Abortion on Tumblr

[lynnanine]

I’d overlooked that point. Oops. ^^; Is it still a straw man argument when they talk about the woman drinking/smoking/doing unhealthy stuff for the child? The rebuttal I just got was that “When you’re dealing with something as fragile as a pregnancy, even drinking chamomile tea can be considered serious reckless behavior that results in miscarriage, and in this analogy, involuntary manslaughter.”

Which I did look up, and in excess it can cause problems, but not if you moderate it.

 

[Peter_Plato]

I’d overlooked that point. Oops. ^^; Is it still a straw man argument when they talk about the woman drinking/smoking/doing unhealthy stuff for the child? The rebuttal I just got was that “When you’re dealing with something as fragile as a pregnancy, even drinking chamomile tea can be considered serious reckless behavior that results in miscarriage, and in this analogy, involuntary manslaughter.”

Which I did look up, and in excess it can cause problems, but not if you moderate it.

Culpability only comes into play when the person knowingly or negligently does something contrary to what ought to have been done by any reasonable person in their situation. Clear evidence would be required to make someone culpable. Whether drinking chamomile tea has any connection to miscarriage is questionable, so the mere “possibility” that it does is not sufficient to make someone culpable. The actual cause could have been anything. Frankly, to raise these feeble points to heap guilt upon the sadness of women who have suffered miscarriages is the more blameworthy behaviour.

 

[lynnanine]

Ah. Thank you for responding.

 

[DexUK]

The ‘manslaughter’ argument only works if it is as a result of a demonstrable action or omission.

A woman who suffers a miscarriage (and who does not want a miscarriage) does not will it to happen either accidentally or deliberately.

Yes, it’s possible that a woman might do something grossly negligent and thereby cause the miscarriage to happen, and that would certainly be wrong since it would be a willed event, but in most cases miscarriage happens as the result of a natural unbidden process and the cause might never be identified by mother or medicine, therefore there is no culpability. It wasn’t something the mother wanted, therefore there was no forethought, malicious, negligent or otherwise. In most cases, the experience of miscarriage is a time of deep emotional pain (and sometimes physical) and suffering for the parents involved. To call that ‘manslaughter’ is not only specious, it’s deeply and abhorrently insulting and insensitive.