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<font size=4>Greetings:<br><br>
Thanks, Tom, for your post. The number of U.S. abortions has
decreased since the 1970s and they would go down even more if so-called
pro-lifers would not place so many obstacles in the path of women who
want them. The earlier they have them, the safer they are.<br><br>
European countries have much lower abortion rates than we do primarily
because of good (some would say "graphic") sex education, the
absence of a Religious Right, supportive social services, and free health
care. European countries also have lower teen pregnancy rates, and
much, much lower STD rates.<br><br>
With regard to our founding documents, I would say that even ETs would be
protected under our Constitution. The premise of the movie ET is
that ET was a person, and the corollary was that it was the children, not
the adults, who recognized this basic moral fact.<br><br>
This hypothetical clearly shows that there are persons who are not humans
(ETs and God), and human beings who are not persons (Terri Schiavo and
fetuses up to 25 weeks). Our visionary down the hill has recently
defined God as cosmic intelligence so even he has to agree with this,
after evading the question in an earlier exchange. Therefore, the
person/nonperson is the only relevant moral distinction to make on this
topic.<br><br>
By the way, my rant about militant vegetarianism was simply a
demonstration that most pro-lifers are not morally consistent.<br><br>
Soy Burgers Forever (touche, Paul!)<br><br>
Nick<br><br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=2>"Truth is the summit of being; justice is the
application of it to human affairs."<br>
--Ralph Waldo Emerson<br><br>
"Abstract truth has no value unless it incarnates in human beings
who represent it, by proving their readiness to die for it."<br>
--Mohandas Gandhi<br><br>
"Modern physics has taught us that the nature of any system cannot
be discovered by dividing it into its component parts and studying each
part by itself. . . .We must keep our attention fixed on the whole and on
the interconnection between the parts. The same is true of our
intellectual life. It is impossible to make a clear cut between science,
religion, and art. The whole is never equal simply to the sum of its
various parts." --Ma</font><font size=1>x Planck<br><br>
</font>Nicholas F. Gier<br>
Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, University of Idaho<br>
1037 Colt Rd., Moscow, ID 83843<br>
<a href="http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/home.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/home.htm<br>
</a>208-882-9212/FAX 885-8950<br>
President, Idaho Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO<br>
<a href="http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/ift.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/ift.htm<br><br>
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