The Cup O' Joe Report: Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - Abortion

[Joeve]

This is a transcript of Joe Vecchio's daily "Cup O' Joe Report" podcast, availaible here.

One of the reasons people oppose putting Judge Alito on the Supreme Court is that he will likely vote, one day, to overturn Roe vs. Wade and end a woman's legal right to have an abortion. But in many parts of the country, the right is moot, because of a combination of intimidation, expense, and lack of facilities. And as with so many things in our society, it is an option that will still be available to the very rich regardless of whether it's legal or not.

The central question of the abortion issue is of course, "what is a human life?" Is a fertilized embryo deserving of the same rights and privileges as a one-year old baby? Do we treat every miscarriage as a possible murder? On the other hand, taken to extremes, is the issue of whose life is worthwhile and whose isn't. The Nazis argued that Jews and other non-Aryan races were inferior and that they needed to be destroyed to preserve the Aryan race. There are many in this country who feel the same way.

Extremes aside, the abortion issue is only one of many that is used by religious and political leaders to manipulate people into giving up power, nothing more. If "pro-lifers" were so concerned about "life" they would be just as outraged by the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis who were killed because of the greed of a few powerful people. Their silence on this is proof that their definition of "life" is pretty narrow. And as with so many other issues, it probably won't be resolved until we stop allowing ourselves to be manipulated by our fears and by our baser instincts.

Cup O' Joe - Blog Of The Working Man's Thinking Man!

[benburch]

1. You can also hear the Cup-o-Joe report nightly...

on "Head-On with Bob Kincaid" - http://www.headonradio.com

[Joeve]

2. And I call in sometimes too

Bob's got a great show, and Ben does a great job keeping up the White Rose Society!

-Joe

[Scout]

3. The central question of the abortion issue is of course, "what is a human

nope.
the central question is, who controls a woman's body?
The answer is, the woman.

[Joeve]

4. If that's what you believe, fine

I don't disagree with your position, but it doesn't change the central issue. In your case you are saying that as long as the baby is inside the mother, it is not human, but rather a part of the woman's body and therefore she and only she has the right to determine whether it gets carried to term.

Again, I want to stress that I don't disagree with that point of view. But the issue hasn't changed.

[Scout]

5. that is not at ALL what I said

of course the fetus has human DNA... what else would it have, canine DNA?

but as long as it is inside another person's body, the actual PERSON get's to decide what happens to their own body.

The issue is not whether or not a fetus is human, of course it is has human dna.