I hope I’m not repeating others here. WRT “Another Headache for the Chief”, I struggle with this statement: “Either fetuses are human beings, and thus deserve protection under the law, or they aren’t and thus don’t.” The problems that arise in human systems are rarely black and white. Indeed, if “being human” is all that’s needed to prot…
I hope I’m not repeating others here. WRT “Another Headache for the Chief”, I struggle with this statement: “Either fetuses are human beings, and thus deserve protection under the law, or they aren’t and thus don’t.” The problems that arise in human systems are rarely black and white. Indeed, if “being human” is all that’s needed to protect humans under the law, then allowing the mother to die in order to save a fetus would also be unacceptable. Such “not black and white” situations are called moral dilemmas. A resolution on either side of a “right vs right” dilemma can be heartbreaking and difficult. If every question were black and white, we could simply write all the laws and be done with it. There has to be room for compassionate consideration of a case by the people most intimately involved.
I hope I’m not repeating others here. WRT “Another Headache for the Chief”, I struggle with this statement: “Either fetuses are human beings, and thus deserve protection under the law, or they aren’t and thus don’t.” The problems that arise in human systems are rarely black and white. Indeed, if “being human” is all that’s needed to protect humans under the law, then allowing the mother to die in order to save a fetus would also be unacceptable. Such “not black and white” situations are called moral dilemmas. A resolution on either side of a “right vs right” dilemma can be heartbreaking and difficult. If every question were black and white, we could simply write all the laws and be done with it. There has to be room for compassionate consideration of a case by the people most intimately involved.