From: sa114984@longs.lance.colostate.edu (Steven Arnold)
Newsgroups: talk.abortion
Subject: Re: rights and responsibilities
Date: 7 Oct 92 22:22:47 GMT
Organization: Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO  80523

In article <1992Oct6.015455.7512@nas.nasa.gov>, dking@raul.nas.nasa.gov (Dan King) writes:
|> 
|> In article <Oct05.203207.51974@yuma.ACNS.ColoState.EDU> sa114984@longs.lance.colostate.edu (Steven Arnold) writes:
|>
|> >	Well put.  It is no more punishment to require a woman to fulfil her
|> >parental responsibilities than it is punishment to require one who signed an
|> >enlistment contract to go to boot camp, or to require one who injures another in
|> >a car accident to do everything possible to save the life and health of the one
|> >injured.
|> >	BTW, life of the mother and rape exceptions are CONSISTENT exceptions. 
|> >Incest, if it was also rape, is consistent as well; but allowing abortions for
|> >children incestuously conceived between two consenting adults would be an
|> >INCONSISTENT exception (and therefore one I would oppose).
|> 
|> I don't see this argument as being consistent.  I brought up the 
|> inconsistency before but still haven't seen an answer.  
|>  
|> I would guess from above, you feel that since a woman knows prior 
|> to participating in coitus sex, that a pregnancy can result, despite
|> any precautions she may or not may take, she is responsible for 
|> the pregnancy and therefore responsible for the resulting fetus.  
|> Because of this responsibility for the creation of the fetus,
|> she has an obligation to that fetus to carry it to term.  
|>  
|> Now assuming all of this fits your argument, to be consistent,
|> I would think you wouldn't allow abortions even if it is a 
|> threat to the life of the woman.  A woman that participates 
|> voluntarily in coitus sex knows a pregnancy may be the result
|> and should also be aware that a pregnancy is also a health 
|> risk to herself.  The risk of death is a possibility of 
|> pregnancy.  If the woman was aware of this risk, and participated
|> in coitus sex, being aware of this risk, shouldn't she still
|> have the same obligation to the fetus?  Why would you allow 
|> her to escape her obligation by using abortion in one instant 
|> but not in the other?

	I included your whole article so other readers could reference it.  You
make a good point, but in my opinion it doesn't hold.  Paragraph 2 above
correctly summarizes my argument.  Then you say that a woman must also be taking
a risk of death; why should her obligation to her unborn child change simply
because her life is in danger?
	But my argument is that a woman should do what she feels is most likely
to save the life of her child.  She is not obliged to take, or not to take, any
particular action (including abortion).  If she made every reasonable effort to
save her child, I would concede that she has fulfilled her obligation.  But if
she kills the child even though she could reasonably have saved it, she has NOT
fulfilled her obligation.  If she removes the child knowing full well it will
die she is guilty at least of gross negligence.  But if her very life is in
danger, it is not reasonable, in my opinion, to demand that she allow herself to
die to save it (although she might choose to take that course).
	There are many cases in which a woman can clearly continue to remain
pregnant with no significant risk to herself.  In those cases, to kill it is
clearly unreasonable.  But when the risk to her is very significant, she may
choose to abort, hoping that the DA and a jury will agree with her that she made
every reasonable effort to save the child.
	These terms, like so many others in law, cannot be defined exactly for
every case -- or if they can, I don't know how.  But I do maintain that a mother
incurs an obligation to care for the people she brings into the world, that there
is such a thing a "reasonable" effort to save the child's life, and that if
something short of that reasonable effort is made, the mother (and doctor, if
applicable) should be held legally accountable.


Steve
Newsgroups: talk.abortion