(A claim the evaluation of which does weigh 300 wedrifid-subjective pounds! I don’t care much at all what you do to yourself but what you do to other people against their will I do consider to be my business!)
For mostly unrelated reasons, I think abortion should be mandatory if the baby is the product of rape. We can’t afford, as a society, to let rape be a viable reproductive strategy. Yes, it’s horrible and cruel to someone who’s already a victim of a horrible, cruel travesty, but it’s still better than letting rape continue to exist for the entire future.
Apart from me finding this personally morally repugnant in its own right it is clearly inconsistent with your earlier statements about selective abortion and assumes a consequentialist evaluation that is too superficial to even correctly support your own terminal values.
You write a whole paragraph about how it is important that “it’s done indiscriminately with regards to the individual baby”, because “a woman aborts not because she dislikes the particular child, but because she doesn’t want to have a child at all”. You don’t want a women to be permitted to discriminate on bits of information about their own potential child but propose to enforce a discrimination based on one bit of information about one of the parents. The DNA of the fetus (necessarily) gives far more information about possible future behaviour of a child than a single instance of behaviour of the father—particularly when the father takes no part in raising the child.
But far more important is the effect that such a mandate would have on the outcome of rape. Rape is already grossly under-reported (citation is, I assume, not needed). There are strong psychological pressures against reporting it, even aside from the additional trauma from being involved in extensive legal proceedings. Making a gross abuse of her person the consequence of reporting a rape would (and should) make rape even more under-reported.
If you are a women living in a mandatory abortion dystopia then the right thing to do is to refrain from reporting a rape until a) you can confirm that you did not conceive or b) you decide for yourself that you want an abortion. If necessary, lie. “Oh, I said yes. I wanted him bad and I just love it rough. And if I wanted to stop I would have said ‘flugelhorn’!” A rape victim being forced to defend her rapist is a horrible, cruel, travesty but it is what she needs to do to protect herself from what is quite possibly a greater violation.
Unfortunately someone else may report to the authorities that you have been raped—either because they are a misguided do-gooder or outright malicious. The rapist could be convicted (and your unborn child sentenced) based on the testimony from others and despite your own declarations of willingness. In such cases, where practical, it is ethical to do whatever it takes to stop them ie. Cryopreserve anyone who gets in your way!
it is clearly inconsistent with your earlier statements about selective abortion
Ouch, truth.
On the other hand, there’s a difference between discriminating and discriminatory, indiscriminate and nondiscriminatory. (No less ambiguous terms immediately occur to me, and I was not strict with this usage in the grandparent.) I don’t particularly object to discriminating against serial killers, for example.
But the perverse-incentive argument holds in full force. Perhaps I should edit the grandparent so people don’t keep trying to re-dissuade me of something I’ve already disclaimed?
(A claim the evaluation of which does weigh 300 wedrifid-subjective pounds! I don’t care much at all what you do to yourself but what you do to other people against their will I do consider to be my business!)
Apart from me finding this personally morally repugnant in its own right it is clearly inconsistent with your earlier statements about selective abortion and assumes a consequentialist evaluation that is too superficial to even correctly support your own terminal values.
You write a whole paragraph about how it is important that “it’s done indiscriminately with regards to the individual baby”, because “a woman aborts not because she dislikes the particular child, but because she doesn’t want to have a child at all”. You don’t want a women to be permitted to discriminate on bits of information about their own potential child but propose to enforce a discrimination based on one bit of information about one of the parents. The DNA of the fetus (necessarily) gives far more information about possible future behaviour of a child than a single instance of behaviour of the father—particularly when the father takes no part in raising the child.
But far more important is the effect that such a mandate would have on the outcome of rape. Rape is already grossly under-reported (citation is, I assume, not needed). There are strong psychological pressures against reporting it, even aside from the additional trauma from being involved in extensive legal proceedings. Making a gross abuse of her person the consequence of reporting a rape would (and should) make rape even more under-reported.
If you are a women living in a mandatory abortion dystopia then the right thing to do is to refrain from reporting a rape until a) you can confirm that you did not conceive or b) you decide for yourself that you want an abortion. If necessary, lie. “Oh, I said yes. I wanted him bad and I just love it rough. And if I wanted to stop I would have said ‘flugelhorn’!” A rape victim being forced to defend her rapist is a horrible, cruel, travesty but it is what she needs to do to protect herself from what is quite possibly a greater violation.
Unfortunately someone else may report to the authorities that you have been raped—either because they are a misguided do-gooder or outright malicious. The rapist could be convicted (and your unborn child sentenced) based on the testimony from others and despite your own declarations of willingness. In such cases, where practical, it is ethical to do whatever it takes to stop them ie. Cryopreserve anyone who gets in your way!
Ouch, truth.
On the other hand, there’s a difference between discriminating and discriminatory, indiscriminate and nondiscriminatory. (No less ambiguous terms immediately occur to me, and I was not strict with this usage in the grandparent.) I don’t particularly object to discriminating against serial killers, for example.
But the perverse-incentive argument holds in full force. Perhaps I should edit the grandparent so people don’t keep trying to re-dissuade me of something I’ve already disclaimed?