How wonderful for Tom Paine to accuse his mother of life. Hmmm. Tom Paines response says a whole lot about his "quality" of life. I for one am grateful!

James Aust, a problem with foster care and state orphanages is that they treat children as property. In the old system the Church orphanage raised them, recognized their souls. Recognized them as distinct, valued human beings.

i agree. i do not think that happiness at being alive means you necessarily must want to deny others their due reproductive choice as cindy suggests.

the issue around abortion is choice- not if you love your own life but if you have respect for the woman that gave it to you and her decision to do so. choice. that is it.

It is inconceivable to the respondents that one may be grateful for one's own good fortune, while not using that as a pretext to describe what is good and right for others, nor to place that personal feeling of gratitude over what may be a greater good, or the good of some other "potential person" not ones self.

I am glad to be alive, but had I not been born, I do not selfishly assume that this would have been evil, or a lesser good for someone else, or for many others. We simply do not know. My own gratitude for life is not an argument against abortion, as Cindy's original letter would seem to want us to reason. So you conclude incorrectly and irrelevantly that I am not pleased that I was born.

Got it?

"It clearly may not be, when looked at from anything other than a purely selfish perspective."

Selfish, actually it is just the opposite.

Wow for a person who receieved the ulimate gift you don't sound at all grateful. You should be.

Kathleen made a choice, which was her right. She may instead have made another choice, assuming proper medical care and non-intrusive laws, and then other good things could have happened - perhaps no better than the birth of Cindy, but just as good. It is supremely arrogant to assume that one's own birth is the best of all possible outcomes. It clearly may not be, when looked at from anything other than a purely selfish perspective.

I was conceived under similar circumstances during that same time, and while I am happy to exist, I do not believe my "rights" would have been violated, a great evil done, or my mother harmed had she made the choice to abort her pregnancy. Perhaps some other child would now be grown and grateful to be alive. Perhaps several or none. The choice should have been my mother's alone, in any case, not that of those who make presumptuous assertions about the nature of life, based on ancient superstition and vague intuitions.

Thank you Cindy.

we will be praying for you; we know personally that abortion hurts women.

Stand for life, stand for the children to come, stand courageously.

God bless you indeed.

An excellant reminder.

As it briefly became clear when there was some discussion earlier this year of banning "gay" adoption, it is shameful the number of abandoned and orphaned children in Kansas and the failure of the State to take the necessary steps to find them families.