I promised myself that I would stop posting until the discussion became less repetitive, but I've seen this one go by unchallenged too many times...
The rational moral reason at least in cases that the fetus was not conceived from rape, is that the woman participated in causing the fetus to exist in its dependent state.
Even in a rape, the woman "participates". There are different forms of participation, and many forms of coercion that society does not classify as rape. An appalling number of pregnancies in teenaged girls are fathered by men over 20. When an adult seduces a child,isn't there a level of coercion implicitly involved?
Men lie to get sex. They always have, and always will. They promise love, commitment, support. They tell a woman whatever she wants to hear, but when she shows up to say something they don't want to hear, they vanish.
If a woman "participates" on the basis of information that turns out to be false, that leaves her in a pretty difficult place, especially if she is young and far from secure. If we, as a society, are going to declare that she must bear and support that child because she participated in its conception (note that the other participant is not likely to face any compulsory participation in bearing the burden), shouldn't we as a society also contribute at least the level of support - and not only financial support - that the girl could reasonably have expected from the child's father?
How much support would you like to commit us to providing?
You folks can talk about it, I'm going to go and sail my boat. |
