[nhaehnle]

I would like to point out that nobody really sees liberty in the abstract as a winning interest in the abortion debate. Pro-choicers clearly do not care about the "liberty" of the fetus, while pro-lifers clearly do not care about the "liberty" of the woman.

The whole issue arises because liberty in the abstract cannot have a full victory, because different kinds of liberty collide.

So then you have those who think society's interest in population growth trumps the woman's interest in self-control, and those who think the opposite.

Something similar is true in gun control. If the liberty of gun ownership ends up severely restricting certain people's liberties - after all, you can't really exercise any form of liberty when you're dead - then gun control debate isn't really about liberty in the abstract.

Of course, that doesn't prevent people from phrasing it as such as a matter of rhetorics.

[einhverfr]

Maybe we need to discuss what liberty is, and what the relationship between power and responsibility is (I think these questions are one and the same btw, but others may differ).