Paper Morals

This is a term that I use to classify things that I think I would do, but because I haven't actually been in the situation, don't really know what I would do. It originally came about from a morality debate with some friends about abortion.

Question: Would you ever get (or convince someone to get) an abortion?

Me (age 15): No way, abortion is wrong. I'd want my girlfriend to have the baby and give it up for adoption.
Me (age 20): Since I'm not ready for children, don't want children and probably couldn't give mine up-- yes. Rationalizations like: does the world really need another unwanted child in the world and it's only a bundle of cells right now anyway would soon follow.
Me (age 30): No way.

At age 20, I discovered that I had paper morals. Morally, I thought that abortion was wrong but realized that the consequences of having a child at 20 would outweigh the morality. Again who knows, maybe I would have had the child.. thankfully I was never confronted with dilemma.