Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 20:59:24 -0500
From: Yoshie Furuhashi <Furuhashi.1-AT-osu.edu>
Subject: Re: M-TH: Justin, Think of Doctors and Workers at Clinics


Justin wrote:
>And it isn't severely restricted now?

It is and will be more so in the near future.

>> But if a moral defense of abortion involves a view that abortion is a
>> medical procedure unlike any other because it is a morally loaded act, then
>> it is impossible for abortion to be established as part of essential
>> medical training for OB-GYNs.
>
>First, that doesn't follow. Not logically, for sure, and probably not
>psychologically. After all, I don't think abortion is viewed as morally
>neutral in other countries where abortion tarining is part of reducal
>medical training.

I have read very little about other countries' ideological climates about
the subject, but it is a fact that an American-style "pro-life" movement
doesn't exist in Japan. Abortion is regarded to a certain extent as a moral
thing in Japan as well, but the form and content of morality seems very
different. The main burden on Japanese women is shaming of sex and
pregnancy. In America, sexual repression and control gets mediated through
the seeming concern for the idea of the fetus as either a person or
potential life. (Please see my post on "White and Right 'Moral'
Discipline.") Some Japanese moral entrepreneurs do try to manipulate
superstitious women's feelings by peddling "Mizuko-Zizou" (which can be
roughly translated as "water-baby memorials") through a moral blackmail and
promise of good life; "you must buy this 'mizuko-zizou' so as not to make
the spirit of an aborted fetus angry; if you buy it, you will have a
blessed life" say their ads. This is a very recent phenomenon, and I am
concerned about this spiritual racket, but even those spiritual racketeers
do not claim that women and abortionists are "murderers" in Japan. I wonder
about what the Danes, French, Swedes, etc. think about the matter. I hope
somebody will post on this.

BTW, have you had the time to check the language of the Webster decision to
see if it says it is the State that has interests in the fetus or it is the
fetus that has interests?

>In any case, abortion is not morally neutral, so you
>advocate, essentially, lying about its status to achieve some greater
>good. But this deception will not work, because people will not persuaded
>tahta bortion is morally neutral. I think you sre stuck on the idea that
>it is the moralization of the debate that is cause of the problem, rather
>than the particular ethical theory of abortion being put. I think we will
>make more headway arguing on moral grounds for choice and the legitimacy
>of a decision to abort.

This is where we disagree. To me and Carrol, abortion is a morally neutral
act. We realize we might be in the minority here now, but that does not
mean that those on the opposite side are correct. We also think that women
and abortion providers will be better off if abortion becomes generally
regarded as morally neutral.

So while you think that it is the particular ethical theory of abortion
that is the cause of the problem, Carrol and I think that as soon as the
terms of the debate become morality, women begin to lose our rights.

One of the reasons I think the way I do is that in most people's minds,
morality is inseparably intertwined with concepts such as guilt, innocence,
justification, and normality. (Did you see Leo's and Ralph's responses to
my posts? Also please read my post entitled "Justification and Morality.")
A focus on morality of abortion, in a society where (hetero)sexism, racism,
and capitalism structure our lives, inexorably leads to the question of
morality of women: whether a woman's character is good or bad, her sexual
conduct is correct or incorrect, etc. Moral questions become instruments to
control women and our sexuality. (We are guilty until proven innocent, and
the only proof of our innocence is our adherence to the morality that
demands that we pay the price for our sexual liberties.)

>Right,w hich is why your idea, which presupposes an ethical theory that
>most people cannot accept, has no chance of acheiving this goal.

Why do you think that most people cannot accept it? Are you not saying this
because _you_ don't want to accept it? (BTW, I don't blame you or Rob for
not accepting it; I just think you guys are misguided.)

>Btw you assume that you need an ob-gyn to perform an abortion. This is not
>true.Many clinics,w here permitted by law, have no MDs at all.

Well, I think it is probably better for abortion providers to have had
comprehensive medical training, though abortion in itself, if pregnancy is
uncomplicated, is a fairly simple and very safe procedure.

>It epends on what you mean by a negative evaluation of abortion. I think
>we should say which I think is true, that abortion is a fundamental right,
>a legitimate choice, a basic need for women's emancipation. I think we
>should provide support and respect for abortion providers. But we should
>not deny the reality of the experience of pregnant women,. whether or or
>not they choose abortion, that makes abortion hard in the way removal of a
>cyst is not. Nor should we suggest that abortion is a good as opposed to a
>right. We can fight the social disapproval and punish the terrorists
>without taking a position that does not accors with people's real experience.

I happen to believe that people's real experience is more complicated than
that. Abortion is harder for some than for others. For people like myself
who do not think that a fetus is a person, having a cyst removed (which I
have last fall) and having an abortion are not very different. Both involve
physical discomfort and financial burdens (btw removing a cyst is much more
expensive than an abortion, so for working-class women like myself, it is a
bigger financial burdern and source of anxiety); but both are morally
neutral, neither good nor bad, they just are medical treatments that I and
many other women found necessary. So I think that a significant number of
women (who may or may not be a minority) take it matter-of-fact.

Yoshie




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