Author: unitedfamilies

have often argued that, as a matter of logic and intuition, the widespread legalization of assisted suicide will increase both the rate of assisted suicides and the rate of unassisted suicides. After all, many people conflate what is “legal” with what is “right.” Once a state gives its imprimatur to assisted suicide as a way of alleviating suffering and providing “medical aid in dying,” as it is euphemistically called, an ever-increasing number of people will resort to that means of ending their lives. And indeed, some recent studies suggest that in places where assisted suicide is legal, both assisted suicides and unassisted suicides increase.

If a woman chooses to abort, should she be prosecuted for murder? Should her decision be criminalized? Is any legal regime that doesn’t criminalize women who obtain an abortion fundamentally unjust? Should she be forced to carry a pregnancy even if doing so endangers her life? If you answer “yes” to any of those questions, then you’re an abortion “abolitionist,” and you’re sadly misguided.