[extropy-chat] Abortion (was: Famous author self destructs in public!Filmateleven.

[Adam K. Olson]

I'm new to this list and therefore naive.

But it seems to me that such 'slippery slope' arguments are as 
irrelevant as which beer is the best (we all know its Guinness). So 
there's no point arguing if Bass is better than Boddingtons or a 
quantitative analysis of the best ice cream at a particular store. 
Fairly hard to accomplish with the limited epistemological access us 
humans have. It's as if arguing in the Judeo-Christian idea of heaven 
most of the angels shop at Ikea because the space saving furniture can 
fit on the head of a pin and still provide plenty of room to dance.

As Mr. Stross said, when can you draw a line? Can I punch someone and 
say "you bastard, you stepped on a particle that will cause a chain 
reaction involving several ions, a few rubber bands, that leads to a 
butterfly flapping its wings and thus killing a rather nice fellow on 
the other side of the world"?


On Jun 6, 2005, at 2:36 PM, MB wrote:

>
> AFAICT, Mr. Lorrey is claiming that *abortion* is murder. Once a woman
> is pregnant she'd d*mn well better *stay* pregnant full term, or she's
> a murderer.  I haven't seen much about the responsibility of the man
> in all this, perhaps he has none? Only later The Law might make him
> pay - which isn't right as it's the woman's fault, job, responsibility
> ... (no, he didn't actually say that, but his "tone of voice"
> certainly implied that to me)
>
> Our opinions are opposed and I do not expect either of us to change.
>
> His posts have made me wonder what happened in his life. Maybe he is a
> very devout Christian with deeply held beliefs about "the human soul"?
> Or perhaps he was involved with an unexpected/unwanted pregnancy that
> was terminated without his knowledge or against his wishes? Otherwise,
> I'm at a bit of a loss to understand where he's coming from.
>
> What exactly makes a bundle of cells into "a person"? How much does
> that interesting set of pictures of the embryo differ from those of a
> dog or a cat or a monkey - or any other mammal?
>
> If Mr. Lorrey's attitude and words are representative of The Free
> State, I'm *awfully* glad I and my family didn't commit to moving
> there.
>
> Regards,
> MB
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, 6 Jun 2005, Charlie Stross wrote:
>
>>
>> So you're equating third trimester abortion with murder?
>>
>> Can we agree you're on record as saying that?
>>
>> Now. Are you willing to go a step further and assert that second
>> trimester abortion is equivalent to murder?
>>
>> C'mon. First trimester?
>>
>> Pre-implantation fertilized ova?
>>
>> Where do you draw the line?
>>
>>
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--
Adam K. Olson
Student Designer, Comm Tech Lab
http://commtechlab.msu.edu