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- Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!news.ans.net!cmcl2!rnd!smezias
- From: smezias@rnd.GBA.NYU.EDU (Stephen J. Mezias)
- Newsgroups: talk.abortion
- Subject: Jim's logic problems extend beyond mere equivalence.
- Message-ID: <32957@rnd.GBA.NYU.EDU>
- Date: 20 Nov 92 00:51:09 GMT
- References: <1992Nov17.221107.23870@panix.com> <32842@rnd.GBA.NYU.EDU> <1992Nov19.153013.14588@panix.com>
- Organization: NYU Stern School of Business
- Lines: 36
-
- In article <1992Nov19.153013.14588@panix.com> jk@panix.com (Jim Kalb)
- writes to me:
-
- >If the issue is conservation of scarce state resources, then there are
- >grounds for distinguishing between the drunk driver situation and the
- >abortion situation in that the drunk driver situation as I described
- >it almost never happens, so it wouldn't be worth while to set up
- >procedures to determine in an emergency situation whether the
- >conditions that would justify forced organ donation exist.
- >
- >In contrast, in the case of a pregnancy the corresponding conditions
- >*always exist *except in the rare cases of rape (I suppose *including
- >incest) and serious threat to the life of the mother.
-
- First of all, you are excusing the mother not because she is not a
- unique donor, but because you treat women who engage in consensual sex
- like criminals. They are not. I don't know by what bizarre reasoning
- you have equated consensual sex and drunk driving, but by the same
- bizarre reasoning you seem to want to conclude that women who are
- forced to have sex should not be treated like criminals. This is why
- I call what you advocate the chastity belt theory of forced pregnancy.
- As this shows what you call the corresponding condition always holds,
- even in the cases you try to exclude with except and including. The
- difference between these conditions is not the unique nature of the
- donor, but the consent of the woman. I fail to understand how
- consenting to sex renders the treatment of women as criminals as just.
-
- >I should add that since there is a neutral principle (conservation of
- >scarce state resources) that explains the difference in treatment
- >between drunk drivers and pregnant women your claim that the
- >difference is a case of gender discrimination has no obvious support.
-
- You're a first rate crack-up, Jim.
-
- SJM
-
-