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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 14, 2023

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I think the really interesting thing about abortion is how sui generis it is.

The vaccine example doesn’t really work. First, the vaccine may save a third party. Second, any life snuffed out by a party that isn’t vaccinated was snuffed out because the dying person choose to create the potential interaction. That is, A and B both have to choose to be in the same vicinity. A could solve the impasse by taking a vaccine (assuming the vaccine worked perfectly). B could solve the impasse by taking the vaccine or not being there.

It is thus hard to say B has a right to force A to take a vaccine. With abortion, the B (ie the fetus) can make no choice to prevent the conflict of rights.

Third, there is a difference morally between spreading unwittingly a virus and actively choosing to kill someone.

I think perhaps a better thought excitement is that you are doing a fun activity that you know will have a reasonably chance of causing a third party (who has zero control) to die unless you under take a 9 month uncomfortable period of physical stress and a slight up tick in risk that you’ll die. Phrased that way, I think even most Democrats would say yeah you are morally obligated to take the physical stress and slight uptick in death. How they get out of the implication is by saying the third party isn’t really a human (which is probably true at conception; less so the longer in the pregnancy).

Yes, the example wasn't very real and a bit half-baked but as a thought experiment youre obliged to take it as it is. The point is there's a compulsion element from the state on the individual in banning abortion. This kind of thing normally raises the hackles of an average republican but doesn't seem to register in this case. Murder is also a misframing because the cost of not committing murder is zero.

Compulsion is one way of seeing it. Another way is merely preventing someone from killing someone.

It all rests on personhood I suppose and the current social contract is pretty clear on what a person is as far as I can tell.

It seems most people draw the line around 15 weeks