[clue-talk] Whiny Bitches

[Michael Fierro]

On Thu May 29 2008 12:26:02 pm David L. Willson wrote:

> you also get rid of the rules saying that us air-breathers can't assault
> one another when it's convenient to do so.  I'm all against special rights,
> and all for equal rights.  That puts me in a strange and hard-to-align
> political position

Those aren't really equal rights, though. Your position would take the right 
to make medical conditions about her own body away from the mother. Or, to 
look at it differently, the unborn baby's rights are more important than the 
woman's rights. Which is definitely not equal.

There are at least two ways to view the rights issue regarding this: if you 
believe than an unborn baby/fetus = a human, then you have to make a choice 
about whose rights should take precedent, the mother's or the baby's. If you 
view the fetus as part of the mother's body, then the choice should be very 
straight-forward.

From a legal point-of-view, though, I don't think it matters. Legally, it 
comes down to a simple question: should the government have the right to 
intrude on a person's medical decisions? And we already kinda know the answer 
to that, since doctor-patient is recognized as a privileged relationship.

The way around this whole debate is, of course, to try to reduce the number of 
abortions that need to be done. This means investing a lot of money into 
realistic (i.e. not abstinence-only) sex education, and making birth control 
methods easier to access (e.g. not fighting against Plan B).

- Michael (.sig coming soon)