>>> The issue in the moral analysis of these cases all involve
motive.
<<<
I think this is wrong. We always recognize that a reckless disregard for the results of our actions needs to be punished if it results in particular outcomes. If I get drunk and kill you while driving my car, I am to be punished. I accept this.
There's many a loon who goes through life committing one bad act after another, claiming that they didn't know, they didn't mean it, they wish they could undo it. This is unacceptable. They had a motive, and that motive was to go willy-nilly through life avoiding responsibility, with the inevitable consequences.
Given your philosophy that abortion is murder, why would you rate the reckless act that kills a fetus less important than the reckless act that kills someone in their car, resulting in a manslaughter charge?
I think I may know why, though I apologize for the presumptuousness.
These are acts that people you know commit, through smoke, drink, and support of polluters. I believe your posture to be at least partly political, not purely moral, but in any case certainly inconsistent. You seem to be avoiding alienating those conservative elements who would do these things. You will not put a name to it, though you seem overanxious to put a name to the actions of those you disapprove of.
Presumably you are not a Catholic, since the Church's position is that even the birth control pill is against life, the Church, and God's Will.
Here is my posture: A father who gives his child a birth defect through second hand smoke, though supposedly unwitting, is less worthy than a father who supports a woman's decision to have an abortion, allowing that it is primarily her decision.
I would not have taken this position 20 years ago, but everyone has seen a story on TV or read in the newspaper about cigarettes and effects on children (like SIDS), and fetuses by now. And I believe that those who purposely stay so unconcious to the media as to have missed this are liable simply for their deliberate ignorance.
One other question: Is the bombing of an abortion clinic murder if it kills people inside or nearby?
Chaz |
