[Peace-discuss] Emergency contraception

[Bob Illyes]

I want to second what Susan said, and add a few comments.

About 300 years ago, John Locke wrote his second treatise on
civil government, an early and seminal development of the
concept of human rights, and one which lead to the rights
presented in the Declaration of Independence and the
American Bill of Rights. Locke is sometimes criticized for
proposing "property-based" rights. But the fundamental
property he built rights on was the property in ones own
body. Since women have achieved full citizenship, they also
legally own their own bodies. It is no more legally correct
to demand that a woman be powerless to terminate a pregnancy
than it is to demand that I be forced to give a kidney to
save the life of someone I do not wish to give it to.

Let's be clear here- we're arguing not about whether a
fertilized ovum is a person or not, but about whether a woman
owns her own body. Only if she doesn't can we properly argue
about whether or not her body should be occupied by an
unwelcome guest. Even if there were consensus that a
fertilized ovum were a person, which there definitely is not,
that personhood would give the ovum no claim on another's body.

I declare for Locke, for the Enlightenment, and for woman.

Bob