http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk6t_tdOkwo
(Can't embed--it was disabled).
Hat tip to David in DC.
UPDATE: Mike and David are musing about how fun it would be to ask all those presidential candidates who are against abortion the same question. For example:
Mr. Romney, you have consistently gone on the record stating that you believe abortion should be illegal, and that it is the equivalent of murder [ref needed]. What forms of punishment for such murder would you think acceptable, and would you consider the mother a murderer or co-conspirator in the committing of murderer?
5 comments:
Well sorry to see a flaw in your logic there but, much the same as prostituton, the physicians would be committing the crime not the women. John's aren't charged. The women wouldn't be charged with anything. Physicians would go to jail. Not that I agree with them because I don't. I just like logic to be logical.
Which is silly. I agree that you're likely right, but it doesn't make sense. The woman is consenting to the abortion. Without her assistance, it's not possible. That's pure and simple accomplice liability, and under most US laws, the accomplice is punished the same as the principal (unless it's an accomplice-after-the-fact.)
I'll bet, though, if we started also punishing women for getting abortions, you'd see the pro-life movement shrinking significantly.
Excellent point Dean.
To anyone who claims that a fetus is a full human life deserving of all of the same treatment as a born human, we should be asking them if they really truly mean that.
If they believe that, would they:
- want to convict the mother and the physician with homicide with no chance of parole for 25 years (or, given that most pro-lifers are conservative, no parole at all or even execution). (If the analogy to homicide is to be carried through properly (showing how ridiculous the whole notion is), the woman is not merely consenting to the homicide but hiring a contract killer.)
- when a miscarriage occurs, should there be a full coroners enquiry and report at taxpayers expense?
- if it turned out that the mother's actions may have had some contribution to a miscarriage, should she be convicted with homicide, manslaughter or reckless endangerment?
- I have a cousin who went past term, went into the doctor on a Friday who said let's wait the weekend and schedule an induced delivery for Monday. The fetus was lifeless on Monday. Should the doctor be charged with a criminal offense (rather than just be investigated or sued for malpractice)?
Put the question this way, and you will find the little support for criminalizing abortion evaporate very quickly.
I agree with anonymous that the physician would be charged.
It's quite similar to euthanasia in that respect - the person that does the actual lethal action is the perpetrator; even if the doctor has the consent of the patient.
To Cerberus, very sorry about your cousin and her baby. That is so sad.
It has nothing in common with euthanasia; you can't punish the person who's chosing to die since, by definition, she's dead.
Moreover, since suicide is not illegal, arguably you wouldn't have a case against the decedent.
Not the case with abortion: at the end of the day, the mother is consenting to the baby being aborted. It's not a choice to kill herself, it's a choice to abort the fetus. Cerberus is right--it's hiring a contract killer.
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