View Single Post
Old 06-02-2009, 08:45 PM   #26 (permalink)
levite
Minion of Joss
 
levite's Avatar
 
Location: The Windy City
With all due respect to Xazy, I would say abortion is actually an issue on which there is not a clear consensus in the Jewish world. Most Orthodox folks I know are at least nominally opposed to abortion, since the Orthodox interpretations of Jewish law tend to be restrictive concerning when and for what reasons a woman is permitted to have an abortion; many if not most non-Orthodox folks I know are more pro-choice, given that non-Orthodox interpretations of Jewish law tend to offer wider latitude in permitting abortion.

Personally, I believe that a fetus is not "alive" until it is at the point of being viable outside the womb. From the standpoint of secular society, I believe abortion should be legal, confidential, and nobody's business but the woman and whoever she chooses to confide in. The only reasoning I have ever heard to outlaw abortion is rooted in religious thought, and therefore IMO has no place in secular government.

On the other hand, while I believe in a secular government that stays as free as possible of entanglements in people's private lives, I believe it is the place of religion to offer moral enrichment and exhortation. And though I think abortion should be legal, confidential, and easily available, I don't think it is always a good thing in the moral sense, and should not be undertaken lightly or misused. I would hope that people's religions would advise them to be strict in the exercise of their right, and offer them solid advice toward prevention and use of alternatives.
__________________
Dull sublunary lovers love,
Whose soul is sense, cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
That thing which elemented it.

(From "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" by John Donne)
levite is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360