Shneour on Abortion

While rightly attacking creationism and other forms of mysticism, Shneour hoists himself on his own petard when he declares that “Life never stops. It is a continuum . . . .” If he truly believes what he says, then he should be a strident anti-abortionist! For if life is truly a continuum, then to interrupt it at any point must be murder, since an adult is a continuous part of the embryo from which it grows.

Shneour then falls prey to the same line-drawing arguments in his analogies as do others in the abortion debate. Perhaps someone who burns a blueprint is not an arsonist by strict, conventional definitions, but he has burned something . And without that blueprint, the house can never exist to be torched, so isn’t the unintended consequence of burning the blueprint the same as burning the house? Better to argue that the blueprint should never be drawn, which is the argument for effective contraception (or abstinence, for up-tight spoilsports).

At what point does such an act become arson? When one burns the requisition forms for the supplies? When one ignites the unassembled lumber? When one torches the half-assembled frame? And who then is to decide when a house has outlived its usefulness and is to be torn down? And is it arson to torch a house that was found to be defective after it was built?

Analogies only help if they illuminate a new understanding of a problem. Shneour’s arson analogy to abortion does nothing to help resolve an intensely agonizing dilemma faced by millions of women every year.

I wish him luck, however, for he seems to be on the right continuum. Perhaps if he considered only the unmerged sperm and egg to be the blueprints, and the embryo to be a tiny bungalow with new additions constantly being made, he might gain new insights into arson and abortion.

VICTOR KOMAN

Long Beach