Skip to comments.
Nat Hentoff: Abortion and the English language
Jewish World Review ^
| 12/5/06
| Nat Hentoff
Posted on 12/05/2006 1:32:50 PM PST by Caleb1411
click here to read article
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20, 21-40, 41-60, 61-80, 81-86 next last
To: Raymann
I don't care what stage of development it's in, it's a baby human being.
21
posted on
12/05/2006 2:17:47 PM PST
by
Evie Munchkin
(Democrats - party of death)
To: dirtboy; threeleftsmakearight
22
posted on
12/05/2006 2:19:39 PM PST
by
BenLurkin
("The entire remedy is with the people." - W. H. Harrison)
To: Deut28
True but it's not that useful as quantitative words when talking about human development. There is no difference between using embryo and fetus then using baby, child, teen, and adult. All human, different stages.
Say we were talking about drinking or smoking laws. Would you point to a kid and say "That human should not be allowed to smoke". No, if you provide the age you'd be factually correct but there are much better terms to use that would more clearly state your case and be easier to understand.
23
posted on
12/05/2006 2:19:52 PM PST
by
Raymann
To: Evie Munchkin
24
posted on
12/05/2006 2:20:23 PM PST
by
Raymann
To: Caleb1411
George Orwell said of the language of "orthodoxy" that it "seems to demand a lifeless, imitative style."Very interesting.
To: Raymann
Justice John Paul Stevens quickly interrupted: "Whether the FETUS is more than halfway out," he corrected the solicitor general. From week 9 until birth it's called a fetus. From birth until age 2 it's a baby
So what do you call it when it's halfway out...a human being or a disposable lump of tissue?... it that border an your position relative to it what defines who is an is not human being, Legally? Scientifically? Morally?
26
posted on
12/05/2006 3:01:13 PM PST
by
tophat9000
(Al-Qaidacrats =A new political party combining the anti American left and the anti Semite right)
To: freedomfiter2
Latin fetus (or foetus) was rarely used of human offspring, more commonly of the offspring of animals (or birds) or the fruit of plants.
To: Raymann
There is no difference between using embryo and fetus then using baby, child, teen, and adult. All human, different stages. Except that an alarming number of 'intellectuals' now use 'embryo' and 'fetus' as a means to dehumanize those these elitists seek to exploit for body parts. I've had recent exchanges with just such an 'intellectual' snob on this forum, a person so akin to jello in his posting techniques as to be amusing. But he believes himself to be so superior to we simple Freepers that his posts drip with condescension.
28
posted on
12/05/2006 3:10:40 PM PST
by
MHGinTN
(If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote life support for others.)
To: Caleb1411
"Some of the fetuses, I understand in the procedure," Justice Stevens added, "are only 4 or 5 inches long. They're very different from fully formed babies." Odd how a dead soul needs to keep silencing his conscience in order to remain annoyingly dead. This subpreme court judge is the consummate dead soul liberal, ever attending to the language he will allow others to use so as to control the discussion, limiting it to only those positions he has in god-like power settled for the rest of us. Stevens is a disgusting elitist thing ... almost as mutagenistic to the Constitution as Breyer and Ginsberg.
29
posted on
12/05/2006 3:16:37 PM PST
by
MHGinTN
(If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote life support for others.)
To: Caleb1411
Once upon a time the Supreme Court also decided that slaves weren't really "human." That made it OK to kill and dismember them too. The arguments are scarily parallel.
Is the fetus animal, vegetable, or mineral? If animal, the number of chromosomes will tell you what species, 23 pair would lead a reasonable person to conclude it's human.
30
posted on
12/05/2006 3:20:08 PM PST
by
E.Allen
To: E.Allen
Liberals would not hesitate to define the alive unborn as human. Their entire agenda is to promote the legal slauughter of these alive humans as a special right to certain females, while continuing to obfuscate the truth that they are extending special right to execute fellow human beings. These same ghouls will decry executing a heinous criminal, claiming it lessens our civilization to execute criminals. That these ghouls care not a whit for the aliveness of the unborn babies must never be spoken of ... kind of like the Wizard who must not be named in the Harry Potter books.
31
posted on
12/05/2006 3:27:32 PM PST
by
MHGinTN
(If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote life support for others.)
To: threeleftsmakearight
32
posted on
12/05/2006 3:30:23 PM PST
by
TChad
To: Caleb1411
"Some of the fetuses, I understand in the procedure," Justice Stevens[a fully developed old human] added,
"are only 4 or 5 inches long. They're very different from fully formed babies." Bravo Justice Stevens! And I might add that you are 'very different' than a 14-year old male human! You speak about the unborn just like a person who has already been born!
Perhaps we should debate the 'fully formed' definition and allow that to set the parameters of allowable abortion; or in your case, an argument for 'retro-active abortion' for the 'overly' formed person, or a person who is no longer useful to society beyond eating and sleeping and listening to the sound of their own voice?
Justice Stevens could find himself as the perfect 'poster child' for euthanasia of the 'overly formed' old baby(s)...let's see, why don't you, Stevens, be the first in line. Go ahead! Step up old man!
Justice Stevens, you are worth much, much less to our human society and the future of mankind than any 7 or 8 month old on it's way into the world! What a worthless egotistical piece of old crap!
33
posted on
12/05/2006 3:43:07 PM PST
by
Van Jenerette
(U.S.Army 1967-1991 Infantry OCS, Hall of Fame, Ft. Benning Ga.)
To: Van Jenerette
Being a woman and a mother of 3. I remember their life began in the womb. Anything else is bull. Just be a pregnant woman, you know, and if you don't you are deluding yourself!
34
posted on
12/05/2006 3:48:55 PM PST
by
dforest
To: Raymann
Just use the scientific terms that we all understand and don't cloud the issues.The issue under debate however, is broader than science. I am a scientist, but I have no problem with common terminology. Most pregnant women, upon becoming aware of their pregnancy, refer to it thereafter as their "baby".
To: Raymann
And every moment since it became a zygote, whatever the word we choose to define it, it has been a living human entity, unceasingly exhibiting the defining characteristics of a living organism, namely spontaneous, self-directed change and growth.
36
posted on
12/05/2006 4:35:31 PM PST
by
Elsiejay
To: MHGinTN
Look, I don't like Stevens anymore then you but when two opposing sides in a Supreme Court Case<,I> are using different terminology to refer to the same subject, it's the responsibility of the judge to make them use the same words.
37
posted on
12/05/2006 4:47:48 PM PST
by
Raymann
To: Elsiejay
"spontaneous, self-directed change"
Not sure if that goes together. :)
38
posted on
12/05/2006 4:49:20 PM PST
by
Raymann
To: right-wingin_It
I'm not arguing the abortion debate, we're not going to change each other's minds. All I'm saying, is that in a courtroom, you be precise in your language. The Supreme Court isn't Rush or Air America, it's about the law and the Constitution. The Founder's didn't mince words and we shouldn't either. If you're concerned that words like "fetus" and "embryo" demean human life...well just don't ever apply to med school. In any event there is a reason they're aren't any cameras in the court, it isn't a place for popular opinion or theatrics, it's supposed to be a place of serious discussion and for that you need to be precise in your language. Period.
39
posted on
12/05/2006 4:56:25 PM PST
by
Raymann
To: Caleb1411
Funny. Black's Law Dictionary says that "child" means, progeny, offspring. Unborn or recently born human being. What a pathetic old bastard Stevens is. He corrupts the language and the law.
40
posted on
12/05/2006 4:58:37 PM PST
by
RobbyS
( CHIRHO)
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20, 21-40, 41-60, 61-80, 81-86 next last
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson