From: gjh@galen.med.Virginia.EDU (Galen J. Hekhuis)
Subject: Re: Pro-choicers must condone infanticide
Organization: University of Virginia Health Sciences Center
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 16:40:33 GMT

In article <1992Dec18.200852.12685@rotag.mi.org> kevin@rotag.mi.org (Kevin Darcy) writes:
}In article <1992Dec18.024547.25909@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> gjh@galen.med.Virginia.EDU (Galen J. Hekhuis) writes:
}>In article <1992Dec17.185322.3653@rotag.mi.org> kevin@rotag.mi.org (Kevin Darcy) writes:
}>
}>}Ah, but encountering a burglar in one's house in the middle of the night
}>}is really NOT analogous to being pregnant. 
}>
}>True, but you probably should have stopped there.  I suspect you attempted
}>to explain why.
}>
}>
}>}                                                                  When dealing 
}>}with pregnancy, that's a whole different situation. The growing fetus can be 
}>}monitored, tested. The medical risks are known and be accurately measured in 
}>}any given case. Where there is a serious known risk, the woman can be 
}>}hospitalized so that, in case of sudden crisis, professional medical help 
}>}can be summoned within seconds. 
}>
}>I see your conception of medicine is as fantastic as your legal knowledge.
}>
}>ps  Kevin, I work where they make doctors.  I work with "almost doctors,"
}>full-fleged doctors and medical equipment every day.  The picture is hardly
}>as you present, although many people would like it to be that way.
}
}So much for contentless hand-waving. 

Well, Kevin, I don't know what you use, but I have to type on my terminal
to get ASCII characters.  Contentless typing, perhaps.  They again, 
maybe you just wave your hands, and your posts appear.  There has
to be some explanation.

}If you think my description is 
}"fantastic", then I'd appreciate an explanation WHY. 

Well, yes, I do think your description is fantastic and since you asked,
here's why:

You assert that the medical risks of pregnancy are known.  They are not.
They can be described in some circumstances, and can be assigned 
a probability of occurance in some cases, but hardly in all.  Even in
the best of circumstances, some risks are totally and completely unknown
and undiscovered.

You assert that accurate measurement is possible in any given case.  This
is not at all possible even in the best of cases.  There exist
deviations from "accurate" in the equipment and in the people running
it.  The inaccuracy may be reduced to tollerable levels in some cases,
but accurate measurement is hardly possible in any given case.

You assert that hospitalization permits summoning of professional 
medical types in seconds.  This is also untrue.  It does increase
the chances of rapidly summoning of help to be sure, but responding
in a matter of seconds is a goal, not a standard in many hospitals.

Far too many people believe that competent medical help and diagnosis
is available at a hospital.  While medical science has made great
strides from a few years ago, it is hardly the known quantity many
people assume.  The human body is exceedingly complex and I doubt 
there is any area that is known adequately, to say nothing of
proceedures which might remedy a malfunction.  Our technology 
and knowledge may look impressive when compared to only a few hundred
years ago, but we have barely scratched the surface when it comes
to understanding the function of the human body.

}Remember though, that
}I'm comparing pregnancy to encountering a burglar on one's property in the
}middle of the night; all of the relative terms -- "known risk", "accurately 
}measured", "professional help", etc. -- should be read in that context.

Darn, I forgot that.  In other words, you would have "accurate" mean
"with greater accuracy" than your burglary example, and that "known"
means "greater probability of quantifying" in one example than 
the other.  I didn't quibble with "professional help," as I have
always distinguished "professional" from "competent."  Your assumption
that it can be summoned in a matter of seconds is simply untrue.  I
would imagine you live in a big city and were thinking of a major
hospital, right?  Perhaps you would like to qualify "hospital"?
Granted, you can probably summon help there more quickly there, but
an assertion that it can be done so in a matter of seconds is
possibly reassuring, but hardly always true, context or not.

You and Suzanne Forgash (NFP can be used by any woman accurately)
assume a far greater knowledge of bodily function, diagnosis
and medicine than actually exists.

Doggone, Kevin, my father is an MD, my mother a psychiatric nurse,
and I work for a department in a medical school in a major teaching
hospital.  I know whereof I speak.

--
       hang gliding mailing list: hang-gliding-request@virginia.edu 
     Galen Hekhuis  UVa Health Sci Ctr (804)982-1646 gjh@virginia.edu
                  Illiterate?  Write for FREE help...
Newsgroups: talk.abortion,talk.politics.misc,alt.fan.rush-limbaugh,alt.fan.rush-limbaugh.tv-show