NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/talk/abortion/53128

Text File | 1992-12-27 | 3.4 KB | 69 lines

Newsgroups: talk.abortion
Path: sparky!uunet!mnemosyne.cs.du.edu!nyx!mcochran
From: [e-mail] (Mark A. Cochran)
Subject: Re: Clarifying "Restrictions"
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
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Date: Mon, 28 Dec 92 02:09:55 GMT
Lines: 54

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Kevin Darcy) writes:
>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Mark A. Cochran) writes:
>>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Kevin Darcy) writes:
>>>In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Mark A. Cochran) writes:
>>>>
>>>>Kebbin is just mad because we live in the Real World (tm) and not in
>>>>some Darcian fantasy in which it is more dangerous to terminate a
>>>>pregnancy then to carry the fetus to term.
>>>
>>>Learn the difference between a hypothetical question and a fantasy, ignoramus.
>>>
>>I'm game... Lets hear you explain the difference between a fantasy and
>>a hypothetical situation which has NO basis or cantact with the real
>>world.
>
>If you owned 5 unicorns, and I stole 2 of them, how many unicorns would you
>have left?
>
>By your "reasoning", the answer would be "0. Unicorns don't exist." The CORRECT
>answer is, of course, "3. The laws of mathematics don't depend on whether
>unicorns exist or not". So, unicorns are fantasy, but the laws of mathematics,
>although abstract, DO exist "in the real world", and your answer is wrong in
>the unicorn example. Unicorns may be fantasy, but the laws of mathematics don't
>suddenly change just because unicorns are incorporated into a hypothetical
>question about mathematics.
>
>Similarly, your answer to my hypothetical late-term abortion question is as
>WRONG as (5 unicorns - 2 unicorns = 0 unicorns), since the morality of an
>approach to the abortion issue is NOT dependent on whether a certain class of
>medical cases exists or not.
>
The issue of the existance of the class does become important though,
when you are using it as a basis for legislation. If you were using
your above example as the basis for the need to pass legislation
then the existance or nonexistance of unicorns would be an issue. If
you are using it as math, it may not be. In the case in question,
namely abortion, you are argueing in favor of legislation regarding
abortion based on a nypothetical situation with no basis in reality.
In short, a fantasy.

>>>>Considering his tendancy to
>>>>argue both sides of any given question, I'd say he is the one who
>>>>needs to be concerned with moral inconsistancy.
>>>
>>>Arguing a position and believing it aren't necessarily the same thing, schmuck.
>>>
>>And this is the same guy who recently posted about "how
>>counterproductive all this ad hominen garbage is"...
>
--
                  Mark Cochran          [e-mail]
These are the views of my employer. They also represent the views of
your employer, your government, the Church of your choice, and the
Ghost of Elvis. So there.