From: trumpins@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu (Barbara Trumpinski)
Subject: Re: Rhetoric: The End of Morality in Society (?)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 09:35:18 GMT

In <rr9ieINN8bh@agate.berkeley.edu> erikred@ocf.berkeley.edu (Erik Nielsen) writes:


>>       It's wrong to murder, because any right of practice that you might have
>>     to swing a fist, knife, or club, throw a rock or discharge a projectile
>>     launcher is subordinate to another's inalienable rights to life and
>>     security of person.  

>Based on the assumption of the right to life.  Hate to break this to you,
>but the right to life is merely an agreement by the populace that death is
>fairly undesirable; the society which agrees to grant such rights maintains
>the right to revoke them as well.  To assume that there are inalienable
>rights outside the jurisdiction of humanity is to assume a higher authority,
>which breaks another guideline of separating church and state.  Murder is not
>wrong; it's just damn inconvenient to its victims.  


kitten, who tends to NOT pay much attention to this philosophical
stuff...(it's much more fun to dance and picnic) listens idly to the
discussion between the bfg and mentor....one phrase jumps out at her
and she decides to take it out of context and open a whole new can of
worms... 

"right to life.  what does that mean, anyway?  we occasionally keep up
on current events here in the Place, but so far nobody has mentioned
the group of half a million people who marched on washington d.c.
this past sunday to demonstrate for a  woman's right to choose what to
do with her own body and the smaller group who desagree that any
other right is more important that that of the unborn. (_I_ should
have been there).

now, i am lousy at defending my own beliefs...more because i don't
want to hurt somebody else's because of a lack of faith in my own
convictions.  i have never had an abortion.  but i worked for 2 years
as a volunteer in a battered women's shelter and for part of that time
i did pregnancy counciling and testing...one of the hardest things i
have ever done in my life was to go with a young woman to an abortion
clinic, so she wouldn't have to go alone.

i respect anybody's right to not believe that abortion is a good or
acceptable thing on their own moral or religious grounds.  i also
respect a woman's right to have children and i believe that the
outrageous cost of the procedures done in fertility clinics and the
idea that many insurance companies won't cover this kind of thing is
wrong. 

as ste-mother to 3 teenagers, i believe that it is important to teach
children about responsible sex.  i have counciled all three of my
children to wait...early sex is not necessarily good sex....it is
better emotionally and physically if you wait till you ready and i am
speaking from experience.

but if they are going to do it, by god, they need to do it
responsibly.  when heather decided to go on the pill, i went with her
and subsidized 50% of the cost.  if her brothers are here and tell me
that they need an adult to buy condoms for them, i will do it....but
again, they will pay half.

abortion is not the best choice.  but sometimes it is the only choice.

and i don't think the government or ANY body else has the right to
tell me or any of my sisters that i should have to bear an unwanted
child or deprive me of SAFE medical treatment.  

abortion won't end if it becomes illegal again...it will just go back
underground and it will cost the lives of many, many women."

kitten looks down from the mountain of soapboxes  thay have developed
under her paws....."ack!

--
***************************************************************************
conan the librarian a.k.a. kitten           /\ /\  barbara ann 
"my life's a soap opera, isn't yours?"      {=.=}
                                              ~   trumpins@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu 

"kittens today are not properly trained--the way that they were when
victoria reigned." asparagus (gus: the theatre cat)
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