| I think the debate has done nowhere fast. Seriously, it's not like we see a lot of people sitting down and trying to come up with mutual understanding. Or, even, allowing the possibility that what one feels isn't necessarily for everyone.
I always thought that the legalization of abortion wasn't a moral issue. I know that seems to fly in the face of the pro-life argument, but I'm really not trying to be trite or overly glib when I say that. I understand that people oppose abortion on moral and sometimes religious grounds. I have all the respect in the world for that. I think it's wonderful to have a code of ethics and a spiritual system to guide one's life. I wouldn't want to have mine be questioned, so I wouldn't want to question someone else's. And, in the event that part of that came off as supremely patronizing, that really wasn't my intent.
The only problem I have is that sometimes people who have a code of ethics, and I mean to target no one here in particular but rather people I've met in my own life and (in a sense) I do include myself in that group, tend to want to impose that code on others. And there's nothing wrong with putting forth one's system of belief. But I do think it can sometimes lead all of us into absolutism, and I don't see how absolutism works in a pluralistic world. Not everyone sees things the same way, and I don't see why one group ought to or even should impose its view on other people.
If a person doesn't believe in abortion for moral or religious or whatever other reason there might be, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. It's a perfectly legitimate point of view. I don't think it particularly requires defending either. But I do think it means that so and so shouldn't have recourse to abortions. And then have it end at that.
Another person shouldn't be forbidden from having one because a group doesn't believe they should. __________________  Sunny
"The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die." avie by Jessie |