From: roby@chopin.udel.edu (Scott W Roby)
Subject: Re: Thanks for life
Organization: University of Delaware
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 19:26:42 GMT

In article <1d84kvINNaet@horus.ap.mchp.sni.de> frank@D012S658.uucp (Frank O'Dwyer) writes:
>In article <Bx40Ix.Esp@news.udel.edu> roby@chopin.udel.edu (Scott W Roby) writes:
>>In article <1992Oct21.202826.24523@ncsu.edu> jjprice@eos.ncsu.edu (JEFFREY JAMES PRICE) writes:
>>>
>>>LETS ALL TAKE A MOMENT OF SILENCE AND BE THANKFUL THAT
>>>WE WERN'T ABORTED.
>>
>>Nah, let's all take a moment of silence and be thankful that 
>>our mothers truly wanted us -- and made us her choice.
>
>This is an assumption on your part, and is probably not warranted.  I doubt
>that any revealing statistics exist on the wantedness of children, especially
>of out mother's generations - how many people will admit to a survey that
>they did not plan, and therefore in some sense did not WANT their children?

True... true...
I was just trying to make a positive statement for choice rather than 
against abortion.  Fact is, I was an unplanned third child in our 
family, although I have always felt very much wanted since birth.  

However, if my mother and family had decided that abortion was the 
way to go and if that choice would have made them healthier and 
more prosperous, then I would have no objection, even from my current  
perspective.  (I really am sincere about that.  Sure, I'd object to 
someone trying to end my life now as a functioning human adult, but 
I have no qualms about the idea of someone ending my life before I 
became what I would recognize as human.  When I had fish gills and a 
tail inside my mother's womb, I was a fetus developing into a human.  
To be perfectly honest, I don't really think I was "I" when in the 
fetus.)  I think whatever makes a family healthier in the long run 
is best.  In my case, my birth didn't cause any undue hardships, so I was 
unplanned, but still accepted.

>For example, how many women of your mother's generation and mine enjoyed
>equal pay?  How many enjoy it today?  Wouldn't you say that equal pay is a
>rather important prerequisite (one of many) for making her choice?

Well, back then, families could survive on one income.  Today they can't.
I'm not sure today's arguments work for a different era (or is that 
ERA?  :-)

My mother chose not to work while us young 'uns were still young.  She 
went back to work when the youngest started school, so I guess you could 
say we were latch-key kid pioneers.  She was a teacher, which at the time, 
was probably one of the better paying jobs for women, although I am 
sure it was still disproportionate compared to men.  Women still don't 
get equal pay due to the persistance of the antiquated idea of the 
father being the family bread-winner.  What was your point?

>>Let's all take a moment of silence and be thankful that we weren't 
>>forced upon our mothers by an uncaring government that chose for her.
>
>Force is sometimes overt, sometimes polite and imperceptible.

An example of polite and imperceptible force, please.  Peer-pressure?
Societal pressure?  Not in my book.  Government pressure?  Nope.

>I'd like to suggest that we should give thanks that our mothers learnt to
>want us.

And pray for those that haven't been so lucky.  And be thankful for 
those in the last ten years who weren't forced to be an unwanted child
by people outside the family who think they know better than the family.



-- 
Scott W. Roby           *This sentence no verb.*      "No Matter where you go..
Phys.& Astr.Dept.    ///// / /  /  *|*  \  \ \ \\\\\      there you are!"
Univ.of Delaware    ((((( ( (  (  * + *  )  ) ) )))))   -> Buckaroo Banzai
roby@brahms.udel.edu \\\\\ \ \  \  *|*  /  / / /////   *Standard Disclaimer*
Newsgroups: talk.abortion