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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> Tom, our egghead up the hill has
repeatedly evaded the point I made about his irrelevant distinction between
humans and persons. As was pointed out clearly, the declaration of
Independence states plainly that human beings are endowed by their creator with
an unalienable right to life. Now, Tom, children growing in their mother's
womb are human beings, as Dr. Egghead has acknowledged. Therefore, as our
founding documents pledge, they are deserving of protection. He can
attempt to divine the thoughts of those who wrote these guidelines of he wishes,
but he cannot rewrite these documents or change their unequivocal
meaning.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Thick, juicy, char-broiled rib steaks
forever! -Tony</FONT></DIV>
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style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=ngier@uidaho.edu href="mailto:ngier@uidaho.edu">Nick Gier</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=vision2020@moscow.com
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020@moscow.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, January 27, 2007 9:58
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [Vision2020] Compassion for All
Life</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><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></A>
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