Womans hold fetus for ransom *not kidding*

As far as I can tell this is not a joke or troll site. This woman will abort her fetus unless pro-lifers donate 1 millions dollars to her account by July 10th.

Whats everyone opinion on this? Is she in the right? Is she a criminal? Is just an attention whore?

 

[autisticdragonkin]

I should hold all my unfertilized eggs hostage on the grounds that they may one day be fertilized, give me 1 million dollars before my next period and I'll have one fertilized!

I will hold all my sperm hostage and routinely kill 100 million each day until my demands of $1million are met at which point any day that I receive that ransom my sperm will be allowed to fertilize eggs

 

[Marvin]

Actually, there's very little about this that bothers me.

So, first of all, as far as I'm concerned, legally and morally, life begins at birth. Abortions are perfectly fine to me. (Well, morally fine, anyway. I know there are health considerations to consider, as far as the mother's health goes.)

So, since threatening to abort the fetus doesn't mean anything to me morally, I really have almost zero problem with this.

The two issues I have are:

• Adoption. So, this might vary from state to state, but what about if she can't find adoptive parents for the kid? Would it just hang around in state foster care until it turns 18? That could be kind of crappy depending on the state.
• Holding her to her word. This would be kind of tricky, because she's wanting to remain anonymous. I'm sure some sort of contract could be setup that would hold her responsible if she dipped out on sticking to her word.

However, those issues aside, I can't find a reason to be bothered by this idea. The kid would get $1 million when it turned 18. That's amazing.

Pro-life dipshits care a lot about making sure babies get born, and they don't really care too much about what happens after that. Someone's going to have to pay for and take care of the child you're so desperate to have born.

Like, the big problem with this is that she didn't plan ahead well enough. If you wanted to do a serious campaign like this, you'd need to set up some sort of escrow/contract thing. And work on securing adoptive parents ahead of time.

 

[AnOminous]

I think it's morally repulsive if it's a truthful offer, but just a plain old fraud if it's a hoax.

It's probably entire legal. Although it isn't always legal to threaten to do something otherwise legal (such as turn someone in to the police) unless paid, extortion and blackmail is fairly limited in scope. It's on the same moral level, though.

I don't feel abortion is entirely morally neutral, just that especially in the early stages of pregnancy, the state has no valid interest in invading personal privacy to that extent. Suppose, for instance, someone threatened to kill an 8-months-and-29-days fetus immediately before birth and it would constitute actual murder to do it later. Is that act really that morally different even though a legal line may be drawn?

I think it'd be fun to out them if they could be located. You can't really do banking for that sum of money and not get caught if someone feels like it enough.

Of course, my moral calculus on it is at least in part because I don't even believe it's legitimate, and we're going to see some idiot go "LOL it was art" in a while, unless they're scared off by the angry response this is likely to get.

 

[Yellow Yam Scam]

If s/he gets away with the money it's a clever scam.

If legal issues get in the way then it will be "performance art meant to highlight the issues of the costs of abortion blah blah blah."

 

[Kusottare]

Maybe she just wants the money so she can actually raise the kid if she keeps it?
I'm not a parent myself but good god, raising a baby is expensive.

 

[Marvin]

I don't feel abortion is entirely morally neutral, just that especially in the early stages of pregnancy, the state has no valid interest in invading personal privacy to that extent. Suppose, for instance, someone threatened to kill an 8-months-and-29-days fetus immediately before birth and it would constitute actual murder to do it later. Is that act really that morally different even though a legal line may be drawn?

To me, babies are mindless grubs. You're right that the difference between a day before and a day after birth is miniscule. But a sharp line has to be drawn at some point. Once they're born, they have legal personhood, even if they're substantially the same as they were before they were born.

 

[XYZpdq]

Just the one-off blog post is weird and kinda creepy.
If this had attached the various forms of salt from obnoxious pro-lifers who wanted it to stop but not enough to pay money, it would probably pretty funny.

 

[Trombonista]

The best case scenario here is that she doesn't actually expect to get one million dollars and is just baiting pro-lifers.

I'm not sure what the worst case scenario is.

 

[DuskEngine]

I'm not sure what the worst case scenario is.

She spends the million on "I Drink Male Tears" coffee mugs and subjects the child to a life of deprivation and poverty (especially if it's a JERK MALE)

 

[Ification]

The best case scenario here is that she doesn't actually expect to get one million dollars and is just baiting pro-lifers.

I'm not sure what the worst case scenario is.

The worst case scenario is that she's planning on using the money to build a death ray, which she'll use to hold the world hostage.

 

[Trombonista]

Can't be. You need at least a billion for a death ray.

 

[Johnny Bravo]

I think it's fucking hilarious actually.

You guys do realize that even if she decided not to have an abortion the baby could still be miscarried at this stage, right? Hell, it could be stillborn. She might get into a car accident that compromises the fetus and causes it to die. There are a billion things that could happen between now and her child's date of birth that could cause it not to be. There's no point in getting hung up about it.

The only thing that would kind of bother me is if she doesn't reach her goal and doesn't refund the money. I get that anyone who donates to her is a complete moron who would probably give their PIN number to a fake African king but that doesn't mean it's okay for her to scam them. Then again this whole thing reeks of bullshit.

Actually, even if she does reach her goal she should still refund the money. Assuming she is actually pregnant she's probably gonna get that abortion either way. I mean, she could go through the physical pain of pregnancy and abandon her child with a million dollars or she could take the million, have no kid and run. Why would she do the former?

 

[Red_Rager]

I think it's fucking hilarious actually.

You guys do realize that even if she decided not to have an abortion the baby could still be miscarried at this stage, right? Hell, it could be stillborn. She might get into a car accident that compromises the fetus and causes it to die. There are a billion things that could happen between now and her child's date of birth that could cause it not to be. There's no point in getting hung up about it.

The only thing that would kind of bother me is if she doesn't reach her goal and doesn't refund the money. I get that anyone who donates to her is a complete moron who would probably give their PIN number to a fake African king but that doesn't mean it's okay for her to scam them. Then again this whole thing reeks of bullshit.

Actually, even if she does reach her goal she should still refund the money. Assuming she is actually pregnant she's probably gonna get that abortion either way. I mean, she could go through the physical pain of pregnancy and abandon her child with a million dollars or she could take the million, have no kid and run. Why would she do the former?

A more ethical thing for her to do, assuming this is not a scam (and if you believe this is legit, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I would like to sell you), would be to challenge the pro-lifers to raise that $1M to donate to a charity that helps orphans and other children in need. Or at least she would put in a mention that if something were to go wrong with the pregnancy or if not enough money was raised then it will either be donated to said charities or refunded.

 

[Baryon Jones]

If I pay, can I have the baby? Plenty of uses for an unbabtised infant...

 

[SpessCaptain]

If I pay, can I have the baby? Plenty of uses for an unbabtised infant...

No! No summoning demons!
Bad!

 

[Baryon Jones]

No! No summoning demons!
Bad!

Awww, I wanted to summon Ezekiel and then point and laugh

Either that or take the baby somewhere nice and raise it properly... I'm still undecided.

 

[Johnny Bravo]

A more ethical thing for her to do, assuming this is not a scam (and if you believe this is legit, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I would like to sell you), would be to challenge the pro-lifers to raise that $1M to donate to a charity that helps orphans and other children in need. Or at least she would put in a mention that if something were to go wrong with the pregnancy or if not enough money was raised then it will either be donated to said charities or refunded.

I'd challenge them to not have children of their own and adopt. There are way too many kids in the system.

 

[Teddy]

This is just sick and disturbing. If this isn't just a stupid prank (looking at the site it looks like it isn't) then I hope the asshole gets what's coming to her. This has to be illegal.