NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/talk/abortion/53419

Text File | 1992-12-29 | 3.4 KB | 77 lines

Newsgroups: talk.abortion
Path: sparky!uunet!gatech!emory!europa.asd.contel.com!darwin.sura.net!uvaarpa!murdoch!galen.med.Virginia.EDU!gjh
From: [e-mail] (Galen J. Hekhuis)
Subject: Re: Slavery Analogy
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail]
Organization: University of Virginia Health Sciences Center
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 21:35:13 GMT
Lines: 65

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] writes:
}As I had misunderstood his point, Galen Hekhuis more clearly presented
}his position, as is appropriate.

*Whew*  You don't know how much I sweated the appropriateness of that posting!

}He suggests that if abortion and slavery were somewhat similar, one
}might expect to find the same kinds of exemptions in the anti-abortion
}legislation as is found in anti-slavery legislation.  Previously he
}pointed out that the typical anti-abortion position allows for
}exceptions, while slavery abolition did not.
}
}While one might expect a certain similarity between anti-abortion and
}anti-slavery rules, I fail to see why such uniformity in the codes
}must be required for any analogy to exist between slavery and
}abortion.
}
}As such I feel this distinction provides only meager support for Mr.
}Hekhuis claim, "Abortion and slavery are in no way similar."  I have
}already suggested certain similarities exist.  Adding a difference to
}the list does not remove the similarities.

I don't think I said that they were in no way similar.  I made quite
an error if I did so.  I meant to say that they were so fundamentally
dissimilar that valid conclusions could not be drawn from one to the
other.


Let's take this rather slowly:

Slavery is not possible without an enabling government or
enabling legislation.  Either there is someone to enforce slavery
or it doesn't exist.  Take for example someone who wished to
make someone much larger than them a slave.  It probably wouldn't
work, or it wouldn't last too long unless there was external
help to make it happen.  Granted, without law slavery is
legal, but there is also no law enforcing involuntary servitude
nor is there any law mandating return of a "slave."

It is exactly the opposite in the case of abortion.  No enabling
legislation or government is necessary to make it happen.  In
the absence of law abortion is legal, to be sure, in the absence
of law everything is.  It is the default state.  It requires a
law to ban abortion, not enable it.

There is but one example of many that show that slavery and abortion
are rather different subjects.  There may be similarities, but
at their core they are quite different.

There may be some similarities I might be able to find between a
whale and a jet aircraft.  The existence of some similarities does
not make the two things equivalent, nor does it lead us to
believe that conclusions we draw about one to be valid about
the other.

It has been acknowledged that there are some similarities
between abortion and slavery.  There may be some others.  That
some similarities exist does not enable us to use one to draw
conclusions about the other, however.


--
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     Galen Hekhuis  UVa Health Sci Ctr [phone] [e-mail]
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