File spoon-archives/marxism-thaxis.archive/marxism-thaxis_1998/marxism-thaxis.9801, message 599


Date: Tue, 27 Jan 98 7:25:58 EST
From: boddhisatva <kbevans-AT-panix.com>
Subject: Re: M-TH: (Fwd) personhood & marx







		C. Walters,



	To say that fetuses are not in society is a troubled analysis.  If
people came from across the sea or from space, could we shoot them as long as
they didn't land?  If a person is going to be in my society in March, can I
morally have him killed in January?  Can I give a woman thalidomide (which
will not hurt her, but will deform her baby) without moral sanction?   If a
doctor forgets to tell a woman that she should take extra folic acid and her
baby has birth defects, does he owe no moral recompense to that baby?  Why
should Marxism overturn the precept - as old as human society - that a
pregnant woman AND her fetus are ours to care for.  Are you going to tell Lou
Proyect that the Yanomami are repressing women when they celebrate a
pregnancy?  I don't envy you if you are.




	The point is that, under normal circumstances, the fetus and the
woman have no conflicting interests.  They both want a healthy birth. 
When the interests of the fetus and the woman do conflict, we have to find
an analysis which leads to a resolution that doesn't undermine our social
commitment to healthy babies and free, self-determining mothers.  I don't
think that un-including fetuses in our ethical order is such an analysis.




	peace




     --- from list marxism-thaxis-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---

   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005