I have to admit that when I first heard about the proposed amendment to the Colorado Constitution that would redefine "person" to include human embryos from the moment of fertilization, I got a little excited. It wasn't for any of the reasons you might expect from a normal person, though--it was because I foresaw a HUGE legal glitch. You see, if the Colorado Constitution defined "person" in that way for purposes of Colorado law, there would have been a teeny, tiny problem: the state's murder statute would have been effectively rewritten to include first-trimester fetuses and would thus have violated the current interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. Just like that, the statute could have been struck down and all murder could have been legal in Colorado.
I guess I wasn't the only one who thought of this, though, because the proposed amendment DOESN'T redefine "person" for purposes of all Colorado law: it only redefines the word as it's used in specific provisions of the Constitution.
Thus, no major legal snafu...just a whole lot of nothin'.
The provisions specified are, of course, those that relate to inalienable rights and such...but what to do? Life, for instance, is an inalienable right. And the Colorado Constitution may well be amended to extend that inalienable right to a fetus at the moment of conception. But then what? The current interpretation of the U.S. Constitution--the interpretation that's prevailed for decades--says that states can't limit the right to elective abortion in the first trimester. Thus, the state of Colorado can deem that unborn child a "person" and say it can't be deprived of life without due process of law, but what due process is available? The only due process permissible under the U.S. Constitution would be a hearing or other process to determine that the woman was, in fact, in the first trimester of her pregnancy. Once that was determined, the U.S. Constitution would prevent any further regulation of her access to an abortion.
Doesn't do that "person" a whole lot of good to have been renamed, does it?
Naturally, lawmakers and lobbyists alike know this. So what are they doing? What's the point of spending time and money and commanding the time and attention of Colorado voters as if this were a serious issue, when they all know that the practical effect of the amendment will be nonexistant?
I guess it looks good on a resume.
9 comments:
The purpose of Amendment 48 is to fire up James Dobson's worshipers to get out and vote. While they're there, they may as well vote for John McCain and VP.
You'd think knocking on doors might be more logical.
Hi,
I've followed your contributions to BC discussions for a long time. I enjoyed reading your prospective on Amendment 48.
Best Wishes,
Lisa
I think 48 is about limiting women's right to proper medical care and making choices with her doctor. If something will help save a women's life or her health, the DR may not be able to do it if it hurts the "person" inside her. A mass of cells the size of a dime with no heartbeat will have just as many or more rights than a woman. That's how they see us, baby machines first, maybe people second. This isn't even pro-life, it's anti-woman.
Anonymous, that may well be the intent, but at present it's legally impossible for the Amendment to have that effect. Under the current interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, the restriction you describe cannot occur.
I don't really know what this amendment itself can do, but I believe it is a start in ending abortion completely. It says nothing about aborting a baby to save the mother. Since the Roe v. Wade trial, something like 50 million babies have been aborted. A small fraction of those would be because of rape or to save the mother. The rest are of people who don't want to take responsiblity for their actions. If they don't want a baby then don't have sex or get on birth control. It is ridiculous to use abortion as a form of birth control because it is already a baby. It already has been fertilized. Like i said I'm not sure what this amendment will do, but I am strongly against abortion as a form of birth control for people who don't take responsibility.
Just a note. If this passes most forms of birth control will be illegal.....think about it.
i think that law would work in a defacto way like colorado decriminalizes marajuana, that even though marajuana is illegal in colorado there is a culture that nobody takes it seriously much like the abortion side of things that would set the tone rather than the law for local politics in the fiercly indivdualistic mentality that colorado likes to keep its distance from the feds and their word
"Just a note. If this passes most forms of birth control will be illegal.....think about it."
Actually, anonymous, it wouldn't. That's the whole point of this post. The amendment would make a fetus a person, period. It wouldn't make abortion illegal, and it wouldn't make birth control illegal--it couldn't, because the United States Supreme Court has already ruled that states may not interfere with those rights except under certain specific circumstances. The passage of this amendment would have NO impact on abortion law---which is why I have to wonder whether there's any point to it at all, except that it helps to get people stirred up.
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