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Pauline555
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03 Sep 2009, 2:11 pm

"Life's Dominion" by Ronald Dworkin discusses RvW at length, along with other interesting "hard cases" where the holes in our moral convictions often show up. Dworkin argues that to make real progress in the abortion debate we must acknowledge that people on **every side** have a commitment to the sanctity of life.

I don't know what others think, but I found it a powerful and moving read. Dworkin's love for humanity - even the nastiest, stupidest specimens - shines out of every page. He helped me to have more respect for people and to look for the common ground.



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03 Sep 2009, 2:19 pm

The reason it is legal, is due to the implied reason for it's act. If you have an alternate reason for doing it, should it not have implications?

Truely sick example. A woman whom for whatever reason, takes joy in the act of repeated abortions. The motivation is the percieved thrill of it. Should this sort of act be legal?

Another example. Pregnancy and abortion for the production of scientic specimen. Should this be legal?

How about abortion to avoid responsibility of child rearing?

Or abortion to avoid personal harm?

The motivation behind the act ultimately determines it's degree of acceptance, and should be reflected with legal ramifications.


Laws are the manifestation of our perception of what is, and is not right. As such, they should relect this. But again, by who's standard of right is it we are relying upon? And, in what way can a ruling be placed on abortion and it's legality to reflect what is or isn't right? Certainly it cannot be the individual, for if it where, nothing would be illegal. It must stand to reason that it is our society's communal concept that should be enforced as law. But on a topic this divided, how can that be expressed?


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03 Sep 2009, 2:19 pm

ruveyn wrote:
NarcissusSavage wrote:

Is it ok for a woman to abort a pregnancy because she doesn't want to raise it, even if the father wishes to do so? And, again, we can visit upon the right of the unborn, does it's life mean less than a womans lack of desire to raise it go unheard?



Yes. The woman owns whatever is in her body. End of story. The only restriction on disposal of the contents of her body is the prevailing public health laws.

That is why we don't void our bowels or bladder in the middle of the street.

ruveyn


This will likely not be an adequate portrayal, as my example involves material property as opposed to life, but I'll offer it anyway. Suppose I were to break into your house and steal your wife's wedding ring, valued at $100,000.00 U.S. because you are a rich Jew :wink: , (sorry, couldn't resist). After the fact, I then either swallowed or had it surgically implanted in my body. What would be your evaluation of justice in this case.



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03 Sep 2009, 2:21 pm

NOBS wrote:
skafather84 wrote:
NarcissusSavage wrote:
How do you determine which of the motivators is just?



Why even list motives? There shouldn't be a judgment as to why one does something, it's either legal or it's not. This garbage that's been going on with abortion is an abomination of the legal system and is religion's abuse of the separation of church and state.

/we should tax the churches.


The law would differ with you here. Consider the difference between first degree murder, (premeditated), and manslaughter, (accidental). The difference is in motive.


Except abortion isn't illegal and no one is being killed, despite what the selfish nutters tend to think.


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03 Sep 2009, 2:28 pm

ruveyn wrote:
NarcissusSavage wrote:

Is it ok for a woman to abort a pregnancy because she doesn't want to raise it, even if the father wishes to do so? And, again, we can visit upon the right of the unborn, does it's life mean less than a womans lack of desire to raise it go unheard?



Yes. The woman owns whatever is in her body. End of story. The only restriction on disposal of the contents of her body is the prevailing public health laws.

That is why we don't void our bowels or bladder in the middle of the street.

ruveyn


During the act of potential reproduction, the female does not own the males reproductive organ. She does not have right to dispose of it by any conventional, even sanitary means, regardless of the fact it is currently within her body.

During a doctor visit, a person does not own any medical equipment used in the interior of thier body.

The argument that a woman owns everything in her body is flawed.

A fetus is 50% of the father's. It by every right should be treated as a partnered ownership. If it is viewed as "property" in the first place.


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03 Sep 2009, 2:31 pm

NarcissusSavage wrote:
Truely sick example. A woman whom for whatever reason, takes joy in the act of repeated abortions. The motivation is the percieved thrill of it. Should this sort of act be legal?


If the woman can get a doctor to do it and she can pay for it, why not?

ruveyn



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03 Sep 2009, 2:36 pm

ruveyn wrote:
NarcissusSavage wrote:
Truely sick example. A woman whom for whatever reason, takes joy in the act of repeated abortions. The motivation is the percieved thrill of it. Should this sort of act be legal?


If the woman can get a doctor to do it and she can pay for it, why not?

ruveyn


Again, it falls into the category of what should, and should not be legal. And how to enact such judgements. In my opinion, as little as that means, I would argue that such an act is utterly contemptable, and should not be permitted. I view it akin to first degree murder if the intent is to kill for the enjoyment of killing.


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03 Sep 2009, 2:53 pm

number5 wrote:
zer0netgain, you take childbearing, labor, and parenting way too lightly. The first two responsiblities are always on the mother, so why sould it not be her choice alone to make.


Well, I don't feel I take it too lightly. I think society is too liberal with how they look at sex and it's potential consequences. Since it takes two to tango (as they say), I don't think anyone can point a finger more to one gender than another, but the simple fact is, if a woman doesn't want to risk pregnancy, she should do something about that before intercourse, not think it is her unilateral choice after the consequence sets in.

Sand makes the point of why a woman should be obligated to the next 18 years against her wishes.

First, I advocate true equality. If we embrace the idea that it is a woman's body and nobody else has a say, then there is no legal or ethical ground to claim the man must support the result of the woman's choice if he does not choose to.

Choice for the mother but no choice for the father is an abomination of justice. You can dance around this issue all your life, but anything less is basically saying one person has higher rights than another and that is not the principle the legal system is supposedly based upon.

So, the more equatable option is to rule that the fetus is joint property of both parents. Abortion is not possible absent the consent of both parties.

What bothers me is the clear lack of RESPONSIBILITY on this issue. A lack of responsibility in dealing with the risk of pregnancy before conception and the lack of responsibility for the consequences of intercourse.

So what is a woman is compelled to bear a child to term? Should she have the unilateral right to terminate the pregnancy? Do you not realize that WOMEN can bear children all they want and surrender every one for adoption and NOT PAY A PENNY for the support of any of their children?

What does a man get? He can be compelled to pay for the medical care of every woman he impregnates. He can be compelled to pay for the support of every child he fathers (even if he didn't want any of them). He can not force the child to be surrendered for adoption.

At every turn, the woman is seen as owner of the fetus/child when she is nothing more than an incubation chamber for 9 months who can abandon her offspring the moment it is born. A man, however, can be enslaved for 18 years of support and gets no say in the matter.

Where is the equity in that?

Oh, and let's drop the charade of "health and safety of the mother" line. My friend was an abortion candidate (his mother was with another man while her husband was in Vietnam), so he was lucky that his birth mother gave him up for adoption rather than have is existence terminated. He's done the research. Well over 95% of all abortions are performs for "convenience" reasons. Legitimate threats to the health and safety of the mother are less than 5% of cases. When the average woman chooses to terminate a pregnancy, the overwhelming odds are that she is doing it because she just does not want what she feels is an inconvenience in her life. That even being inconvenienced for nine months so she can give the baby to a home looking to adopt a child is asking too much of a sacrifice from her.



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03 Sep 2009, 3:29 pm

If yall want my personal honest opinion on the matter, it is slightly off topic, but related. And unfortunately has eugenic risk factors. But, regardless of the potential hazards and difficulties, my view is that all people should be sterilized temporarily, and have to earn the right to procreate. If that were the case, you would find the whole issue of abortion become rather trivial.

Our species is arguably overpopulated, and continues to grow. Some form of widespread action should be taken, sooner, rather than later, to counter this trend. Again, that's all just opinion. Nor is it entirely practical.



But I honestly think that some of the following should apply:
Abortion legal if, both parents agree to it, and fetus is still not viable.
or
Abortion legal if, mother's life is classified as at risk.(Something is wrong with the pregnancy that provides a high risk of complications) And she wishes it, regardless of father's opinion.
or
Abortion legal if, mother desires it, and pregnancy caused outside of her realm of control, ie rape.

However, other stipulations should apply:
If abortion is desired by father, but not mother, and pregnancy caried to term, father is relieved of all parental responsibilities.

If abortion is desired by the mother, and not the father, this is where the greatest inner debate, imo, arrises. I'm of the opinion that the mother may waive her parental responsibilities and custody assumed by father. But pregnancy should be carried to term. Provided her life is never classified as at risk.

Those are my official opinions, right or wrong.

~NS


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03 Sep 2009, 3:45 pm

NarcissusSavage wrote:
If yall want my personal honest opinion on the matter, it is slightly off topic, but related. And unfortunately has eugenic risk factors. But, regardless of the potential hazards and difficulties, my view is that all people should be sterilized temporarily, and have to earn the right to procreate. If that were the case, you would find the whole issue of abortion become rather trivial.

Our species is arguably overpopulated, and continues to grow. Some form of widespread action should be taken, sooner, rather than later, to counter this trend. Again, that's all just opinion. Nor is it entirely practical.



But I honestly think that some of the following should apply:
Abortion legal if, both parents agree to it, and fetus is still not viable.
or
Abortion legal if, mother's life is classified as at risk.(Something is wrong with the pregnancy that provides a high risk of complications) And she wishes it, regardless of father's opinion.
or
Abortion legal if, mother desires it, and pregnancy caused outside of her realm of control, ie rape.

However, other stipulations should apply:
If abortion is desired by father, but not mother, and pregnancy caried to term, father is relieved of all parental responsibilities.

If abortion is desired by the mother, and not the father, this is where the greatest inner debate, imo, arrises. I'm of the opinion that the mother may waive her parental responsibilities and custody assumed by father. But pregnancy should be carried to term. Provided her life is never classified as at risk.

Those are my official opinions, right or wrong.

~NS


I like your thinking, however there are a lot of "basis" questions I'd have to chew on for a good long while. Truth be told, I probably lack the cajones to advocate your solutions, for fear of being lynched as an extremest, which in fact I am.



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03 Sep 2009, 3:46 pm

pandd wrote:
zer0netgain wrote:

What a narrow minded view.

A fetus is not the sole property of the body it happens to inhabit.


Let us say that you attach a chain to me (with my permission), and padlock it on. Let us say you own these items. Then I wish to remove them. It turns out I cannot do so without ruining your property. It’s quite lawful for me to remove these items. It’s my body and my rights to my person outweigh your rights to mere property.

Let us say that you arrange to implant some item of property inside me. You want it back (for whatever reason), but the only way to remove it requires I undergo a medical procedure. I am not legally obliged to go through with such a medical procedure. The right to my person (in the form of the right to reject medical interventions) outweighs your rights to mere property.

It is rare outside a debate that only concerns the bodies of females, to encounter arguments that implicitly imply someone’s properties rights ought to require people to not remove things from their bodies, or to undergo unwanted medical procedures, yet your suggestions that property rights should prevent or require the removal of something from a woman’s body to convenience alleged property rights of males does exactly that.

Quote:
Childbirth IS NOT life threatening in the overtly dramatic way you imply. Certainly, the claim of her "health and welfare" must first demand the proof of an actual tangible threat, which you cannot.

Pregnancy and childbirth is inherently dangerous. Risks to the health and life of the mother are real and present. Pregnancy itself constitutes a risk to health and potentially fatal complications are not uncommon.

Quote:
The man has no rights? Then a man has the right to NEVER support an unwanted child if the mother refuses to have an abortion.

No, he does not. He has the right to take steps that would avoid the situation entirely.

He has no right to force anyone to undergo a medical procedure, and he has no right to skip out on his obligations to his offspring. That a women does not choose to undergo a medical procedure does not negate any obligation a person has to their offspring. Your suggestion would either require that some people have a legal right to force others to undergo unwanted (and risky) medical procedures, or that children, through no fault of their own, be alienated from their rights.

You might think it is the job of the law to make sure if people get themselves into an unfortunate or undesirable circumstance, that males are never left worse off than women and children, but that is not the purpose of the law at all. It is not the job of the law to ensure anyone involved in undesirable circumstances is equally inconvenienced either.

The law’s task is to uphold society’s wider values, avoiding the impartiality that arises in detail consideration. No one else has any general rights in other circumstances to require people to undergo medical procedures or not undergo medical procedures for the sake of an alleged property right, because it’s not consistent with society’s wider values. The law’s task is to uphold those wider values without being partial because some people perceive that as a result of biological facts beyond the influence of the law, impartially upholding society’s wider values in these specific circumstances, risks men involved in such circumstances being worse off than women and children involved in the same.

The law cannot change biological facts. It’s task is not to ensure that biological facts are responded to so that if between women, men and children, someone is going to be more inconvenienced, that it not be men. It’s task is to apply society’s wider values, and society’s wider values are that the right to bodily autonomy takes precedence over property rights, and the rights of children to be supported by their parents takes precedence over squabbles or disagreements between the same.

Any man can avoid any inconvenience the combined effects of biological facts and society’s wider values might cause in such circumstances, by keeping it in his pants.

Quote:
A woman has NO RIGHT to impose support responsibilities to a party who has no choice in whether or not to bring a life into this world.

It is not a right of women to have their children supported. It is a right of children to be supported.

You are suggesting that people loose very basic rights because of the conduct of some third party. Children are not property or an extension of either of their parents. Once born, a human child is a legal, rights bearing person, and there is no legal logic in depriving them of important rights because of acts or omissions of some third party, occurring before the child was even born.

It is very rare for men to have no choice about whether or not to risk fathering a child. Drunks cannot be sure they will crash a car if they drive, but this does not suggest they have no control over whether they cause a car crash by driving while drunk. Men might not control whether or not a woman conceives when they have sex with her, but that is not the same as suggesting they have no choice in the matter at all. Just like women, they legally have a choice over what they do with their bodies.

No actual rights of men are violated in this issue, but all the suggestions you have come up with to protect men from the consequences of their actions, requires that someone else’s rights be violated. The logic seems to be that if someone is going to be left worse off, it’s unacceptable for this to be men, such that it is better to strip either women or children of their rights, than allow any circumstance to result in men being the least advantaged or most disadvantaged party in respect of women and children, if it is quite impossible for the law to ensure equality of outcome for all parties.
Pandd, you are so right.


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03 Sep 2009, 3:46 pm

NarcissusSavage wrote:
If yall want my personal honest opinion on the matter, it is slightly off topic, but related. And unfortunately has eugenic risk factors. But, regardless of the potential hazards and difficulties, my view is that all people should be sterilized temporarily, and have to earn the right to procreate. If that were the case, you would find the whole issue of abortion become rather trivial.

Our species is arguably overpopulated, and continues to grow. Some form of widespread action should be taken, sooner, rather than later, to counter this trend. Again, that's all just opinion. Nor is it entirely practical.



But I honestly think that some of the following should apply:
Abortion legal if, both parents agree to it, and fetus is still not viable.
or
Abortion legal if, mother's life is classified as at risk.(Something is wrong with the pregnancy that provides a high risk of complications) And she wishes it, regardless of father's opinion.
or
Abortion legal if, mother desires it, and pregnancy caused outside of her realm of control, ie rape.

However, other stipulations should apply:
If abortion is desired by father, but not mother, and pregnancy caried to term, father is relieved of all parental responsibilities.

If abortion is desired by the mother, and not the father, this is where the greatest inner debate, imo, arrises. I'm of the opinion that the mother may waive her parental responsibilities and custody assumed by father. But pregnancy should be carried to term. Provided her life is never classified as at risk.

Those are my official opinions, right or wrong.

~NS



You can't blur it like that, though. It has to be all out legal or made flatly illegal. An illegal status would bring about plenty of social problems that keeping it legal wouldn't.


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03 Sep 2009, 4:01 pm

sinsboldly wrote:
one could remember or take information from those who witnessed the absolutely savage behavior of culture in the States at that time to the 'unwed' mother and by extension, to her child during the era proceeding Roe v Wade. There is a reason that the term 'bastard' was so derogatory, there is a reason "The Scarlet Letter" was so scandalous. Culturally it was ruin and degradation for the girl or woman. Abortion - because this was before the birth control pill became available globally- were wretched back alley affairs and the proverbial coat hanger was not a myth, something to which I can personally attest, (but did not happen to me, personally.) because competent medical providers were forbidden on pain of losing their licence and worse. The fact that it was a public health issue needs to be put in context of Roe v. Wade.

Women and girls were hounded and driven away from their forever stigmatized families, the children were lost to adoption or orphanages, women and girls died in agony from the problematic procedures. Organized ( and not so organized) crime made money and was protected by those they extorted and maimed or died because of the cultural stigma. Please remember that 'shotgun weddings' were actual tragic occurrences, not just punchlines for crude jokes.

So I can see Roe v Wade in the context of Brown v Topeka Board of Edu. We so often take laws out of the context of the times in which they were written, when often it is the very foundation of the reason the law was written.

Well, the issue I see is that if abortion is a states rights issue, then even if girls could be tarnished by abortions, crossing state lines would be possible for performing an operation, and ideally there would be some states that would be willing to be lax on these issues for the sake of greater business.

Additionally, I do not see the court's job so much as setting policy as it is to smooth out policy decisions, only reaching to a certain extent if this is seen as necessary to correct violations of rules. As I see Brown v Board as correcting the fact that separation was not equal and perhaps could not be equalized, despite the legal need for equality. The reasons you give though, do not seem so much a matter of smoothing things out or making legal goals work so much as actively setting policy. This to me seems dangerous, as the court has two goals: 1) to alleviate legal problems by settling them and providing precedent for future decisions, 2) to maintain the legitimacy of their own actions. Roe v Wade does not seem to follow from this kind of perspective. This is not to say that I am anti-abortion, but in retrospect, a position that leads to 30 years of fighting is difficult to say was a good judicial decision given the need for law to be considered acceptable and unbiased in judging issues in society.

And yes, I will admit that Roe v. Wade wouldn't have addressed health issues because those weren't relevant to that particular case, but my point is that controversy in a court case is *really* bad for court cases.



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03 Sep 2009, 4:05 pm

skafather84 wrote:
You can't blur it like that, though. It has to be all out legal or made flatly illegal. An illegal status would bring about plenty of social problems that keeping it legal wouldn't.


Why can you not blur it like that? Not everything has to be simply legal/not legal in every circumstance.

If you shoot someone you have committed murder....unless it is was a result of negligence and was accidental, which carries a lighter sentece and different classification. Or even if it was in self defence, in which case it isn't illegal at all. Or if you where ordered to while in the military in which case it is serving your country and everyone gets to be proud of you....the list of circumstances goes on, as does the classification of the "crime" if it is even determined to be one.

Motive is important. Circumstance is important. It isn't a simple yes/no answer.


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03 Sep 2009, 4:18 pm

NarcissusSavage wrote:
skafather84 wrote:
You can't blur it like that, though. It has to be all out legal or made flatly illegal. An illegal status would bring about plenty of social problems that keeping it legal wouldn't.


Why can you not blur it like that? Not everything has to be simply legal/not legal in every circumstance.

If you shoot someone you have committed murder....unless it is was a result of negligence and was accidental, which carries a lighter sentece and different classification. Or even if it was in self defence, in which case it isn't illegal at all. Or if you where ordered to while in the military in which case it is serving your country and everyone gets to be proud of you....the list of circumstances goes on, as does the classification of the "crime" if it is even determined to be one.

Motive is important. Circumstance is important. It isn't a simple yes/no answer.



Again: abortion isn't a crime and it's not murder.


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03 Sep 2009, 5:09 pm

skafather84 wrote:
Again: abortion isn't a crime and it's not murder.


Abortion after set a set period of time is in fact a crime.

And in your opinion is not murder. Many others differ in that regard.

Which is why we are even discussing the issue.....

Simply stating that what it is and isn't at this very moment according to current laws, is a simplistic way to attempt to circumvent the entire debate about the validity of the current laws. Your arguement is moot, in that regard.

Are you trying to add to the conversation by saying that in your opinion it should not be classified as a crime, because you don't view it as murder?


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