OPINION:
The commissioners of Marion County, Ore., have declared that they will not accept fetal material for burning in their incinerator (“Oregon politicos put emergency stop to using aborted fetuses for electricity,” Web, April 25). Yet, since the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion decision, an estimated 56,000,000 abortions have generated roughly 3.5 million pounds of this medical waste. How could anyone now object to the disposal of this waste?
This decision comes in spite of the Supreme Court rulings declaring that all fetuses not viable outside the womb can be extracted. Therefore, before viability, isn’t removing the fetus equivalent to any other surgical removal? When legality provides such moral certitude, isn’t burning this material acceptable?
The advances of science over the past 40 years should not be a concern. Granted, in an office today one woman may excitedly present the framed ultrasound of the “baby” she and her husband have conceived and already named. Another woman looking on may have recently aborted a fetus more mature than the one depicted. However, doesn’t the legal ruling provide the assurance needed to celebrate both events simultaneously?
I am sure some will make the comparison between this situation and the Nazis cremating millions of their victims during the Holocaust. However, such misdirected passions must fall before the moral certainty provided to 300 million people by the deliberations of seven brilliant individuals on the Supreme Court. Surely, our intellectual soundness has evolved sufficiently that ancient religions or philosophies should not intrude upon our society and its legal bulwarks.
NOLAN NELSON
Eugene, Ore.
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