From: suo@cae.wisc.edu (Franklin Suo)
Subject: Behavior-related Medical Conditions
Organization: College of Engineering, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison
Date: 14 Apr 92 23:56:26 CDT
Originator: suo@sun-1.cae.wisc.edu



There are a number of medical conditions whose frequency show a positive
correlation with certain types of behavior. Several examples follow:

CONDITION				BEHAVIOR

pregnancy				sexual intercourse

lung cancer, emphysema,			tobacco use
hypertension, oral cancer

obesity, hypertension, malnutrition,	improper diet
artheriosclerosis, colon cancer

head trauma				riding motorcycles without a helmet

etc...

Millions of people would outlaw abortion as a medical remedy for pregnancy,
yet I doubt that many people would deny treatment to smokers with lung cancer,
to hi-fiber-cereal-haters with colon cancer, or to motorcyclists who tried to
head-butt the side of a tractor trailer at 60 MPH. Why the double standard
here?

If we want to make medical care available to people, (regardless of the
mechanism), we simply have to accept that many of the people who are in need
of care will have engaged in behaviors which either should've been avoided, or
of which we might not approve. 

We generally accept that the best way to reduce the incidence of lung cancer
is not to ban doctors from treating those patients, but to reduce the ammount
of tobacco use. This is accomplished through substantive education, i.e. not
just telling people that smoking is bad for you, but by presenting data
showing why it's bad for you, explaining those data, and by offering
alternatives to that behavior, such as Quit-Smoking Clinics and other forms of
voluntary intervention.

It seems that a similar approach would be effective in reducing the number of
abortions. We could offer comprehensive sex education, giving explicit factual
information about how to avoid getting pregnant by 1) practicing abstinence,
and 2) using birth control. This approach is the primary one used by public
school systems that offer sex education and family planning clinics such as
Planned Parenthood.

Yet one of abortion's largest opponents, the Catholic Church, is also
opposed to the use of birth control, AND to the offering of sex education in
public schools. The Church is suggesting that
we simply forbid women from obtaining abortions, and this will solve the
problem. Further, the Church is suggesting that by simply forbidding sex
between everyone except married couples who want to have children, that the
problem of unwanted pregnancies will go away.

This simplistic approach to societal problem solving invites the
self-righteous to rave against the immorality of abortion, simply for the sake
of raving. It also reinforces a societal hangup over matters related to
sexuality, which makes a substantive discussion of possible solutions next to
impossible.

Very few people consider abortion to be a DESIRABLE procedure, yet that
doesn't mean we should simply ban it, bury our heads in the sand, and hope it
goes away. While keeping the procedure legal, leaving options open for those
women who are raped, for whom their birth control method fails, and even for
those who engage in promiscuous sex of which some may disapprove, we should
look for realistic ways of reducing the numbers of unwanted pregnancies.


"America the Beautiful, land of the free,
Don't change the words to Land of Hypocricy"		Frank Suo
--Anthrax--						suo@cae.wisc.edu