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Entry: Life Beyond the Party Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/life_beyond_the_party#21289 Post contents: Dan is the only author to my knowledge, if one excludes the relevant references in my monograph on the American Right, who has adressed Ponnuru's problem when he argues against abortion rights from a Jaffaite version of Lockean natural right. P's position, however, is less rigorously presented than that of Murray Rothbard and Walter Block, who arrive at the proper Lockean conclusion, that the sentient gestator has a natural right to evict the unwanted guest in her womb. In Ponnuru's lachrymose version, Jaffaite equality trumps other considerations by providing the non-reflective fetus with a right to life. It is unclear, however, how this right to equal treatment can be considered more important tha the pregnant woman's right to avoid carrying around an unwanted mass of flesh for nine months. The only way out of the dispute would come with public recognition, confirmed or dramatized by law,that the fetus has human status and is therefore to be protected against homicide. For those who do not accept the humanity of the fetus, serving up rhetoric about human equality would prove nothing. Sent at: 2008 08 21