Language and Abortion  Blue Eagle editorial March 1999 One of the problems we encounter while discussing abortion is in the use of emotion-laden terminology. "Murder" and "homicide" are legal terms, and in a legal sense apply only to the killing of human beings who are legally "persons under the law." In various cultures at various times in human history Negroes, non-Christians, non-Moslems, slaves, and others were unprotected by law, so that killing them was not considered murder -- because it was not illegal. In the Roman Republic, for instance, a male head of household (pater familias) had the legal power of life and death over his slaves, and over his wife and children as well (the Roman state had no legal authority over intra-family affairs).  But the words "murder" and "homicide" have colloquial meaning as well. When pro-life people say "murder" they usually mean it in its colloquial sense, and when they say "homicide" they mean it in its literal sense -- the killing of a human being.
In any meaningful discussion of abortion, therefore, confusion over terminology should be avoided by limiting the discussion to the relevant questions: Notice that 2 and 3 are different questions, but quite often (if not usually) participants in arguments concerning abortion do not make the distinction. Sources: Click here to see books about the abortion controversy. Click here for an index of other Blue Eagle editorials. 
|
