Thursday, March 08, 2012

The Non-Persons by Philip K. Dick

A PDF of Philip K. Dick's short stories, including one called The Non-Persons, is available here:

http://www.octobot.net/library/Dick,%20Philip%20K/Dick,%20Philip%20K%20-%20The%20Eye%20of%20Sibyl%20and%20Other%20Stories.pdf


One of the short stories in this compilation is The Non-Persons. I haven't read it, but it was brought to my attention by someone who wrote an essay about a couple of doctors, one of them from Oxford, who were proslethyzing "after-birth abortions" - that is, babies who are actually born can be aborted for any reason - even if they're perfectly healthy - because they don't become "persons" until they're actually old enough to comprehend what's going on around them.

(The article was called Oxford's Nazi Doctors - a misnomer: http://frontpagemag.com/2012/03/05/oxfords-nazi-scientists/)

Now - I admit that that is bushwa!

And I doubt if anyone except these two whackos would go along with this.

(On the other hand, once a kid has reached age 18 and has been violent since age 12, or whatever, I would think it's pretty obvious he - or she - will never be a contributing member to society. I'd have no problem aborting those schmucks! Or indeed, anyone convicted of a capital crime for which there is absolutely no doubt that they are guilty....)

The author of the abortion commentary was trying to make the point that the pro-lifers do. "IF a baby can be aborted at 3 months, why not 6 months, 9 months, right after birth, etc."

I can't help but think that that's a strawman argument. No one - except the insane - would want to abort a healthy child once it is born. Babies that aren't healthy = well, that's another issue.

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