valarltd: (Default)
valarltd ([personal profile] valarltd) wrote2004-03-01 01:40 pm

Thinking my thinks

I can't seem to get as worked up about a lot of issues as a lot of people can.
I suspect it's from reading too much SF.

Polygamous marriage? Sure. i was reading that at 15 in Robert heinlein's Friday. What's the problem? OK, the divorce got ugly, and none of the women ever understood how the guys decided who tospend the night with.

Gay marriage? Confronted that at 17 in Julian May's Pliocene books, and later in her Milieu books. Kind of took it for granted that this was coming.

Cloning? Yeah. It's kind of a given. Reprotech advances? So?

OTOH, I can't get too worked up about the Unborn victims of Violence act. Around here, they call it a "downtown abortion" when a guy gets a bunch of his buddies to beat his girlfriend into a misscarriage or until she dies, whichever comes first. It's just taken for granted in some areas that if you're pregnant you'll get beaten.

Friend of mine was a target of an assault directed at her solely because she was pregnant. Her little guy lived a day after she miscarried him (she was 6 mo) and is buried in the family plot. She could only prosecute the guy for her attempted murder, and not for trying to kill the baby.

Since homicide is the leading killer of pregnant women, i think being able to prosecute twice as hard would be a good thing.

[identity profile] yonmei.livejournal.com 2004-03-01 10:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Since homicide is the leading killer of pregnant women, i think being able to prosecute twice as hard would be a good thing.

You mean so that illegal abortion would become the leading killer of pregnant women instead?

[identity profile] valarltd.livejournal.com 2004-03-01 10:55 pm (UTC)(link)
What do you think the homicides are?

It's got a clause in there that women can't be prosecuted for aborting.

But should a man who kill a woman for no reason other than the fact she's pregnant not face 2 counts of murder? He knows he killed two people. That's why he did it.

[identity profile] yonmei.livejournal.com 2004-03-02 03:58 am (UTC)(link)
If a foetus isn't a person (and I believe that a foetus isn't a person) then no, a man who beats a woman so that she miscarries cannot be charged with murder. (He can and he should be charged with assault in the most heinous degree - I am not attempting to say his crime isn't horrible, just saying that it isn't murder unless the woman dies, and it can't be a double count of murder.)

[identity profile] kc-risenphoenix.livejournal.com 2004-03-04 08:57 am (UTC)(link)
Hey there!

I am not familiar with Julian May's Pliocene books, and later in her Milieu books.

I wonder if I can find them..?

[identity profile] valarltd.livejournal.com 2004-03-04 09:52 am (UTC)(link)
The books should be read in order as an alternate history/future.

The Surveillance
The Metaconcert
Jack the Bodiless
Diamond Mask
Magnificat
The Many Colored-Land
The Golden Torc
The Nonborn King
The Adversary.

The same-sex wedding is either in Diamond Mask or Magnificat (been a while). Dorothea MacDonald (Diamond Mask) has a brother Ken. He marries Luc Remillard.
The last four feature a female athlete in love with a nun, who returns it, but won't go physical.
And a pairbonded couple name Gert and Hansi, and an Elizabthan dragqueen called Mr. Betsy.

Very gay friendly.