i feel i must apologize for putting something serious on my web page.
nonetheless, here it is.

(i once wrote an essay to elaborate on this subject, but the original 
 post is really a lot better.)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: slking%scws34.harvard.edu (S King)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.karl-malden.nose
Subject: Re: Why Boy-Girl? (was Karl Malden Secret Santa)
Date: 5 Dec 1995 16:08:07 GMT

Cindy Alvarez (calvarez%scunix4.harvard.edu) wrote:

: 	You can care about abortion all you want, Matt. No one's trying 
: to shut you up.  We've just suggested that a.f.k-m.n isn't the 
: appropriate forum for that.  

Well, as long as he's being a fuckhead anyway, what the hell.


		      WHY FETUSES DESERVE TO DIE
	  		   by s king


	1. Every fetus could become a viable, individual human being.  
	   This is undeniable and is what distinguishes them from 
	   haploid sex cells and suchlot, and makes this more of a 
	   big deal that menstruation and, uhm... guy stuff.  

	2. They may well have brainwaves and heartbeats and suchlot,
	   even at such an early phase of development.  I'll accept
	   that because it's irrelevant to my point.

	3. But,

	4. Is that what makes a human?

	5. When I hear that someone died, I'm sorry.  It makes me sad.
	   Even if I didn't know them personally.  But why?  Do I think,
	   "Oh, bummer, they no longer have brainwaves or a functioning
	   cardiovascular system" ?  

	6. No.

	7. I think of what life they had been looking forward to and 
	   had left to live.

	8. I think of their mother.

	9. I think of their children.

	10. I think of their friends.

	11. The tragedy of human death is not a scientific phenomenon.
	    It is a human one.

	12. A fetus dies.  Do I care?

	13. Yes.  But do I think of it as the loss of a human life?

	14. No. 

	15. Mothers lift cars off their children to save their lives.  
	    Mothers make the decision to end their own pregnancy.
	    Obviously there's a dividing line somewhere.  This is what
	    makes birth a "magic moment."  Nothing scientific.  It is 
	    the beginning of external life experience and human
	    social interaction, which, from our human perspective,
	    makes them what and who they are.

	16. Fetuses have no friends.  Fetuses have no children.  Fetuses 
	    have parents who do not think of them as a child because
	    they have never met them.  It is just an idea.

	17. The loss of a fetus is not the same tragedy as the loss
	    of an Official Born Human.  To say so cheapens the value of 
	    of interpersonal relationships, grieving and the hardships
	    and wonderments of life.
	
	18. The fetus, never having been born, and having only a 
	    developing brain to work with, does not know what it is
	    missing.

	19. The external human community has never met the fetus, never 
	    given it a pacifier and let it grab their fingers, never
	    talked to it, never made it one of them, never formed the 
	    social bonds that create a human.  The pain of those
	    "left behind" is not present.  It is not missed.  It is not 
	    remembered.
	
	20. If this was to be a big deal, it would have to be because
	    we value the quantity human life, and not the particular 
	    humans involved.  This is not the case for me.  We have
	    too many bloody humans as it is.  They get blood everywhere.
	    No, that's not what I meant. People are not scarce.
	    Individuals are valued.  This makes the difference.

	21. Because a fetus is not yet a particular human.  And that's what
	    death means to me.  The loss of a particular human.

	22. And that's why I'm pro-choice.  Because pregnancies at bad
	    times can fuck up the lives of two particular humans, maybe 
	    more.

	23. That's more important to me.

	24. That said, late-term abortions are kind of ghastly and should
	    be kept to a bare minimum, possibly outlawed to encourage
	    people to get it right and either have the baby or 
	    abort early.

	25. Followups set to harvard.general enjoy.

- .