Anti-abortion messages often rely heavily on name-calling, but the immorality of abortion is not simply a subjective ideal. It's an application of a principle with thousands of years of legal precedent: the easement.
Easement is the legal right of an individual to use another's property, sometimes without permission. For example, if a farmer must cross another's land to reach the nearest town, he has partial claim on the part of the land he crosses. This claim is strengthened if there is any kind of implied permission on the part of the owner--such as having allowed the farmer to cross many times before.
In order for anyone to pass from conception to infancy, he or she must pass through another's property, that is, the mother's womb. Rights of easement are based at least partly on need, and the child's life depends on this passage. Thus, from a need-to-cross perspective, children have more right to the womb than any farmer ever had to a dirt road. Furthermore, allowing the egg to be fertilized in the first place may be interpreted as a type of implied permission to cross. According to the tradition of easement, the mother is obligated to allow the person to pass without interference.
No one needs to shout slogans about murdering babies to fight legalizing abortion. Besides the religious and philosophical objections we should all have to it, the law is clear about the right to pass through another's private property when one's livelihood, or one's life, is at stake.
Easement is the legal right of an individual to use another's property, sometimes without permission. For example, if a farmer must cross another's land to reach the nearest town, he has partial claim on the part of the land he crosses. This claim is strengthened if there is any kind of implied permission on the part of the owner--such as having allowed the farmer to cross many times before.
In order for anyone to pass from conception to infancy, he or she must pass through another's property, that is, the mother's womb. Rights of easement are based at least partly on need, and the child's life depends on this passage. Thus, from a need-to-cross perspective, children have more right to the womb than any farmer ever had to a dirt road. Furthermore, allowing the egg to be fertilized in the first place may be interpreted as a type of implied permission to cross. According to the tradition of easement, the mother is obligated to allow the person to pass without interference.
No one needs to shout slogans about murdering babies to fight legalizing abortion. Besides the religious and philosophical objections we should all have to it, the law is clear about the right to pass through another's private property when one's livelihood, or one's life, is at stake.
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