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... , concurring in part and dissenting in part). However, others believe that the Fourteenth Amendment alone is not adequate to justify any right to abortion. "I believe, for example, that there is a right of privacy in the Fourth Amendment... the governor would appoint people who would overturn Roe v. Wade. " Al Gore, October 3, 2000 (during presidential debate). # 26) "Mr.
Speaker, that the scope and meaning of the limitations imposed by the first section, fourteenth amendment of the Constitution may be more fully understood, permit me to say that the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States, as contradistinguished from citizens of a State, are chiefly defined in the first eight amendments to the Constitution of the United States. " Cong. Globe, App. 1 st Sess. , 42 d Cong. , pp. 81, 83 - 85 (1871) (comments of Representative John Bingham) quoted in Adamson v. California, 332 U. S. 46, 115 (1947) (Black, J. , dissenting). # 27) "Repeated references to sources understandable only to a trained physician may obscure matters for persons not trained in medical terminology. Thus it seems necessary at the outset to set forth what may happen during an abortion... As described by Dr.
Carhart, the D& E procedure requires the abortionist to use instruments to grasp a portion (such as a foot or hand) of a developed and living fetus and drag the grasped portion out of the uterus into the vagina. Dr. Carhart uses the traction created by the opening between the uterus and vagina to dismember the fetus, tearing the grasped portion away from the remainder of the body. The traction between the uterus and vagina is essential to the procedure because attempting to abort a fetus without using that traction is described by Dr. Carhart as 'pulling the cat's tail' or 'drag[ging] a string across the floor, you " ll just keep dragging it. It's not until something grabs the other end that you are going to develop traction. ' The fetus, in many cases, dies just as a human adult or child would: It bleeds to death as it is torn limb from limb.
The fetus can be alive at the beginning of the dismemberment process and can survive for a time while its limbs are being torn off. Dr. Carhart agreed that '[w]hen you pull out a piece of the fetus, let's say, an arm or a leg and remove that, at the time just prior to removal of the portion of the fetus, ... the fetus [is] alive. ' Dr.
Carhart has observed fetal heartbeat via ultrasound with 'extensive parts of the fetus removed, ' and testified that mere dismemberment of a limb does not always cause death because he knows of a physician who removed the arm of a fetus only to have the fetus go on to be born 'as a living child with one arm. ' At the conclusion of a D& E abortion no intact fetus remains. In Dr. Carhart's words, the abortionist is left with 'a tray full of pieces. ' The other procedure implicated today is called 'partial-birth abortion' or the D& X... The fetus' arms and legs are delivered outside the uterus while the fetus is alive; witnesses to the procedure report seeing the body of the fetus moving outside the woman's body. At this point, the abortion procedure has the appearance of a live birth. As stated by one group of physicians, '[a]s the physician manually performs breech extraction of the body of a live fetus, excepting the head, she continues in the apparent role of an obstetrician delivering a child. ' With only the head of the fetus remaining in utero, the abortionist tears open the skull.
According to Dr. Martin Haskell, a leading proponent of the procedure, the appropriate instrument to be used at this stage of the abortion is a pair of scissors. Witnesses report observing the portion of the fetus outside the woman react to the skull penetration. The abortionist then inserts a suction tube and vacuums out the developing brain and other matter found within the skull. The process of making the size of the fetus' head smaller is given the clinically neutral term 'reduction procedure. ' Brain death does not occur until after the skull invasion, and, according to Dr.
Carhart, the heart of the fetus may continue to beat for minutes after the contents of the skull are vacuumed out. The abortionist next completes the delivery of a dead fetus, intact except for the damage to the head and the missing contents of the skull. " Stenberg v. Carhart, 530 U. S. 914, 957 - 960 (2000) (Kennedy, J. , dissenting) (citations omitted). # 28) "If you don't know whether a body is alive or dead, you would never bury it. I think this consideration itself should be enough for all of us to insist on protecting the unborn. " Ronald Reagan, Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation, 21 (1983). # 29) "I hold it to be a maxim which ought to be sacred in our form of government, that no man ought to be deprived of any right or privilege which he enjoys under the constitution, but for some offence proved in due course of law. " New York Assembly, Remarks on an Act for Regulating Elections in 4 THE PAPERS OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON 25, 28 (H. Street ed. 1962) (January 29, 1787) (emphasis added).
Hamilton's maxim has found a home in the Eighth Amendment. "The substantive limits imposed by the Eighth Amendment on what can be made criminal and punished were discussed in Robinson v. California, 370 U. S. 660 (1962). The Court found unconstitutional a state statute that made the status of being addicted to a narcotic drug a criminal offense. It held, in effect, that it is 'cruel and unusual' to impose any punishment at all for the mere status of addiction. The cruelty in the abstract of the actual sentence imposed was irrelevant: 'Even one day in prison would be a cruel and unusual punishment for...
having a common cold. ' Id. , at 667. " Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U. S. 153, 172. There are some significant similarities between Robinson and another, much more horrendous decision: "an act of Congress which deprives a citizen of the United States of his liberty or property, merely because he came himself or brought his property into a particular Territory of the United States, and who had committed no offence against the laws, could hardly be dignified with the name of due process of law. " Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U. S. 393, 450 (1856) (emphasis added).
The Dred Scott case was the first time the Court ever applied the doctrine of substantive due process, and the property referred to were slaves.
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Research essay sample on Fourteenth Amendment Eighth Amendment
