X-Message-Number: 15232 From: "Dani Kollin" <> Subject: RE: Roman ethics #15171 Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2001 12:31:38 +0200 Again my apologies for the late replies. The twins, while a blessing, are teaching me the meaning of sleep deprivation. To make matters more interesting my 3 year old daughter has decided that NOW is the time to not wear diapers at night ("that's for babies!") So in addition to the hourly wake up holler we get from Yonaton and Gavriel we're now getting the change the sheets and PJs encounter as well (in the - pun intended - wee hours of the morning). Whew! Not that I'm complaining ;) Dani <SNIP> As for throwing babies down toilets, what do we know that the Romans didn't know? Perhaps indeed it wasn't really wrong for them in their time; after all, they were very successful. (And by "wrong" here, I really can't mean anything more than "I disapprove", since there isn't any "good book" for me to consult.) How different is it really from an abortion? As for me, the baby died rather quickly, and there are evolutionary reasons to believe that it didn't suffer much. Wow, Lee, that's quite a loaded question. How different is the destruction of an embryo (let's call it first term since most of all abortion are in fact first term) from a breathing, living crying being? Without getting too much into _thee_ debate I'd say quite different. <SNIP> What is different today is our incredible wealth! We can afford to support undesired children (whereas perhaps the Romans could not). Being perhaps one of the wealthiest empires in terms of of the times, in fact they could. <SNIP> I submit that we should regard each human life as quite valuable, and praise those (who we call parents) who rescue people from non-existence. In other words, abortion is bad because someone doesn't get to live---but it's not quite as bad as failing to conceive in the first place, for which a lot of us are guilty. I'm not _even_ going to go there. <SNIP> My mother was the last of ten children, and my father was the fifth-born in his family. Thank goodness that no one ever thought of planned parenthood back then! Absolutely Lee (aboslute lee?). The appreciation of your presence not only here but amongst those you love is a testament to the above. Dani Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=15232