apologies made to all but the right person

[ED MCNALLY]

In <4fnmp7$cds at ccshst05.cs.uoguelph.ca> sophiewi at uoguelph.ca (Sophie
Wilson) writes: 
>
>ED MCNALLY (cruyff at ix.netcom.com) wrote:
>:     2. My words were discounted simply because I am a man.  Reverse 
  
>:        discrimination against men by some will not help resolve any 
  
>:        oppression leveled against women.  
>
>Ed's words were "discounted" (I like this image: like "70% off!")
because 
>he was a man, offering another way to deal with pregnancy.  If the
rest 
>of you don't mind -- I'd like to persue this.
>
>Do we have to value all opinions/insight at the same ("100%") level? 
Or 
>are some sources more value-able than others?  I would have thought
the 
>pro-choice movement would argue exactly that:  a woman's opinion of
her 
>own abilities to cope with a baby, and her own insight into the whole 
>abortion/life question, are more valid than anyone else's.  More valid

>than a doctor's, and more valid than a politician's, and more valid
than 
>any other man or woman who is not in her shoes.  That's why 
>she should get to choose, and politicians and doctors and other people

>(even though she's 
>outnumbered by them on a straight everyone-is-equal basis) don't get
to 
>choose for her.  Anyone whose own experience resembles hers may
perhaps 
>have some insight (i.e. women - since their experience resembles hers 
>more closely than men's?) -- but hers is the ultimate viewpoint.
>
>No, I'm not keen on starting an abortion flame war, either.  But I
find 
>this a very difficult and worthwhile issue to consider.  Whose
opinions 
>count?  Whose can be discounted?  Is discounting ever valid?



        My point, once again, was that I only provided information on
an option, without a command to do anything.

        If we were talking of only one life (that of the woman), then
you would be correct -  a woman's opinion should count for more. 
However, the whole point of the Pro-Life stance is that the woman is
not the only life to be considered. As much as you may disagree with
them, Pro-Lifers are people who are of the opinion that someone should
speak for the unborn who are unable to speak.

        Again, I am responding (minimally) to what was written.  I do
not wish to use this as a forum for the abortion debate.  I would
certainly be willing to do soin another, more appropriate newsgroup. 
However, I think that enough distracts from the purpose of this group,
to provide a human resource to help women-in-bio.  As a teacher, I
initially accessed this group in the hopes of finding information which
might be of assistance to my female students.