| | Abortion and the Founding Fathers
This post is not about abortion, per se. Let us imagine being there 220 years ago during the debates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Many of the delegates were slave-holders, although I doubt that few of them were actively proud of that fact. Some defended it as their right, defining the slave (i.e., the negro - not the indentured servant) as not quite human. Thomas Jefferson, certainly with Washinton and Franklin among the least dispensable men of our history, was explicitly of this view, although his loins apparently weren't. I assume that Franklin most likely opposed the institution viscerally, and other New Englanders did most vehemently.
Imagine if, rather than saying that this is a matter of principle, but one which we cannot now solve they had disbanded into the New English Union, the Nations of New York and Greater Pennsylvainia, and the Confederated States of Virginia and the Carolinas? Imagine if New Jersey, Delaware and Connecticut had sought the protection of France? What would have become of the Liberty of Free Men?
Despair not, Mr. Enright. Most of us here agree on the principle that matters of principle are to be settled on principle, not by force or by simple majority rule. That is, we'd rather lose than win dishonestly. My view, and the minority view is that mere animacy is sufficient to guarantee a human fetus certain rights. Your view that a mother has duties to a fetus which is at the vegetative stage of development is not going to be accepted based upon an Aristotelian argument. Still, if you find a different argument, it will be entertained. But the majority here view rationality, the highest rung on the Aristotelian scala naturae, as the sine qua non of any rights, and so some 55-58% of voters here have supported abortion even to term.
Should we call each other monsters and go home?
Abortion, homosexuality and, bizarrely enough, anarcho-capitalism seem to be the three issues upon which most self-identified Objectivists will part ways. Of course, for some, simply voting Republican is a proof of degeneracy, but for that viewpoint, you will have to seek out less genteel fora than this. Most of us here will allow Roe versus Wade, the "3/5ths compromise" of our age, to stand in place until that day when the parties in congress are the Flat-Taxers versus the Lotterians or the Freedom Party versus the Liberty Party - or until the day when there are no parties, just reasonable people in power. Until then, we may continue to make common cause while admitting our differences.
This ad was paid for by the Ted Keer for President Committee, 2008.
I am Ted Keer, and I approve this message.
(Edited by Ted Keer on 3/08, 12:28pm)
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