People
People
People who need people
Are the luckiest people in the world
We're children, needing other children
And yet letting a grown-up pride
Hide all the need inside
Acting more like children than children
Is a fetus people?
This is not just an idle question but is at the heart of the whole Roe v. Wade debate. I was raised a Catholic. As such I believe that life begins at conception and therefore
a fetus is a life. But that does not mean a fetus is one of the People according
to the US Constitution, and despite what the Supreme Court might have said,
that makes all of the difference.
The US Constitution outlines how “We the People of
“Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among
the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their
respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of
free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding
Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.”
“Other” persons were chattel slaves and slavery was of course abolished
by the 13th Amendment, so there are no longer "other" Persons. The language goes on how to establish the counting of people.
The actual Enumeration shall be made
within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United
States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they
shall by Law direct.
That law is the US
Census. That law may classify the People by race, age,
gender, nationality, citizenship, etc., but they are all still Persons. It
does NOT enumerate fetuses as persons. (It also does not enumerate Corporations as Persons, but that is
another matter).
A fetus may be a life but is NOT constitutionally People. I personally do not have a problem with
that. Ending a life is not just classified as Murder. It can be, and is, legally classified as Murder by various degrees, Voluntary
Manslaughter, Involuntary Manslaughter, Execution, Suicide, Accident, or …Abortion.
Abortion may be ending the life of a
fetus but it can not legally be Murder unless the victim is a person. It might not
legally be Murder if the fetus is a person, but it could be one of the other classifications.
Abortion does not have to be listed as a right in the Constitution to be a right,
if the “victim” is not People. The Court of Popular Opinion may think that think
that O.J. Simpson is a Murderer, but a California Court found him legally Not Guilty of Murder. IMHO, the Supreme Court
has confused its role with the Court of Popular Opinion.
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