[Vision2020] Foie gras / abortion

[Megan Prusynski]

While I am not in favor of the way certain people turn every possible  
issue into an abortion debate, I guess I ought to respond to this  
little discussion. My beliefs on abortion seem similar to Joe's... I  
personally would not get an abortion and I am morally opposed to it,  
but I feel I can only make that decision for myself, and that it  
should be kept legal because there are instances where it may be  
necessary. If it were illegal it wouldn't stop it from happening, it  
would just be far more dangerous for women. I don't agree with it  
being used like birth control or being presented as the only option,  
just as I don't support abstinence-only education because they do not  
educate about all the options. So, I don't identify FULLY with either  
the pro-life movement (because I don't think abortion should be  
illegal) but I also don't FULLY identify with the pro-choice movement  
either, because I personally wouldn't get an abortion unless carrying  
a baby would kill me. So I won't be appearing at either a pro-choice  
or a pro-life rally. ;)

Joe touched on some great points involving personhood, which is  
difficult to determine, I'm also interested to hear what studies have  
been done that indicate at what point a fetus can feel pain.

peace,
~megan

-----------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 10:34:13 -0700
From: Joe Campbell <joekc at adelphia.net>
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Fwd: Is there a correlation between "Fore
	Gras" Killing Babies!
To: heirdoug at netscape.net
Cc: vision2020 at moscow.com
Message-ID: <22629811.1156700053974.JavaMail.root at web19>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

Doug,

This is a tricky set of issues. I woke up at 6 am this morning trying  
to come up with an adequate response to the moral comparison between  
fois gras and abortion and it wasn't easy! I'll share that with you  
later. Right now I want to respond to your challenge.

My response here is easy: No, I will not give $50 a month to the  
Pregnancy Crisis Center. My reasons are somewhat speculative since I  
know next to nothing about the Pregnancy Crisis Center other than the  
fact that you donate money to them. But my guess is that they support  
making abortion illegal and I am strongly opposed to that idea.

And no I do not think that "human life begins after birth," as you  
suggest. (More on that in the next post.) Rather, I think that my own  
moral views have nothing at all to do with whether or not some other  
person should be allowed to make these difficult choices for him or  
herself.

I've talked about this at length in Town Crier essays and here on  
Vision 2020. There are two main points to my view. First, I am a  
legal minimalist: laws should only be based on clear harms to clear  
persons. Second, it is contradictory to suppose that you can force --  
through threat of legal sanction -- someone to act morally. Moral  
action requires choice and legal sanctions remove choice. What we  
need to do is create a culture that enables people to make the right  
choices and the law is of little use in trying to reach this goal.

My thoughts about fois gras are similar. Notice I rarely talk about  
the morality of that issue, I am not in favor (at the moment) of  
making it illegal to serve fois gras, and I would not give $50 a  
month to PETA or any similar organization. Nor will you see me  
protesting against Planned Parenthood or West of Paris anytime soon.  
Unless I find out that one of them has refused service to gays or  
lesbians, that is.

Best, Joe

---- heirdoug at netscape.net wrote:

=============

Joe,?
?
I'm still wondering if you have had any more thoughts about my
comparison and my challenge to you, Saundra and Megan and any others
who still think that human life begins after birth.?
?
Time to put your money where your mouth is. It's only $50.00 a month
and I know that they could use it.?
?
Doug!?