IN the 1857 Dred Scott decision, the Supreme Court declared that “Africans”—that “unfortunate race”—had “no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” What Chief Justice Roger Taney said then about black people, John Kerry says today about human beings in the embryonic and fetal stages of development. According to Kerry, they have no rights which those who desire to destroy them—whether to escape unwanted pregnancies or to exploit them for scientific research—are bound to respect. George W. Bush’s position is the polar opposite: The unborn should be respected as members of the human family and protected by law.
Mr. George is professor of jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton. Mr. Bradley is professor of law at Notre Dame.
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