From: bard@cutter.ssd.loral.com (J H Woodyatt)
Newsgroups: talk.abortion
Subject: Re: Answer to Woodyatt's 'jisms (syllogisms, that is)
Date: 8 Oct 92 17:49:57 GMT
Reply-To: bard@cutter.ssd.loral.com
Organization: Abiogenesis 4 Less


Just some pointless quips in response to damaged post...

sa114984@longs.lance.colostate.edu (Steven Arnold) writes:
# 	When you have sex, you know you might become pregnant.

I do -- but it's stupid to assume everyone does.

#                                                               If you
# do, you are responsible for the well-being of the person who you have
# CAUSED to be in your body.

Says who?

#                             You cannot wantonly kill that person; you
# must take every reasonable step within your power to protect the life
# and safety of the person you have endangered.

Says who?

# 	When the life of the mother is in danger, however, we are
# talking about a life vs. a life.  Who is to say which life is more
# important?

You?

#             Both lives are equally threatened.

Not necessarily.

# 	When two lives of equal value are threatened (an either-or
# proposition), the state can prefer one life over the other.

Should the value of individual lives actually be comparable, I suppose
you could make the argument that one could arbitrarily choose which to
spare when one must die.  Why the state?

#                                                              The baby
# hasn't done anything wrong, true;

What baby?  I thought we were talking about abortion.

#                                    but neither has the mother, two
# lives are at stake, and one or the other (or both) will die if nothing
# is done.

That is the scenario you are crafting.  I fail to see what bearing
this has on anything under discussion.

# 	When a mother has sex,

As opposed to childless women?  You probably meant `woman' where you
wrote `mother,' right?

#                               she consents to take every reasonable
# step within her power to protect the life and safety of the person her
# act creates.

Not explicitly.

#                But she does not for that reason necessarily consent to
# abide any serious threat to her life.

Says who?

#                                        To offer an analogy frequently
# used on t.a, if I hit someone else's car, I must do everything within
# my power to save the people I injured, but this does not mean I must
# donate my kidneys.

Says who?  In the state I live in, you'd be held liable for damages if
it was your fault -- but you would not be `required to do everything in
your power.'

#                     If they die, I may owe something to their families
# (who also lost something due to my negligence).

Says who?

#                                                   But in the case of an
# unborn baby, the parents ARE the family; if they wish to sue
# themselves, fine, but it seems a bit odd.

What are you saying?

# 	On the other hand, if I simply left the people I had injured
# by the roadside, I'd be guilty of willful criminal negligence.

Not necessarily.  It would depend upon the circumstances.  If you were
being willfully ciminally negligent in doing so, then you would be
guilty of willful criminal negligence.

#                                                                 Worse
# yet, if I killed them to avoid the problem I'd be guilty of murder in
# the first degree.

Possible.  Might only be 2nd degree.  What does this have to do with
abortion, or even the original question posed?

#                    I must do everything within my power to save the
# lives of the people I injured; but this does not mean I must
# substantially threaten my own life to do so.  Negligence is the key.

Says who?

# If I do everything I can short of substantially threatening my own
# life, then my duties to the injured person are discharged (though not
# necessarily my responsibility to the family).

Says who?


-- 
J H Woodyatt (a.k.a. Dr. Strychnine)
Space Systems/Loral

``Men who have no time to read should devote their time to reading
books of quotations.''
                                              -- Winston Churchill
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