Replies

Final paper for English 102, proposal argument.

History repeats itself, I guess; last paper I wrote for English 101 was on abortion (Should the Unborn be considered Human?, as some may recall). Managed to get an A on it. Maybe I'll be just as lucky. Maybe.

Interesting paper, this one...first time I've approached the topic from a purely secular standpoint.

Just proves that Pro-Life is not about religion. It's about human life and how we value it; something everyone can relate to.

Pro-Life/Moral absolutes ping!

Ping-a-ling.

If the other side is “pro-choice” how come it upsets them so when the choice is other than abortion?

They won’t admit it, in fact they’ll deny it vehemently, but they’re a buch of eugenicists at heart. The Terri Schiavo case proves that beyond the shadow of a doubt.

Remember, Planned Parenthood makes BUG BUCKS doing abortions. And their founder, whom they refuse to repudiate, was an open eugenicist.

Thanks for the ping.

Education is the key.

Great writing---why are you wasting your time as a math major? ;)

Good job. Here's one of mine. Maybe you'll find it useful.

Abortion: A Small Part of a Much Larger Issue

Like so many political battles that never seem to get resolved, Right to Life versus Reproductive Rights to Abortion is a pair of dishonest answers to the wrong question.

A “Right to Life” is an impossibility, if only because immortality is not a condition that can be guaranteed by the State. Indeed, quite the contrary: police shoot to kill and armies fights wars wherein the loss of even innocent life is sanctioned as “collateral damage.” Such takings of human life are obviously not murders. Conser¬vatives claiming a “right to life,” as a euphemism to banning abortion, in fact desire Constitutional protec¬tion of fetuses from legally sanctioned death. So perhaps we would be more honest to call it that.

Yet even if we did, how would the State prosecute a murder case in an instance where mere fasting, physical rigor, or failure to follow a doctor's orders could cause a spontaneous abortion? Considering all the technical means now or soon available, one would almost have to put a pregnant mother in restraints to prevent her from killing her unwanted baby. Even if we could outlaw RU-486, the drug war has been so spectacularly unsuccessful that a ban is unlikely to prevent its use. Between simple miscarriage and abortion’s more grizzly forms there is too much graduation of circumstance for a Constitutional Amendment to be both comprehensive and enforceable. Forget it.

On the other hand, a "Reproductive Right to Abortion" starts out as an oxymoron and graduates to signal hypocrisy. Liberals invent all sorts of sterile terms in order to dance around the insane notion that killing a growing human fetus with its own unique DNA isn’t taking a distinct human life. Nobody but an idiot would argue that it isn’t.

Which brings us to the Roe v. Wade. Besides the obvious concern over the Federal government interfering with State regulation of medical practice, for Justice Blackmun to distinguish the legal treatment of a fetus by its gestational age was plainly silly. Aldous Huxley certainly understood that an artificial womb would soon be possible early as the 1930s and clearly spelled out the disastrous consequences of government control over human life and death. Roe should be overturned on all those bases, if only as an example of the need for better Supreme Court Justices.

That our rights are God-given is what holds them superior to the limited powers the people granted to the United States. It is that Constitutional guarantee to protect the rights of every citizen that includes those unable to exercise their own, whether the insane, the aged, or the injured. However, the Constitution does not acknowledge the rights of citizenship in the unborn (indeed quite the contrary).

To Amend the Constitution to include the unborn as natural persons, would give government the power to act as their adversary whenever their interests compete with other citizens, namely their parents. If government can take that control, doesn't that render the unborn child a ward of the state? Do you want the government to decide what is in the “interest” of an unborn baby? What if that included certain “improvements”? Isn’t that a serious risk when such protections don't accomplish much of anything to prevent abortion?

There is just no way to design an enforceable “Right not to be Aborted Amendment” that would not also put the existing rights of citizens in jeopardy. From a standpoint of enforceable law, is an insoluble problem. Neither would such a Constitutional Amendment ever pass the Congress or be ratified by the states without vocal support by a large majority of the people. Such does not exist.

Still, Roe v Wade must be overturned if for legal reasons alone. Then what?

The beauty of the federal system is that we would then have 50 sets of working trials with which to improve regulation of medical practice concerning all issues related to the unborn. It improves our chances of getting it right just as it did in the case of welfare reform. It also demonstrates that the conservative preference for federalism (versus socialist command and control) motivates better solutions in a competitive marketplace of legal and administrative ideas.

Some will argue that State laws governing medical practice offer little protection for fetuses because people simply could go to another State to obtain an abortion (just as they could cross national boundaries were abortion totally banned). Federal laws can outlaw crossing state lines to obtain an abortion with heavy penalties for fraud. If you don't think the Congress would pass such legislation, what makes you think they would ever pass a Constitutional Amendment?

Outlawing all abortion would also bring this country back to the wicked and unjust proceedings that so often made criminals out of young teens who are innocent victims of rape or incest, forcing them to risk their lives bearing a child. Many of those who oppose abortion make exceptions for such cases, thus one can hardly call a “right to life” a universal principle. Which brings us to that “larger question” in the title of this article.

The issues surrounding abortion are almost identical to a host of other medical issues where technology has provided us with a set of complex, time sensitive choices, where no matter what path is selected, the competing interests of human beings are at risk:

Euthanasia versus forced life-extension,
Genetic modification or selection of embryos for a better chance at successful implantation versus allowing children to be born with genetic defects or fetuses to die from immuno-incompatibility with the mother,
In-utero procedures to preclude birth with ambiguous genitalia versus the need for sex change operations later in life,
Life extending procedures for the extremely aged, terminally ill, or massively injured,
The eventual integration of human and synthetic intelligence, or even artificial species.

As technology progresses, there will be ever more cases presenting difficult choices about who lives and who dies. If our society has made such a mess of a simple procedure as abortion, think of the ethical dilemmas new medical research is producing at a rate that is wildly outstripping our legal and political institutions.

It will soon be possible to extend all life indefinitely. It won't be cheap. To make that choice means that somebody, somewhere in the world, could have had food, basic medicines, protection, or shelter. It's a fact that begs the moral question: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

We don't have any choice but to make decisions about death. It sucks, but it's a fact of life.

The commonality among these medical issues broadens the decades-long legal battle over abortion into a discussion of how to develop the legal, moral, and administrative systems by which to make the tough decisions that come with our rapidly expanding technical ability to manipulate the entire human life cycle.

By now it should be obvious that the existing court system is the last place to be making such decisions. The issues are too variable, technical, and urgent for that system to render just decisions. They involve the patient, the physician, and disinterested sources of legal, technical, and ethical expertise, as well as the representative of the insurance pool that pays for the procedure. There also needs to be a way that the society that lives with the outcome can place constraints on possible options, perhaps by the usual medical licensing procedures. Because of their time-sensitive nature, the appeals process must necessarily be very limited. Such courts might be convened within hospitals or electronically.

Combining these life and death issues not only puts the issue of abortion in the context in which it belongs, it broadens the number of interest groups who suddenly realize that they too have a stake in issues of life and death beyond mere sexual convenience.

So when conservative candidates for public office are confronted with questions on abortion, it works to their advantage to point out the need to transform the decision-making processes by which to manage artificial manipulation of life and death. Such a response highlights the compassion, discipline, and clarity characteristic of conservatives as critical to bringing productive solutions to vexing moral dilemmas.

A "Rights of Life" Position with Broader Appeal

Abortion is taking human life. Abortion is a medical procedure and therefore, a State issue. Diverse State approaches have a better chance of producing an effective solution set than does a Constitutional Amendment.
There is insufficient public support to outlaw abortion. Since ours is a representative government, we must respect the will of the people and work to motivate changes in individual behavior.
Sexual amorality is a medically hazardous behavior. It carries the risk of life-threatening diseases and single motherhood. History teaches that it is destructive to the general good of a society, especially children.
Promote the value of intact two-parent families and provide them incentives to adopt. The choice to give up a child for adoption must be irrevocable. Government should not respect a claim by a birthing parent over objections of the adoptive parent for either custody or visitation. Restricting adoptions to parents of like ethnicity is racist.
Choices regarding life and death necessarily involve an advocate for the patient, relevant technical, religious, legal, and ethical expertise, and a way to constrain specific outcomes that represents the interests of citizens within the particular State. Because of the time-sensitive nature of the cases, there must be minimal appeals process. Such limits may require a Constitutional Amendment.

In the spirit of education...

Abortion is not about saving women’s lives!

Studies Find Abortions Have Long-Term Effects

45,951,133

Total Abortions since 1973

------------------------------------------------------------

Why the drop after 1960? (in deaths of women from illegal abortions)

The reasons were new and better antibiotics, better surgery and the establishment of intensive care units in hospitals. This was in the face of a rising population. Between 1967 and 1970 sixteen states legalized abortion. In most it was limited, only for rape, incest and severe fetal handicap (life of mother was legal in all states). There were two big exceptions — California in 1967, and New York in 1970 allowed abortion on demand. Now look at the chart carefully.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Abortion Statistics - Decision to Have an Abortion (U.S.)

· 25.5% of women deciding to have an abortion want to postpone childbearing

· 21.3% of women cannot afford a baby

· 14.1% of women have a relationship issue or their partner does not want a child

· 12.2% of women are too young (their parents or others object to the pregnancy)

· 10.8% of women feel a child will disrupt their education or career

· 7.9% of women want no (more) children

· 3.3% of women have an abortion due to a risk to fetal health

2.8% of women have an abortion due to a risk to maternal health

----------------------------------------------------------------------

So how many women’s lives have been saved by abortion?

Only about 3% of abortions since 1972 were reported to be “due to a risk to maternal health.” A reasonable person would recognize that not all of those cases represent a lethal risk. But let’s say they did. That means that nearly 45 million fetuses were butchered to save the lives of about 1.3 million women. Or put another way; 35 babies are killed to save each woman.

Abortion was legal in all 50 states prior to Roe v. Wade in cases of danger to the life of the woman.

Roe v Wade: FULL Text (The Decision that wiped out an entire Generation 33 years ago today)

Great work!

A++++

.

PRO-LIFE EDUCATION: THE MISSING KEY OF THE PRO-LIFE MOVEMENT

PRO-LIFE EDUCATION PROGRAM

A Catholic

Respect Life Curriculum

For
High School
College
and Adult Study

NOW ONLINE

at

www.KnightsForLife.org

I think you’ll get an “A.”

I think that your implied premise is a bit faulty: that people, particularly young people, approach sexual behaviour logically and carefully weigh the consequences of their actions. I don’t think so. While you can teach people to behave morally and can teach them about the repercussions of their actions, in the long term it’s darn difficult to keep people away from behavior that is quite pleasurable.

I think we need to remember that the problem isn’t sex, it’s sex outside the context of marriage without acceptance of the risks and consequences arising from it.

Several FReepers have been making a point that I at first found peculiar, but have since found more logical: young adults need to marry earlier and have children earlier. I don’t think it’s realistic to expect young, hormonally charged people to abstain until they’re in their late 20s when the average age where children lose their virginity in the U.S. is (arguably) somewhere around 15.