Re: So, is miscarriage murder?
by
RalphS
07/09/2008, 12:18 AM
Outlaw the home pregnancy test? No way. You don't outlaw something with a legitimate purpose just becuase it can be used by some people for an illegal one. We don't outlaw knives because you can stab people with them, or pain killers because they can be abused. Anyway, women have a right to know what is going on with their body and to make informed medical decisions. I don't think pro-choice people are wrong about that. They are only wrong when they say these rights extend to the point where they allow the killing of someone else. To modify an old phrase; your rights end where my belly button begins.
I wouldn't say it's only out of realism, but that's a big part of it. I generally avoid calling abortion "murder" because while I believe it objectively is the unjust taking of a human life (=murder), subjectively it's not always done with that intent... if I think I'm shooting at a deer but my eyesite is bad and really I just took out poor Joe Smith, well, that's not exactly murder.
I agree that the government can't force someone to donate a kidney to another person. (Are you thinking of that Judith Jarvis Thomson essay? I think her analogy is fair but I disagree with her conclusion.) But if you find yourself already sharing your kidney with someone, I do not think you have the right to take it away from them if doing so will cause them to die. The government can't force you to give anyone a ride in your airplane. But once you're at cruising altitude, you can't kick them out until you land - even if they were tresspassing.
I think that pregnancy is a lot like the situation between conjoined twins. I don't think either has a right to force a seperation that will be lethal for the other. Although, in a situation where a pregnancy poses grave risk of death for the mother, abortion is legally justified, though maybe not morally.
I hope medical technology gets to the point where a fetus can be removed safely from a pregnant woman and transfered to an artifical womb. I believe women would and should have a legal right to end a pregnancy in a way that does not harm the baby.