Posted on 05/06/2005 6:23:19 AM PDT by St. Johann Tetzel
In the case of pregnancy, the child is the mother's as well as the father's offspring. The oocyte and the receptive womb were prepared by her body, by her very nature.
On the other hand, if she cannot live with the fact of the pregnancy, if it is equivalent to her with a constant assualt, then some would not fault her decision to remove the embryo. I don't know about this reasoning, since I see her time of sacrifice for the life of the child as self-limited, while the death of the child is permanent and irreversible.
However, there is a difference between killing in self defense or in the defense of the life of the other and most other killing. We can understand, and make law accomodating this fact.
In each case, the intent should not be to kill or destroy the child but to defend the life of the one threatened by removing or diverting the threat.
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