2-7-89 . . . Amazing. I got a letter from a Flagstaff prosecutor, John Verkamp, concerning my essay “Abortion Fallacies”, which recently appeared in Arizona Attorney. In my essay, I mentioned a case in which a Flagstaff man killed both his girlfriend and her twenty-two week old fetus. He was charged with two counts of murder, one for the woman and one for the fetus, but the count concerning the fetus was dismissed by the trial judge. At trial, he was convicted of murdering his girlfriend. But the dismissal of the other count is now on appeal. The issue is whether a fetus is a “person” for purposes of Arizona law. If so, then the man can be charged with murder for killing the fetus; otherwise not. The most amazing thing is that Verkamp has filed a copy of my essay with the Arizona Court of Appeals—as a “secondary authority”! Wait until my students hear about this! They’ll see that philosophy can indeed change the world.
Twenty Years Ago
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