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Re: [microsound] http://courses.ats.rochester.edu/nobis/papers/abortion_and_animals.html



Someone should go and a field recording of this one:

On Tue, 05 Nov 2002 19:12:17 -0500
Matthew wrote:

> http://courses.ats.rochester.edu/nobis/papers/abortion_and_animals.html
> 
> Abortion and Animal Rights:
> 
> Related, but Importantly Different, Issues
> In a recent letter (August 2001, p. 5), a ?Veg-News? reader asked why she 
> does not see the vegetarian and animal rights communities taking a stand 
> against abortion. She said it seems to be a "great contradiction" to respect 
> animal life, but to not equally respect human life by opposing abortion. She 
> asked that this issue be addressed. I would like to do so.
> 
> 
> Those who challenge the status quo regarding our society's consumption and 
> treatment of animals do this from a wide variety of moral and philosophical 
> perspectives. But all within the movement agree on this: a fundamental evil 
> of animal agriculture and a diet and lifestyle that involves animal products 
> is that they cause pain, suffering, and early death that is totally 
> unnecessary, for both animals and humans.  The conviction that evils like 
> these should be opposed and that we should bring an end to them is what 
> motivates and unites many people in the vegetarian and animal rights 
> community.
> 
> 
> Should these people also be motivated to oppose abortion? Unfortunately, the 
> safest answer seems to be this: no and yes. The answer is not simple because 
> abortions affect two importantly different kinds of fetuses: those that can 
> experience pain and those that cannot.  Scientific evidence suggests that 
> early fetuses, those in the first trimester and slightly beyond, cannot 
> experience pain since they lack the necessary neurological development.  
> Although reliable data is hard to come by, most fetuses that are aborted are 
> early fetuses.Since they cannot experience pain in the procedure, the 
> vegetarian and animal rights advocate's opposition to unnecessary pain and 
> suffering does not apply here since there is no pain and suffering to 
> oppose.  There is no "great contradiction" here.
> 
> 
> While most abortion providers will not perform abortions past the fourth or 
> fifth month (check your yellow pages under ?abortion?) and so there are 
> relatively few later-term abortions, there are strong reasons to oppose 
> later-term abortions due to the fetal pain and suffering. While probably no 
> abortions are taken lightly, these definitely should not. The vegetarian and 
> animal rights advocate should find these abortions morally troubling, 
> considered in themselves.
> 
> 
> We might, however, suspect that in many, if not most, cases of later-term 
> abortion that the woman's health or safety is in question, or that the fetus 
> is aborted to prevent a very unfortunate future from befalling it due to 
> disease or serious disability. While the pain and suffering of the fetus is 
> very bad (although it might be preventable with anesthesia), these cases of 
> later abortion might be permissible, given the complications of the case and 
> that others? interests are at stake as well.Later-term abortions done for 
> trivial reasons (if abortions are ever done for trivial reasons) are likely 
> to be morally inexcusable from many vegetarian and animal rights 
> perspectives, since they cause serious pain and suffering without adequate 
> justification or need.
> 
> 
> There are other arguments for and against abortion that I can only briefly 
> address.  Some ask, ?How would you like it if you had been aborted?? 
> suggesting that this shows that abortion is wrong.But one can ask right 
> back, ?How would you like it if your parents had used birth control?? Since 
> most don?t view birth control as immoral and the arguments are parallel, 
> this shows this anti-abortion argument to be weak.
> 
> 
> It is often said that "all fetuses have a right to life," but this is just 
> another way of saying "it's wrong to kill fetuses.  "If it's wrong to kill 
> fetuses, why is this so (and which ones)?Unfortunately, groups that oppose 
> abortion tend to not address these questions and, when they do, fail to 
> realize their best answers imply that living beings that are more conscious 
> and sentient than human fetuses -- animals -- have a "right to life" as 
> well.  Since anti-abortionists tend to be opposed only to the ending of 
> fetal lives and indifferent to the tragic lives and brutal deaths of farm 
> animals and fur-bearers, it's a serious misnomer to call them "pro-life."
> 
> 
> On the other hand, pro-choice groups tend to refuse to admit that some 
> choices of abortion result in intense pain and suffering for some fetuses.  
> They stubbornly uphold a woman's right to choose to abort at any time and 
> for literally any reason (or none whatsoever), no matter the consequences 
> for the fetus, including late-term ones.Anyone convinced, as vegetarians 
> are, that causing unnecessary pain and suffering is seriously wrong cannot 
> accept an unconditional pro-choice position, one that gives infinite moral 
> weight to a women's right to choice so that fetal pain counts for nothing, 
> morally-speaking.
> 
> 
> However inadequate most debate of the morality of abortion is and however 
> muddled most common arguments for and against abortion are, at least it is 
> an issue that there is public debate over and that most people believe is 
> important.  Politicians' fates can be sealed by their views on abortion.  
> Will there ever come a time when a "litmus test" for a candidate's viability 
> is whether he or she believes that animals have the right not to be eaten, 
> worn, or experimented on?  Will there come a time when campaign 
> contributions from the meat industry will be viewed with as much suspicion 
> as those from "Big Tobacco," as they both peddle products known to be 
> harmful to human health?Vegetarian and animal rights advocates hope that 
> their work makes it all the sooner that the answer to these questions is, 
> ?Yes.?
> 
> 
> Many vegetarian and animal rights advocates have likely been asked why they 
> don't spend their efforts on supposedly "more important" issues, such as 
> abortion.This question, of course, presumes that abortion is a ?more 
> important? moral problem.  I have argued that since most aborted fetuses are 
> not conscious and so cannot feel pain, the two issues?abortion and animal 
> rights?are importantly different and so indifference to some kinds of 
> abortions is consistent with a commonly-held motivation for advocating 
> vegetarianism and respecting animals.
> 
> 
> For those fetuses that can feel pain, this is a serious issue, one that 
> should not be dismissed. However, the number of these fetuses is tiny, 
> compared to the tens of billions of animals slaughtered each year and the 
> vast numbers of humans who unnecessarily suffer as a consequence of eating 
> them.  Also, there already are a large number of defenders of these fetuses: 
> whether they will be able to convince a critical political mass might depend 
> on their substituting reason for their current rhetoric.
> 
> 
> Since abortion already is a public issue, the best thing vegetarian and 
> animal rights advocates can do is continue striving to make their issues a 
> common topic of public debate and scrutiny.  We do this by educating people 
> about the horrors of factory farming, the utter lack of necessity for any of 
> its products, the unreliable of animal-based medical research and product 
> testing, and the health benefits of a vegan diet.  Given the huge numbers of 
> animals and humans that are harmed by this system and whose lives would 
> change for the better were it abolished, it?s not clear that there?s 
> anything ?more important? to be done.
> 
> 
> 
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