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 ---
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