JKool

Unfortunately, I\'m going to be away for about two weeks, so I won\'t be able to keep up with this (though it is fun). Here are some parting thoughts:

(1) Good example for \"responsibility\". Of course, that illustrates the way in which it is vague - there are different degrees and kinds of \"responsibility\". My first concern is that without a better idea of what kind (and degree) of responsibility a woman has to the baby, it is hard to agree with arguments of the following kind: the woman chose to take an action that might result in a child (even if she did not intend to make a child); therefore, she is responsible for it. It is not clear what the connection between choice-intention-responsibility is, especially when (as we have argued) intention is not clear and responsibility is not clear. I think the burden of proof is not on the anti-abortionists (who seem to think that it is PERMISSABLE to get an abortion under certain circumstances).

(2) I think that one way of talking about the debate generates an interesting argument. When we start talking about the child as a \"sentence\", as a \"consequence\", or a \"responsibility because of a \"bad\" choice\" - we\'ve already done an interesting harm to the baby: it is viewed negatively. It is folk wisdom that having a negative attidue toward a child will lead to self fulfilling prophesies. I just thought I\'d try this argument out, since I just thought it up - what do you think?

(3) Whether or not a nine month \"sentence\" is cruel depends on the situation the woman is in when she becomes pregnant. It could cause her to lose a job (or job potential), burden a job search, damage her body and possibily self esteem, create emotional distress (depending on the circumstances of the pregnancy this could be permanently and deeply damaging), and so on. I guess, I think you\'re right in general that it shouldn\'t be a big deal, but I do think that there are cases where the \"sentence\" could be quite cruel.

(4) On the cow argument, which is still in the works: if you think that it is ok to terminate the life of a living thing years before it would die naturally, merely to eat it, why is the termination of a different kind of living thing (separated only by its place in the chain of being) for other, perhaps much better, reasons, wrong? I think the idea is this: what is it that makes human babies so special - cows feel pain, belong to a social structure, have relatives, and so on? (More to follow, but your thoughts are appreciated.)

Cheers.

"... I was beating them with my eyes the whole game..." - Aaron Brooks