However, I think the second paragraph is somewhat misleading. One can distinguish abortion and murder, and still oppose abortion. Saying "abortion isn't murder" doesn't mean "abortion should always be legal". Assisting a suicide isn't murder, but it's still criminal.
Drawing legal lines across a continuum isn't so rare. What we usually do in cases like this is to define a hierarchy of lesser offenses, for instance. I think people are right to be queasy about late-term abortion, and while I'll stipulate that it isn't the same as murder, that doesn't mean it's beyond the realm of social regulation.
Also, I see no objective difference between infanticide and homicide, while the authors seem to imply that such exists.
![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tim's journal
(no subject)
Date: 2007-11-13 03:58 am (UTC)However, I think the second paragraph is somewhat misleading. One can distinguish abortion and murder, and still oppose abortion. Saying "abortion isn't murder" doesn't mean "abortion should always be legal". Assisting a suicide isn't murder, but it's still criminal.
Drawing legal lines across a continuum isn't so rare. What we usually do in cases like this is to define a hierarchy of lesser offenses, for instance. I think people are right to be queasy about late-term abortion, and while I'll stipulate that it isn't the same as murder, that doesn't mean it's beyond the realm of social regulation.
Also, I see no objective difference between infanticide and homicide, while the authors seem to imply that such exists.