🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <Bs5rHw.BDI@news.udel.edu> wilhited@brahms.udel.edu (Douglas Ben Wilhite) writes:
>Ok.  So one of the major points brought out in the US Constitution is that
>the government shall not dictate moral decisions except for those widely and
>most basically accepted by the people, such as the dictum against murder and
>incest.
>
>Yet those who support legislation to stop abortion are asking our government 
>to do just that.  In fact, our very own President, the symbolic figurehead of
>our constitution, is begging for the Congress and Supreme Court to transgress
>the document which has put all three parts of government into power.
>
>It is possible to argue that abortion is murder, and thus that illegalizing
>abortion simply falls as a subset of the legislation against the destruction
>of human life.
>
>But, the fact is that there is no general agreement upon whether or not a 
>human life is destroyed in the act of abortion.  One group of people says 
>yes, and another says no.
>
>No scientific proof is available to support either group, because the question
>has reached the point where it deals with the idea of soul.  The debate is
>now, "Does the fetus have a soul?  Does the embedded zygote have a soul?"
>
>Well, does it?  If you can answer this, you must have a strong faith in some
>form of religion.  Not necessarily a standard, practicing religion, but
>a person set of beliefs.  A personal set of beliefs.
>
>Once again, our Constitution specifically states that the United States shall
>not dictate religious beliefs to its people, but rather maintain a distinct
>and well marked line between religion and state.  If you don't recognize the
>power and importance of this aspect of our government, remember back to the
>removal of silent prayer from public schools during the Reagan years.
>
>Both in decrying abortion as the destruction of a life, and in firmly stating
>that it does not end a human life, one is making a generalized moral/ethical
>and faith-based statement.  A statement which comes from one's personal 
>religion, as religion is taken generally as the source of ethical code in 
>people's thought.
>
>So both of these extreme opinions are asking the US to make a general religious
>statement, an action which the government is strictly prohibited from doing.
>
>What is left?
>
>For the government to remove general prohibiting or providing legislature,
>and to provide for abortion to be performed on the basis of personal choice.
>Here, each person is entitled to choose their own definition of life, and
>act upon what they believe, just as people are entitled to in other instances
>of moral decision in this country.
>
>As a note of comparison, one could examine the Christian religion, and its 
>survival in the United States.  The Chrisitian belief dictates that if one
>does not find faith in "God," one will not be granted the eternal life which
>all people are given a chance to obtain.  Therefore, those who do not 
>follow the teachings of Christianity, such as Moslems or Hindus, will not
>find God, nor will they reach eternal life.  Thus, these people are in effect
>killing themselves.  
>
>Yet, the Christians of this country do not stand in front of mosques, blocking
>entry, nor do they attempt to take away the children of Hindu parents, in 
>order to educate the children in "their" beliefs.  The Christians are made
>to understand, no matter how painful it may be to them, that members of other
>religions have reasons just as inherently powerful to themselves as the
>Christians' beliefs are to them.  The Christians allow other religions to 
>practice freely and to develop and refine their own personal beliefs, and
>act upon these beliefs freely.
>
>Such is our way, in the United States.  Such is the way which people are 
>fighting and dying for in many parts of the world.
>
>It is not up to our government to step in and tell each and every one of us
>how to deal with the issue of abortion.  It is not up the the pro-life       
>organizations to convice the people of America that abortion is murder.  It
>is not up the the pro-choice groups to prove that abortion is not murder.
>
>It is up the government, the pro-lifers, the pro-choicers, and all of the 
>people of this country to take a slow, careful step backwards, and realize
>that tempers have overtaken our best yet once again in this nation, much
>as what happened with the legislation empowering Prohibition.  We must once
>again realize what is at the root of our existence, and at the core of our
>government.  We must free the hands and minds of the people to choose freely
>and comfortable through themselves.
>
>Advice may be given, information distributed, even conflicting views presented,
>but each and every person must, in the end, be allowed to decide on their
>own what to do about this, and every other moral/ethical issue in this country.
>
>Doug Wilhite
>wilhited@brahms.udel.edu
>
>"