From: bskendig@netcom.com (Brian Kendig)
Subject: Re: The christian perspective...?
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 92 05:22:24 GMT
Organization: Starfleet Headquarters: San Francisco

mcmillan@vf.jsc.nasa.gov wrote (in article <1992Sep14.225518.1@vf.jsc.nasa.gov>):
>This is a discussion...don't get so 
>uptight when someone disagrees with your belief that killing babies is ok.

Gee, I can tell which side of the fence YOU'RE on!  ;)
The pro-choice stand is that we're not KILLING BABIES.  Read on...

>Provide your proof that there is no pain.  Make sure you're right because, if
>you're wrong, you're torturing a lot of babies to death.

Simple.  What is pain?  When nerves send certain impulses to the brain
and the brain interprets them as pain and triggers reflexes to try to
end that pain, right?  Well, how can you have pain if you have no
nerves to transmit it, or no brain to interpret it?

>An unborn baby who didn't have anything to do with being there isn't
>innocent?!?

Okay, I'll agree with you here.  A fetus is just about as innocent as
you can get.  Problem is, though, if the mother doesn't want it,
somewhere along the line you've got to either be nasty to the mother
or be nasty to the fetus.  Why not remove the fetus before enough of
it gets put together, so it can't suffer?

>> It isn't a human being.
>A molecule of water is still water.

But a cement foundation isn't an apartment building.  The fetus is
undergoing development -- it doesn't appear as a really really tiny
baby and just get bigger.  For a long time, tucked away inside its
mother's womb, it's only a foundation; all the life support systems in
the world couldn't help it lead a "normal" life outside the womb.

>> It cannot make a choice.
>Neither can a baby born in July 1992.  Do you want to kill them too?

You're missing the distinction again.  Why do pro-lifers always seem
to miss this?

Being pro-choice DOESN'T mean I think it's right to kill a baby.  Nor
does it mean I think a fetus is fair prey right up to the point it's
born.

Being pro-choice means that I recognize there are times when it's in
the best interest of everyone concerned that the mother _not_ give
birth, and if the fetus has not yet reached the point of development
at which it has a functioning mind, it's safe to abort it, because
abortion won't involve any suffering on the fetus's behalf.

Naturally I'd love to see a world where every pregnant woman carries
her child to term and raises it in a loving home -- but,
realistically, this is never going to happen, so we have to
compromise.  My compromise is to allow abortion up to a point.

>> Well then, since Nature is to be the Ultimate Arbiter of Human Endeavour,
>> perhaps we should all eschew clothes, cars, houses, computers, and Bibles
>> and go back to a hunter/gatherer existance?  After all, all of the above
>> are clearly contrary to the wishes of Nature or else they would have been
>> supplied for us.
>> 
>They were.  I've got them, and I bet you do too.  Of course, it took time to
>acquire them.  Good things take time, Ray, even the unborn.

That sounds so cliche'd that I won't even touch it.  ;)

Here's a modest proposal for all pro-lifers: Why don't you take a
homeless person into your home?  It's be much better for the homeless
person than just casting him out in to the street, wouldn't it?  And
sure, caring for him would require your time and money, but after all,
he's your fellow human being, and he deserves a chance at a good life,
right?

I haven't worked the analogy out thoroughly yet -- but if you have
some reason why wou won't jump at the chance to take in a homeless
person, how can you criticize someone who is looking for a way out of
the responsibility of caring for a newborn?

     << Brian >>

-- 
_/_/_/       Brian Kendig  Macintosh Jedi           Live never to be ashamed
 _/_/   Starfleet Captain  Oracle Employee         if anything you do or say
  _/  Intrepid Adventurer  Saturn SL2 Owner    is published around the world
      bskendig@netcom.com  Wizard of Frobozz    -- even if what is published
    Princeton '92! BSE/CS  Writer/Actor/Singer                   is not true.
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