At 02:56 AM 6/21/01, you wrote:
> > First of all, there most certainly would not be a serious social crisis.
> > Here is a great web page on the subject:
> > http://www.catholic.net/rcc/loveboth/chapter27.html (read this page at
> > least as far as the graph)
> >
> > One of the most salient figures in this excellent analysis is that in the
> > year before abortion was legalized in the United States, all of 39 women
> > died from illegal abortions. Now admittedly, that is 39 too many, but it
> > hardly rises to the level of social crisis. There are a lot of other
> > problems that produce 39 deaths a year, which don't raise this amount of
> > concern.
>
>What about the mental trauma? What about the injuries? *DEATH* is not a sole
>measure of social crisis.
>
> > Indeed, using your above logic, I could argue that we could prevent
> > societal crises by euthanizing the homeless also.
>
>Moron. That does not follow. Killing adults is clearly wrong, as I
>explained.
>
> > Yet, I am sure you
> > would not support that.
>
>Really? You figured that out all by yourself?
>
> > Likewise, we could easily save far more than 39
> > lives by banning all cars that are capable of speeds greater than 35 mph.
>
>No you couldn't. But that is a different argument, which I'm not going to
>get involved in.
>
> > Obviously these are reductio ad absurdum arguments, and I don't seriously
> > expect you to respond to them.
> >
> > The more serious point, however, is this: Do you really think that it is
> > justifiable to wrongly kill 1.4 million potential sentients each year for
> > the sake of 39 people?
>
><sigh> It's not about 39 deaths. And if you can't understand that, I'm not
>talking about it anymore.
>
>Welcome to my killfile.
>
>Charlie
I think the importance of the figure of "39 deaths" is in response to the
abortion-rights supporters who say things like "If abortion is outlawed,
women will be forced to go to back-alley butchers and many of them will
die," as a statement of the actual number who did die when abortion was
illegal. (For comparison, one would really need to know how many illegal
abortions occurred that year, also, it would be nice to know how many women
die as a result of complications from _legal_ abortions and compare the
rates.) I agree with you that the number of women who die as a result of
abortions (legal or illegal) is not the whole issue, and it is probably not
even the main part of the issue. That said, it _is_ a statistic used by
the proponents of legalized abortion to support their position, and so is a
legitimate discussion point. IMHO.
-- Ronn! :)
