Ordinarily, I take about 60 seconds to resolve entirely the  subject of the column. But so-called issue of Abortion is  so obviously manipulated and contorted into an issue, that  it won't take more than 30 seconds to wipe it right off the  table as the subject for any further discussion.

    Right off the bat, the core question to be answered is  not whether Abortion is permissible, whether it is a  woman's private decision concerning a matter totally  personal, relating only to her private personhood.

    The true and only core question which  you must answer in order to resolve the issue for you  forever is: is a fetus human?

    Don't pooh-pooh. It is the heart, the soul, if you  will, of the issue. And it's answer, is the answer to any  debate, any controversy about terminations of pregnancy.

    Simply, if a fetus is not human, but rather a thing,  not yet alive, not its own entity, then there is no problem;  abortion is absolutely permissible, personal, private, a matter affecting no one but the pregnant woman.

    On the other hand, if a fetus is human, is it's own  totally independent being, requiring only nurture and  shelter, hotel accommodations, if you permit the homely  reference for a moment, if a fetus is indeed human,  abortion is murder.

    Many a woman reader has already bridled at the above  'hotel accommodations' reference. Yet, is there more? The  man provides the semen; the woman the egg - both equally  essential ingredients for procreation. And at the very  instant of conception, all facets of the future human  being, all its genes, all it features, its hair and eye  color, its height, weight, all its everything are set  forever. It has all it shall ever have - needing only  nurture and shelter to continue to birth. That the fetus is  vulnerable, helpless without continued nurture and shelter,  does not make it non-human. What adult, what human, of  whatever age, can long remain alive, without nurture and  shelter?

    Thus, there is no need whatsoever to resolve the question of  abortion. What needs determination is the simple question:  is the fetus a human being? Once resolved, all the  activists on both sides of the abortion hostilities can  fold their signs, unload their guns, and go home: abortion  becomes a non-issue.

    I told you I'd resolve the abortion conundrum in less  than 30 seconds. I didn't say I'd resolve the humanity  issue.

    Some reader, feeling let down by the simplicity of the  solution, will say, the fetus is not ipso facto, a human at conception, the fetus becomes human at some later point  in the course to gestation.

    Fine!

    All that has to be decided, then, is at what moment  humanity begins. If it does not occur at the moment of  conception, then when? Remember, everything except growth  is already set for all time at conception - even the length  of the future potential life. But, for discussion sake, when? At  the beginning of heart beat? At the forming of the brain?  At the opening of the eyes?
At some point, the fetus becomes human. And at that  point, the question of the propriety of aborting  (terminating the life of) that human resolves itself.

    Perhaps if you view this discussion from a different  point of view, it will come more easily into focus. Compare  the reasoning concerning abortion with that of the decision of the United  States Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case.

    What? Didn't the Dred Scott decision deal with Slavery? What  in hell does slavery in the 1800s have to do with abortion?

    In Dred Scott, the Supreme Court decided that Black  slaves could be transported across state lines by their  'owners' since slaves were considered chattels, not humans, as such they were private property, work machines owned by their plantation  owners. In today's world, such reasoning is preposterous.  Every fool knows a human is not, can not be property.

    But if a slave were property, then, the  proposition  that an 'owner' would be free to own or dispose of his or  her private 'property`, separate families (the idea of a  family of work machines is ridiculous), sell them freely,  and at will, is perfectly logical.

    That Supreme Court decision held together, so long as the slave  was not human, merely property.

    You see it now, don't you. If a fetus is not an  independent human, but merely property, a thing carried at  the will and whim of the mother human, then certainly, it's  'owner' is free to own or dispose of her private 'property'  freely, at will, arbitrarily.

    But if there is humanity! Aye, there's the rub.

    What makes a slave human? What makes a fetus human?

    These are not the questions with which I set out to  deal. I said I would eliminate the issue of abortion. And,  indeed, I have. It is not the issue at all.

    In sum, then: a woman is totally free to dispose of her  private property freely, at will, even arbitrarily -  including her unborn fetus, except...except if a fetus is  human, in which case, abortion is murder.

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