From: knapp@spot.Colorado.EDU (David Knapp)
Subject: Re: Pro-Life? (was Re: Hypocrites?)
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 18:37:55 GMT

In article <1992Jul31.020637.6858@ncsu.edu> dsh@csl36h.csl.ncsu.edu (Doug Holtsinger) writes:
>In article <lefty-300792174350@lefty.apple.com> lefty@apple.com (Lefty) writes:
>
>>dsh@csl36h.csl.ncsu.edu (Doug Holtsinger) writes:
> 
>>> In article <adams.712521565@spssig> adams@spss.com (Steve Adams) writes:
>
>>>> What the "Pro-Life" people want is an end to abortion.  Period.  
>>>> Therefore, the proper appelation would well be "anti-abortion." 
>
>>> Not necessarily. Many of the pro-life people also oppose euthanasia
>>> and the use of anencephalic infants as organ donor sources. 
>
>> In what possible sense can opposition to the use of anencephalic infants as
>> organ donors be construed as being "pro-life"?
>
>Killing anencephalic infants for their organs is wrong because they
>are innocent persons.

Hey, Doug's right here.

I think we should just let anencephalic infants go ahead and be born and 
let them lead normal healthy lives like the rest of us.

Who knows, that anencephalic fetus that would otherwise have been aborted
might have been some great public figure...like Randall Terry perhaps.

Certainly, whether they have a brain or not, those organs are 'theirs' and
I'm certain that if we let them be born and grow to maturity, they 
will be real glad about having those organs. They may even go on speaking
tours to talk about how much those organs mean to them.


>I hesitate to generalize here, but most pro-lifers 
>that I know oppose the killing of innocent persons; they are not
>just "anti-abortion". (Anencephalics do have a brain stem, they are
>generally not "brainless"). 

Which is why I give generously to the anencephalic college fund. While
there is no brain, you can certainly help to augment the function of the 
cerbral cortex. Ok, so you can't really teach it anything, at least it
makes me feel more of a humanitarian.

>> Several months ago, there was a fairly well publicized case in which the
>> parents of an anencephalic baby desperately wanted their child's organs to
>> be available for transplant.  My recollection is that they were opposed by
>> a "pro-life" group, and the case was taken to court.  The parents wishes
>> were disallowed, as I recall, after the court ruled against them.
>>
>> Their baby died; it would have under any circumstances.  Quite likely
>> several other children who could have benefitted from the organs, had they
>> been transplanted, died as well.  In what sense is this a "pro-life"
>> stance?
>
>There were no other children who could have used the organs of that 
>anencephalic infant. The press played up the story as if hundreds 
>of children were desperately waiting to receive organs, but there 
>were none that matched. 

If a wide enough survey were made, and if there were not bureaucratic
delays due to people trying to put that carcass into a casket, the organs
might well have been used by someone *with* a brain and *with* a better
chance of leading a healthy life than the anencephalic infant.

Great waste of life potential which is odd, coming from someone concerned
about giving every fetus a chance to live.

>And we don't kill terminally-ill people with brain diseases for their 
>organs, so why should anencephalic infants be killed for their organs? 

Right, let them die first.  But let them die in manner which allows their
organs not to be detroyed by oxygen deprivation rendering them worm meat.

Good grief, Doug, you are using the shot gun approach to morality without 
even thinking about what you're shooting at or what the gun is loaded with.
You wind up contradicting yourself when you do that.






-- 
David Knapp                                      University of Colorado, Boulder
Highly Opinionated, Aging  and                      knapp@spot.colorado.edu
Perpetual Student of Chemistry and Physics.
            Write me for an argument on your favorite subject.
Newsgroups: talk.abortion