Re: POL: Abortion-neutral

Timothy Bates (tbates@karri.bhs.mq.edu.au)
Wed, 17 Mar 1999 16:21:40 +1100

>> I do not believe that a particular position on abortion, for or against,
>> should be part of the Extropian political principles. When does a cell
>> mass stop being an embryo and start being a sentient being? This is a
>> question of neurology and nothing else.

If that is the reason, then the extropian position should be "abortion of non-sentient life is OK" Neurology can then define the impact, but extropy has a stance.

In fact, the real reason for no policy is that, as stated clearly in this forum, extropy is a pragmatic philosophy with no fixed moral platform.

I am seeking to develop an alternative, but, as yet, will confess to having not succeeded.

tim



"The ostensible grounds of many dismissals are not the same as the real reasons. I think that the only proper defence of academic freedom is tenure itself."

Earl Russell [son of Bertrand Russell], 1988, in a maiden speech opposing the Education Reform Bill which was to deprive British academics of tenure and to allow them to be dismissed without warning merely for "good cause"- just like any other British employees. Hansard, House of Lords 496, iii/iv, p. 1385f.