freepers) it was disingenuous at the very least for the writer to start off with a discussion of the husband's consent and then morph the discussion into Alito's opinion on notification. Perhaps I should have been clearer.
Thank you for adding such an informed post to this thread. You raised several points that I, for one, had never thought about.
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