Griper Blade: Romanian Roulette

Abortion is often cast as a matter of life and death. But this idea of life beginning at the point of conception -- a purely philosophical view -- brings us to impasses over other issues like stem cell research. In his first veto of stem cell legislation -- at that point, his only veto -- President Bush said, "...we must also remember that embryonic stem cells come from human embryos that are destroyed for their cells. Each of these human embryos is a unique human life with inherent dignity and matchless value."

People like myself wondered how Bush could get all bent out of shape over human life that was entirely theoretical, while blowing the crap out of real, non-theoretical human life in Iraq. Consistency has never been his strong point. But this was just one example of how the hypothesis that life begins at conception could be taken to absurd extremes.

When we talk about abortion as a matter of life and death, somehow we've become convinced that there's only one life involved -- the hypothetical unborn one. But there's another, actual life involved -- one that no one argues doesn't actually exist -- that of the woman...

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