To: Solon who wrote (17304 ) 6/22/2001 6:28:12 PM From: TimF Read Replies (1) | Respond to Well, it was a very good idea. China is a COMMUNIST country. It had a ONE CHILD POLICY. It utilized forced abortions and sterilizaton. Children (beyond one) were ILLEGAL. It was clear to me that many variables influence birth rate and abortion rate world wide. Most of these variables are present and common in different degrees in countries with illegal and illegal abortions. But the legal does not always mean affordable, and the illegal does not always mean back alley (money talks). So unless you are credentialed in the field, I think it more appropriate that we accept the commentary of experts while (of course) watching for biased motivations, etc. As to your points: The only points obvious to me were that you were unwilling to concede any meaning to the stats I quoted, even though the authors were assigning meaning, interpretation, and additional commentary, for which they (of course) did not bother to include the thousands of pages of reporting data that would had to have been examined and incorporated into their rendering. It is easy to say there MIGHT be other variables. Of course there ARE other variables. And they are infinite in number, and a statistical figure cannot ever be entirely concretized in the interpretive arena. Such an oposition, however, is not an "argument." It is a mutual recognition of incompleteness, and it is an automaticaly assumed disclaimer for all such data. for instance, I have not opposed the stats of 34 and 39 that you now consider important to your cause. Your claim that legalizing abortions harms embryos is an odd one, and I am unsure why a non religious person would throw it in. It as if you think a smudge of cells is equal in value to somebodies mother. I don't get where you come from. It seems a very cold and calloused attitude. I believe you said that you don't believe in a soul entering the yolk, and that you don't believe that humans have any divine value over and above other life forms, and yet you still act as if every unwanted smudge of sperm should be forced into existence even if it means destroying the lives and the happiness of real living persons with families and loved ones.
