In article ,
"Ed Huntress" wrote:

"Gus" wrote in message
ups.com...

[snip]

And can't there be ethical questions outside of
religion?

Certainly there are. But almost all of the ones that give trouble in
medicine come from religion.

I'm reminded of an old friend of mine, taught by the Jesuits and
Harvard-educated, an old-time Catholic, who says his God "is an angry God."
g He prefers the Old Testament. And then I was reading today a reference
to a passage from Deuteronomy 21:10 that they must have skipped in parochial
school, but which I had read as an adult, in which the Bible proclaims a
right to capture women in battle, shave their heads, lock them up for a
month, rape them into matrimony, and then deny them the right to an abortion
afterward.

I too looked into the bibles available to me, the King James and Young's
Literal Translation, which say more or less the same thing. It's a
statement of either custom and/or law on the handling of captive women,
in the context of the day.

But I cannot see anything about denial of abortion rights, or even the
slightest most oblique reference to the issue. Could you help me find
the thread here? I must say that the reference to abortion mystified
me, as these verses have to be 5,000 years old, long before medical
abortion became remotely practical.

Joe Gwinn


Words from Young's Literal Translation:

Deuteronomy 21

1`When one is found slain on the ground which Jehovah thy God is
giving to thee to possess it -- fallen in a field -- it is not known who
hath smitten him,

2 then have thine elders and thy judges gone out and measured unto
the cities which [are] round about the slain one,

3 and it hath been, the city which [is] near unto the slain one, even
the elders of that city have taken a heifer of the herd, which hath not
been wrought with, which hath not drawn in the yoke,

4 and the elders of that city have brought down the heifer unto a
hard valley, which is not tilled nor sown, and have beheaded there the
heifer in the valley.

5`And the priests, sons of Levi, have come nigh -- for on them hath
Jehovah thy God fixed to serve Him, and to bless in the name of Jehovah,
and by their mouth is every strife, and every stroke --

6 and all the elders of that city, who are near unto the slain one,
do wash their hands over the heifer which is beheaded in the valley,

7 and they have answered and said, Our hands have not shed this
blood, and our eyes have not seen --

8 receive atonement for Thy people Israel, whom Thou hast ransomed, O
Jehovah, and suffer not innocent blood in the midst of Thy people
Israel; and the blood hath been pardoned to them,

9 and thou dost put away the innocent blood out of thy midst, for
thou dost that which [is] right in the eyes of Jehovah.

10`When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and Jehovah
thy God hath given them into thy hand, and thou hast taken captive its
captivity,

11 and hast seen in the captivity a woman of fair form, and hast
delighted in her, and hast taken to thee for a wife,

12 then thou hast brought her in unto the midst of thy household, and
she hath shaved her head, and prepared her nails,

13 and turned aside the raiment of her captivity from off her, and
hath dwelt in thy house, and bewailed her father and her mother a month
of days, and afterwards thou dost go in unto her and hast married her,
and she hath been to thee for a wife:

14`And it hath been -- if thou hast not delighted in her, that thou
hast sent her away at her desire, and thou dost not at all sell her for
money; thou dost not tyrannize over her, because that thou hast humbled
her.

15`When a man hath two wives, the one loved and the other hated, and
they have borne to him sons (the loved one and the hated one), and the
first-born son hath been to the hated one;

16 then it hath been, in the day of his causing his sons to inherit
that which he hath, he is not able to declare first-born the son of the
loved one, in the face of the son of the hated one -- the first-born.

17 But the first-born, son of the hated one, he doth acknowledge, to
give to him a double portion of all that is found with him, for he [is]
the beginning of his strength; to him [is] the right of the first-born.

18`When a man hath a son apostatizing and rebellious -- he is not
hearkening to the voice of his father, and to the voice of his mother,
and they have chastised him, and he doth not hearken unto them --

19 then laid hold on him have his father and his mother, and they
have brought him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of
his place,

20 and have said unto the elders of his city, Our son -- this one --
is apostatizing and rebellious; he is not hearkening to our voice -- a
glutton and drunkard;

21 and all the men of his city have stoned him with stones, and he
hath died, and thou hast put away the evil out of thy midst, and all
Israel do hear and fear.

22`And when there is in a man a sin -- a cause of death, and he hath
been put to death, and thou hast hanged him on a tree,

23 his corpse doth not remain on the tree, for thou dost certainly
bury him in that day -- for a thing lightly esteemed of God [is] the
hanged one -- and thou dost not defile thy ground which Jehovah thy God
is giving to thee -- an inheritance.

End of Deut 21. Source is http://bibleresources.bible.com/.