Re: Responsibility for children

From: Bryan Moss (bryan.moss@btinternet.com)
Date: Fri Sep 15 2000 - 17:01:39 MDT


hal@finney.org wrote:

> > If you consider abortion to be a "necessary evil" -
> > morally dubious but of great convenience to women - this
> > might seem like a compromise. However, if you consider
> > abortion to be ethical the above solution is not
> > ethical.
>
> But isn't it inconsistent to have a blanket statement that
> abortion is ethical while infanticide is not? A baby one
> day from being born can be killed, while a baby one day
> after being born cannot? There is not a clean line
> between these two cases. Birth is a process, not an
> event.

I wholeheartedly agree. However, I find it difficult to
support a solution - no matter how elegant - that would
institutionalise the absolute sanctity of human life.

> This is the tension which drives the search for a better
> solution.

If we adopt the simple notion that an individual is one who
is not dependent on another and consider that individuality
is a matter of degree rather than an absolute, I think we'll
be on our way to a solution.

BM



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