Choose life

"When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit." Elizabeth Cody Stanton.

The early feminists saw the degrading nature of abortion to them and the child. The same arguments to legalise abortion have been used to legalise some of the worst atrocities, the simple fact that some humans aren't people and as a result we can violate their rights.
Tell us again how the Israelites were right to commit genocide.
 
What is growing in the womb of the woman is alive.
Even one-celled creatures are alive.
What is growing in the woman is more than a one-celled creature.
The nature of the life in the woman is human.
It is the product of human DNA; therefore, its nature, its essence, is undeniably human.
Because it is human in nature, if left to live, it will result in a fully developed human baby.
Humans are humans not because they have feet, hands, walk vertically, and speak, etc. Not all people have feet, hands, can walk, and speak. They are humans because of their nature, their essence, not because of physical abilities or disabilities.
A person born without arms and legs is still human.
A person who cannot speak is still human.
A person in a coma, helpless, unaware, unmoving, is still human by nature and it is wrong to murder such a person.
What is growing in the womb does not have the nature of an animal, bird, or fish. It has human nature.
If it is not human in nature, then what nature is it?
If it is not human in nature, then does it have a different nature than human?
If so, then from where did it get this different nature, since the only sources of its nature are human egg and human sperm?
Objection: A cell in the body has human DNA and is alive and it's okay to kill it. So, it doesn't make any difference with a fetus.
Though it is true that a cell in the human body has DNA and is alive, a cell (muscle cell, skin cell, etc.) has the nature of being only what it is -- not a human. In other words, a muscle cell is by nature a muscle cell. A skin cell is by nature a skin cell. But the fertilized egg of a human is, by nature, that very thing which becomes a fully developed human. Its nature is different than that of muscle or skin cells because these do not grow into humans. Therefore, a human cell and a human egg are not the same thing.
A fertilized human egg has the nature of human development and it is alive. This is not so with a muscle or skin cell.
To abort the life, which is human in nature, is to kill that which is human in nature.
Therefore, abortion is killing a life which is human by nature.
Where, then, does the mother get the right to kill the human within her?
Taken from carm.org
 
What is growing in the womb of the woman is alive.
Even one-celled creatures are alive.
What is growing in the woman is more than a one-celled creature.
The nature of the life in the woman is human.
It is the product of human DNA; therefore, its nature, its essence, is undeniably human.
Because it is human in nature, if left to live, it will result in a fully developed human baby.
That isn't actually true. Take an embryo out of a womb and plop it down on a tabletop, it'll be dead in minutes. Bringing it to term requires an active, ongoing and quite deliberate effort on the part of the mother. You can't erase that reality simply because it is rhetorically convenient for you to do so.

I mean, the whole thing is basically drivel, sub-amateur metaphysics by somebody skimmed a bit of Aristotle but didn't really understand what was going on, but this claim in particular is just factually incorrect, simply and flatly untrue, so it seemed an appropriate issue to raise.
 
It's more than that. Take my 'scratched skin cells' from upthread, in the right environment, they'd grow to become people. That doesn't mean that they're people even though they fit scarabu's first five criteria too.
 
That isn't actually true. Take an embryo out of a womb and plop it down on a tabletop, it'll be dead in minutes. Bringing it to term requires an active, ongoing and quite deliberate effort on the part of the mother. You can't erase that reality simply because it is rhetorically convenient for you to do so.

I mean, the whole thing is basically drivel, sub-amateur metaphysics by somebody skimmed a bit of Aristotle but didn't really understand what was going on, but this claim in particular is just factually incorrect, simply and flatly untrue, so it seemed an appropriate issue to raise.

You can use that same analogy with a child. Plop a two year old on a tabletop and it will die of starvation in a few days. Does that make a two year old not a human?

When someone has a miscarriage they feel bad because they lost a child, try telling them that prior to XX amount of time it was just a blob of cells so what are they sad about.

I am the callous one here in this argument but I am not the ones wanting to throw away an unborn child. Barring a life threatening complication, the particular reasons do not change the fact that a life will be terminated. Carrying to term and putting up for adoption would be the better course of action for the child.

Abortion supporters are OK with taking the life they just want some scientific cover to help them believe that it was not a life. First trimester is ok but third trimester or partial birth abortions start to make them uneasy.
 
I hold that I am responsible for my own actions. I am not dictating how others develop their own philosophy on life. How does enforcing my views on others have anything to do with how I live my own life? I said they had the right to choose. I never claimed which choice is right or wrong. I would prefer that one chooses life. Just because I would choose the life of someone else over my own, does not mean I am forcing others to do the same via a law.

So you think that an abortion is immoral and should not be done under any circumstances, but you're actually supporting the right of a woman to an abortion because you're not "forcing others to do the same via a law."?


I am not sure what your view on this is. Do you actually think it is a good idea for a government to be able to extract the organs from a dead person regardless of the dead person not having agreed when alive to be donating his organs?

Cause it is a nightmare to allow a government to make such decisions. They don't own anyone's body, not when alive, not when dead. Governments are not kings, they are supposed to be public servants. To hell with the psychos they now consist of :/

I'm talking about the goverment taking organs from living persons against their will. ;) Because either your right to make decisions for your own body is more important than someone else's right to live, or it isn't. If you think that abortion should be forbidden, then you should as a consequence also support that organ donation thing.
 
^ :)

Abortion is, of course, of a distinct nature due to it being something involving both a potential life being disgarded, and 9 months of pregnancy which if the mother is not happy with can easily lead to severe issues for her and the baby anyway. So i think abortion should only be banned when the time has passed up to the point that pain is felt by the unborn 'child'. Which i suppose is happening in most cases already.
The level of debate on the issue does seem to often be very low, though, which i have to assume is not always due to bad information.
 
Abortion supporters are OK with taking the life they just want some scientific cover to help them believe that it was not a life. First trimester is ok but third trimester or partial birth abortions start to make them uneasy.

Maybe some of them are like that. I worked very hard to go the other direction, to figure out what I considered to be morally important and then studied until I had a good idea of when that was.
 
Okay, let's just grant that 'convenience' is one of the putative motives. I'll even grant that it's true for some women. It's not the only potential motivation.
1) Concern for the well-being of the infant, where you want the quality-of-life of the baby (and future adult) to be good if you're going to create it.
2) Concern for the well-being of your other loved ones. Maybe your current kids/spouse cannot handle having another kid, and you're already stretched too thin. And, there's their emotions to consider as well, so you're taking their feelings into consideration.

And I'm sure there are others, just like there are many women. I'm just a guy spit-balling, but the idea that 'convenience' is the goto reason is just ... wrong.

If those are the best two non-horrible reasons you can come up with off the top of your head as being likely motivators, that makes me insanely sad.
 
I'd hardly characterize literally ruining the chances of many people from becoming successful and well-adjusted adults as "convenience".

Fortunately, many people can now take it for granted that they can get an abortion instead. That this is a giant step forward from the shotgun weddings and back alley abortions of the past.
 
So you think that an abortion is immoral and should not be done under any circumstances, but you're actually supporting the right of a woman to an abortion because you're not "forcing others to do the same via a law."?

That would not be my definition of choosing life. My definition only includes the internal thought processes of the person who has to make that decision.
 
Abortion supporters are OK with taking the life they just want some scientific cover to help them believe that it was not a life. First trimester is ok but third trimester or partial birth abortions start to make them uneasy.

Calling them "Abortion supporters" exposes you as someone who is not really interested in an honest discussion here.
 
So many things to unpack in that statement.

Using science to determine when the life becomes more than a life is silly. But using religion is fine.
 
When someone has a miscarriage they feel bad because they lost a child, try telling them that prior to XX amount of time it was just a blob of cells so what are they sad about.
:wavey: Hi there! 2 miscarriages here, one at 7 weeks the other at 12. Thanks for speaking for me by assuming that we cried because we thought we lost a child on 2 separate occasions!

You're right. We didn't cry because of the disappointment associated with a major life setback, that's for sure. We didn't cry because of the feelings of biological inadequacy associated with being incapable of starting a family once we decided we were finally ready. We didn't cry because we now had to tell everyone in our lives that we had bad news, nor because of the multiple nights of labor contractions, inability to sleep or eat, hours upon hours spent in the bathtub hemorrhaging this failed pregnancy, nor the three utterly awful, humiliating, and painful trips to the emergency room. Nope, none of those reasons!

Seriously, I'm sure some people feel that way, but not us. And we're not outliers, as we know from extensive conversations on this subject.

Here's the view my wife and I share:

It really was just a blob of cells. I know - I was looking for it in the bathtub drain. It wasn't a person, it wasn't anything I would call human. That clot of cells had the *potential* to grow into a person, but neither me nor my wife went through this awful experience thinking that we actually had a kid die.

We cried because our future lives wouldn't be like we had planned. We had to start over - yet again - and with no guarantee that we wouldn't be bleeding out in the bathtub one more time in another "few" months.

But thanks for speaking for me anyway ;)
 
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