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Something A. Yu
YK Pao School
18 July 2022
On Abortion
Request for Discussions RFDN
Abstract
The Supreme Court of the United States ruled in a 5-to-4 majority,
"overturning" the precedent of Roe vs Wade, thus putting the legality
of abortion into the hand of states. Many states chose to ban
abortion.
Status of This Memo
This document is currently in the DRAFT status.
This document describes the author's viewpoint. It may or may not
represent the ideas of others, but is absolutely not guarenteed so.
Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Table of Contents
1. Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2. "Fetus is life, thus abortion is murder." . . . . . . . . . . 2
3. Involuntary termination of life isn't always murder. . . . . 2
4. Non-explicit Contract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
5. The Difference Between Fetus and Children . . . . . . . . . . 3
6. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1. Background
In 1973 the Supreme Court of the United States of America ruled
seven-to-two in favor of Roe's rights to abortion against the state
of Texas.[RVW] Roe argued for abortion with "privacy", derived from
the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution. As the
U.S. has a precedential judiciary system, this effectively legalizes
abortion across the country.
Yu Informational [Page 1]
On Abortion July 2022
However, as Roe's case was argued for based on privacy rather than
body autonomy or similar rights, it left a question into if abortion
is indeed a right that women should have. After all, if someone is
accused of murder, the suspect's privacy is not a reason to not
investigate the case further. Those against abortion often believe
that abortion is murder, and thus the privacy argument wouldn't stand
long.
In 2022, the Supreme Court overturned this precedent[DVJ], and now
the abortion rights of women in the united states are in a void.
This memo focuses on discussing the notion of abortion itself, and
briefly comments on the decision of the Court.
2. "Fetus is life, thus abortion is murder."
Some people believe that because fetus is human life, and abortion is
nonvoluntary (as in nonvoluntary by the life terminated) termination
of human life, thus abortion is murder and is unacceptable.
This reasoning is flawed---nonvoluntary termination of human life,
even when the decision-maker understands the consequence of their
action, may or not be murder.
3. Involuntary termination of life isn't always murder.
Consider yourself an average person in the United States. You live
on paychecks and you're living an average life in a comfortable
house. You noticed a poor person, without food, proper clothes, or
shelter, sleeping in the street, almost frozen to death. You took
them home, giving them food, clothes and shelter. But one day, out
of whatever reason you decided to stop supporting that person and
remove them from the house back onto the street. You understanded
that they will have a hard time finding foot, shelter and clothes.
They deceased because of the cold.
The poor person was life, and your decision did cause their
decession. But is this murder? Man-slaughter? Any kind of
statutory offense? No, not really, it's merely termination of
voluntary support that you provided for another person.
4. Non-explicit Contract
There is a subtle, but eventually significant difference between
helping a person down the street and voluntary pregnency.
(Involuntary pregnency is basically "alright, here comes a person at
your doorstep, you MUST help them and keep them alive", there's not
much to discuss there in my opinion.)
Yu Informational [Page 2]
On Abortion July 2022
In the last example, the ethicalness of terminating support would be
different if you and the person receiving help signed an explicit
contract giving you the responsibility to help them but you terminate
the support when the contract is still valid.
Indeed, the fetus did not sign a contract with the mother that
obligates the mother to carry to term. But similarly, children don't
sign contracts with their parents to take care of them, but we
consider parents who don't take care of their children and such to be
child abuse. How are they different?
5. The Difference Between Fetus and Children
Fetus do not have a proper perception of the world. Until late terms
of pregnency fetus are unable to think, while children feel, learn
and experience the world, building emotions and feelings with others
and the world around them.
The value of life depends on its definition. A scientific definition
of life which includes bacteria, fungi, parasites, plants, animals
and many other forms of life doesn't seem inherently valuable to us
---almost all of us don't feel bad killing bacteria with an
ultraviolet lamp, don't feel bad killing plants for consumption, and
don't feel bad stepping on a mosquito. Many of us don't feel bad
consuming animals for food.
6. Normative References
[DVJ] "Dobbs, State Health Officer of the Mississippi Department
of Health, et al. v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization,
et al.", June 2022, <https://www.supremecourt.gov/
opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf>.
[RVW] "Jane ROE, et al., Appellants, v. Henry WADE.", January
1973,
<https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/410/113>.
Author's Address
Andrew Yu
YK Pao School
Email: andrew@andrewyu.org
URI: https://www.andrewyu.org/
Yu Informational [Page 3]
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