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phylny

phylny's Journal
phylny's Journal
September 7, 2021

Abortion laws vs. Body Autonomy - copied from Twitter and Facebook

By the way, I did not write this, but I have long said that until the "pro-life" politicians write law forcing you to donate a body part, they're full of crap.

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"Last night, I was in a debate about these new abortion laws being passed in red states. My son stepped in with this comment which was a show stopper. One of the best explanations I have read:

"Reasonable people can disagree about when a zygote becomes a "human life" -- that's a philosophical question. However, regardless of whether or not one believes a fetus is ethically equivalent to an adult, it doesn't obligate a mother to sacrifice her body autonomy for another, innocent or not.

"Body autonomy is a critical component of the right to privacy protected by the Constitution, as decided in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), McFall v. Shimp (1978), and of course Roe v. Wade (1973). Consider a scenario where you are a perfect bone marrow match for a child with severe aplastic anemia; no other person on earth is a close enough match to save the child's life, and the child will certainly die without a bone marrow transplant from you. If you decided that you did not want to donate your marrow to save the child, for whatever reason, the state cannot demand the use of any part of your body for something to which you do not consent. It doesn't matter if the procedure required to complete the donation is trivial, or if the rationale for refusing is flimsy and arbitrary, or if the procedure is the only hope the child has to survive, or if the child is a genius or a saint or anything else -- the decision to donate must be voluntary to be constitutional. This right is even extended to a person's body after they die; if they did not voluntarily commit to donate their organs while alive, their organs cannot be harvested after death, regardless of how useless those organs are to the deceased or how many lives they would save.

"That's the law.

"Use of a woman's uterus to save a life is no different from use of her bone marrow to save a life -- it must be offered voluntarily. By all means, profess your belief that providing one's uterus to save the child is morally just, and refusing is morally wrong. That is a defensible philosophical position, regardless of who agrees and who disagrees. But legally, it must be the woman's choice to carry out the pregnancy. She may choose to carry the baby to term. She may choose not to. Either decision could be made for all the right reasons, all the wrong reasons, or anything in between. But it must be her choice, and protecting the right of body autonomy means the law is on her side.

"Supporting that precedent is what being pro-choice means."

https://twitter.com/fromthebunkerjr/status/1434850399995842562/photo/1

September 2, 2021

Liberty "University" leads the way in Virginia

Liberty University has more COVID-19 cases than 4 larger Virginia campuses combined

On Wednesday, Liberty University reported 488 active COVID-19 cases on campus. According to their COVID-19 dashboard, 430 of those cases are students. It's a big increase from last week when LU reported 159 total active cases.

Liberty University also has the smallest on-campus student population compared to the four other universities.

Another difference, all four of those universities require students to get the COVID-19 vaccine and wear masks, regardless of vaccination status. Liberty University doesn't require either.

https://wset.com/news/coronavirus/liberty-university-has-more-covid-19-cases-than-four-larger-virginia-campuses-combined?fbclid=IwAR3y_TLcBNrW1C2-nsXtVH5mcbUZQ2LUWcdxo2XNGlgL8RsAq6YXlZiHZIk

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Member since: Tue Feb 24, 2004, 07:21 AM
Number of posts: 8,379
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