So, Scott Peterson gets charged with the murders of both Laci Peterson and their unborn child. If he gets charged with murder for the unborn child, then why is abortion legal?
It's the same thing - a killing of an unborn child.
2006-07-03 11:06:49 · 19 answers · asked by Desperate Journalist 4 in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
I agree with you 100% - there was a road rage case where someone was in a car accident and caused a pregnant woman to miscarry. She was charged and served jail time. And yet if the pregnant woman had gone out the very next day to have an abortion, it would have been legal because she was within the time limit allowed for an abortion. I find this to be incompatible - if one is a crime punishable by jail time, then the other should be as well. I especially found this to be problematic because the pregnant woman was the one who started the road rage incident, and continued it when the other woman responded. She knew she was pregnant, was the instigator of road rage, was 50% responsible for the death of her unborn child, and yet only the other woman went to jail. There are definitely flaws in the legal system.
2006-07-03 11:47:43 · answer #1 · answered by Jeannie 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Here's the difference.
A pregnant woman is giving nutrients and bodily life support to a collection of cells growing inside her that, for the first few months, is NOT YET a human being. Not medically at least, and we haven't yet turned into a theocracy.
Does the government have the right to compel you to give blood, or donate bone marrow, or give up a kidney, just to save someone else? No. Why not? Because the right to bodily integrity is a fundamental right.
Scott Peterson did not stop providing life support out of his own body. He killed Laci Peterson. That's murder.
You really can't see the difference between a woman no longer giving of her own body to support something that might someday turn into a human being, versus the intentional killing of another human being that's already living and walking around, who also happens to be pregnant?
There are a lot of things that are crimes when done against someone's will, but not when done consensual. Battery, rape, kidnapping, the list goes on.
Trying to say that ending a pregnancy without the mother's consent is the same as a woman choosing to terminate her own pregnancy is like saying consensual sex and rape are the same thing, because the physical acts are similar.
Can you really not see the difference? Wow.
2006-07-03 12:32:27 · answer #2 · answered by coragryph 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think the thing that really distinguishes the two are the simple fact that in an abortion the women has a choice and has made a decision to end the pregnancy (at an early term). In the Scott P. case the mother wanted the child she was carrying and the baby was way past the point of an abortion being possible, their lives were taken not given up.
2006-07-03 11:15:10 · answer #3 · answered by Almond_eyez 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I agree...that's a good question. The answer to this question was that it wasn't an unwanted pregnancy, so the killing of the unborn child was considered murder.
2006-07-03 11:11:34 · answer #4 · answered by maniaajo 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
ummm hello???? some women need an abortion b/c of health reasons, and the doctor usualy knows if it will be a problem very early in the pergnancy. scott peterson killed his child like weeks before he was to be born. thats messed up. and abortions during the last trimester are messed up too.
2006-07-13 05:16:55 · answer #5 · answered by Surf n' Snow 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You omitted the obvious difference. Laci Peterson did not want Connor to be aborted. She did not choose it. It was forced upon her. Furthermore, it was accomplished by the taking of Laci's life. Really quite different, don't you think?
2006-07-03 11:11:03 · answer #6 · answered by Otis F 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Laci did not choose to have an abortion.
But you're right, there is a bit of a double standard in there.
2006-07-15 07:24:33 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Murder is taking the life of a person. Person-hood begins when we become self aware. I think that begins when we are born and face the cold hard reality that we have to breath on our own. We, of course don't remember that, but our memories begin shortly after that event. I became a person when I was two. That was when reality became focused for me. Legally we have to pick an arbitrary point. Reasonable people pick a point that has merit, unreasonable people pick a point that is extreme and when they try to use the coercive power of the state to shove their narrow religious view down everyone's throat, they become a Religious Nazi.
2006-07-03 11:17:27 · answer #8 · answered by iknowtruthismine 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Abortion is a choice a woman makes. Murder is a choice someone elses makes for you.
2006-07-12 06:42:37 · answer #9 · answered by bran 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You're right, he should just have been charged with Laci's murder. GET A LIFE moron.
2006-07-03 11:13:08 · answer #10 · answered by Who cares 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋