Unintended Consequences of Oklahoma/Virginia Personhood Law: USA
Road to Hell is paved with Good Intentions
To curry favor with religious right and anti-abortionist, lawmakers in Oklahoma have passed a personhood law – basically defining a fertilized human egg as a person, so that its destruction by any medical or contraceptive procedure is criminalized.
Accepting the good intentions of people behind this initiative is very difficult.
(Update: similar silly law has been passed in Virginia http://dcist.com/2012/02/virginia_personhood_law_raises_conc.php and more are in work in other states)
Law of Unintended Consequences
This is politics at its worst – there is no “application of mind” behind this policy, leading to multiple unintended consequences:
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Creating a new class of crime and potential criminals
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Debase respect for law and Oklahoma lawmakers among public at large.
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Forcing the Census bureau to count each fertilized egg as person for census purposes
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Create more divisions in society and focus more energy on such ventures rather bringing people together to solve many pressing problems.
Suggested Solution
Apart from repealing this measure, there seems to be no other way out.
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