Sean Parr
A petition to the United States government from the victims of the institution of abortion
By Sean Parr
To the members of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the United States government. Gentlemen and ladies – you have the right idea. You hold firm to the notion that the natural rights of persons should not be suppressed. There is nothing to say against this contention of yours other than that it must be thought through to its logical conclusion, for we are alive and, more than this, we are persons. We thus offer to you this document as a reminder that our rights are being violated and that we, hampered as we are by the realities of our youth, are incapable of protecting them. We ask, then, that the law afford us the same protections that it affords other persons. We ask for consistency. We ask for evenhandedness. In short, we ask for the rule of law to prevail.
Those in favor of abortion rights do not often claim that we fetuses are not living organisms, but some, erroneously and in apathy, may offer that it cannot be definitively known whether or not we are. This line of thinking is lazy and mistaken. However suppose, arguendo, that we fetuses could not be known to be a life; that our life status could not be proven. Would it be good, right, wise, or justified – gentlemen and ladies – to, on the basis of this agnostic platform, make legal decisions in this regard the result of which is the potential loss of millions of innocent lives? This seems an important question for lawmakers to ponder as the prevailing obligation of a just government is to ensure the best that it can that the natural rights of its people are not violated.
And while there are few who deny that babes in the womb constitute life – that we meet all requirements of living organisms – there are many and more who maintain that we are nonetheless not entitled to protection against rights-violations. These brutes aver that though we may, perhaps, be human beings, we are certainly not persons; that while persons are valuable, mere human beings can be killed at whim or are, at least, not welcome to the sort of rights-respect reserved for persons. Our lives are therefore forfeit.
Do we somehow have less value as persons because of our size in relation to you? If so, do you, members of the U.S. government, have less value as persons because of your size in relation to larger folk?
Do we somehow have less value as persons because we are less developed than you? If so, during which stage of development may we breathe a sigh of relief? Do abortion rights extend into infancy? May we stop looking over our shoulders when we reach Toddlerhood? Are we still in danger as school-aged children? Infants, toddlers, and school-aged children, after all, are less developed than persons of child-bearing years.
Do we somehow have less value as persons because of the environment we are in? If so, does our passage through the birth canal somehow transform us from womb-residing, expendable human beings into rights-worthy, valuable persons? Is the womb the only place where natural rights cannot obtain? In what other environments can we expect our value as persons to disappear?
Do we somehow have less value as persons because we are dependent upon others for food and shelter? If so, in what ways do infants, toddlers, or the infirmed differ from us in this regard? In what ways do beneficiaries of corporate or individual welfare differ? May all of our lives be taken with impunity?
Every reason given by abortion rights advocates that serves to allow the life-taking of fetuses to persist or, worse, devolve into even more depraved oppression, serves also as a reason to allow the violation of the rights of smaller, less developed, arbitrarily located, or dependent persons of all stripes. It amounts to worse than bullying. It amounts to the law turning a blind-eye to those abuses which are its obligation to remedy.
This is the very definition of injustice.
We, having enumerated the niceties of our plight and petitioned for its redress, would now have our signatures affixed to this document – attesting to the truth and horror of our unfortunate position – were we not precluded from so doing by the very nature of our complaint.
With God,
The Victims of the Institution of Abortion
© Sean Parr
April 25, 2014
To the members of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the United States government. Gentlemen and ladies – you have the right idea. You hold firm to the notion that the natural rights of persons should not be suppressed. There is nothing to say against this contention of yours other than that it must be thought through to its logical conclusion, for we are alive and, more than this, we are persons. We thus offer to you this document as a reminder that our rights are being violated and that we, hampered as we are by the realities of our youth, are incapable of protecting them. We ask, then, that the law afford us the same protections that it affords other persons. We ask for consistency. We ask for evenhandedness. In short, we ask for the rule of law to prevail.
Those in favor of abortion rights do not often claim that we fetuses are not living organisms, but some, erroneously and in apathy, may offer that it cannot be definitively known whether or not we are. This line of thinking is lazy and mistaken. However suppose, arguendo, that we fetuses could not be known to be a life; that our life status could not be proven. Would it be good, right, wise, or justified – gentlemen and ladies – to, on the basis of this agnostic platform, make legal decisions in this regard the result of which is the potential loss of millions of innocent lives? This seems an important question for lawmakers to ponder as the prevailing obligation of a just government is to ensure the best that it can that the natural rights of its people are not violated.
And while there are few who deny that babes in the womb constitute life – that we meet all requirements of living organisms – there are many and more who maintain that we are nonetheless not entitled to protection against rights-violations. These brutes aver that though we may, perhaps, be human beings, we are certainly not persons; that while persons are valuable, mere human beings can be killed at whim or are, at least, not welcome to the sort of rights-respect reserved for persons. Our lives are therefore forfeit.
Do we somehow have less value as persons because of our size in relation to you? If so, do you, members of the U.S. government, have less value as persons because of your size in relation to larger folk?
Do we somehow have less value as persons because we are less developed than you? If so, during which stage of development may we breathe a sigh of relief? Do abortion rights extend into infancy? May we stop looking over our shoulders when we reach Toddlerhood? Are we still in danger as school-aged children? Infants, toddlers, and school-aged children, after all, are less developed than persons of child-bearing years.
Do we somehow have less value as persons because of the environment we are in? If so, does our passage through the birth canal somehow transform us from womb-residing, expendable human beings into rights-worthy, valuable persons? Is the womb the only place where natural rights cannot obtain? In what other environments can we expect our value as persons to disappear?
Do we somehow have less value as persons because we are dependent upon others for food and shelter? If so, in what ways do infants, toddlers, or the infirmed differ from us in this regard? In what ways do beneficiaries of corporate or individual welfare differ? May all of our lives be taken with impunity?
Every reason given by abortion rights advocates that serves to allow the life-taking of fetuses to persist or, worse, devolve into even more depraved oppression, serves also as a reason to allow the violation of the rights of smaller, less developed, arbitrarily located, or dependent persons of all stripes. It amounts to worse than bullying. It amounts to the law turning a blind-eye to those abuses which are its obligation to remedy.
This is the very definition of injustice.
We, having enumerated the niceties of our plight and petitioned for its redress, would now have our signatures affixed to this document – attesting to the truth and horror of our unfortunate position – were we not precluded from so doing by the very nature of our complaint.
With God,
The Victims of the Institution of Abortion
© Sean Parr
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