News of the Weird

[thewayne]

Just a little bit of weirdness this week. For me, the second bit was amusing, but the first part I found quite frightening. Hail the advent of the Back Alley Saturday Night Special Abortion. When are these legislative asshats going to develop reasonable attitudes to birth control, abortion, and sex ed?

(1) In October, a judge freed Tammy Skinner, 22, of Suffolk, Va., who had been charged with killing her unborn, third-trimester child by shooting herself in the abdomen. The judge said Virginia's anti-abortion law, like those of other states, makes criminals of doctors and others who abort third-trimester fetuses (absent special medical circumstances) but exempt the mother herself. (2) Lawrence Roach of Seminole, Fla., complained in October that the $1,200 monthly alimony payments he has been making to his ex-wife should end, now that she has undergone a sex-change. Said Roach, "I'm a man, and I don't want to be paying alimony to a man." (Legal experts were pessimistic about his chances.) [ABC News, 10-19-06] [BayNews9.com (Tampa-St. Petersburg), 10-4-06]

Comments

[fastlearner.livejournal.com]

I agree that abortion laws are ridiculous, but I'm not big on third-trimester abortions. By then you've almost always got a viable baby in there, everything intact, brain working, etc. I'm a pro-choice guy, but I'm not sure where I draw the line... I don't think "anything prior to birth" is necessarily ok, there's got to be a pre-birth point where society considers it a viable human, surely.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

There's really a dearth of information on that one. We don't know if she was refused abortions, if she couldn't afford one, what her mental state was, etc.

I agree that there should be a point where an embryo is considered viable, but you'll probably find as much contention as to what that point is as there is with global warming and a few other sciences. I also agree that third trimester shouldn't be done unless it's found that it will probably kill the mother to deliver. Even so, it gets into the realm of treading on patient rights.

[fastlearner.livejournal.com]

All true, our not knowing the circumstances, and like I said, we're certainly in synch about the inanity of the current laws and culture.

Drawing that line is indeed nearly impossible.