I've said in the past that I don't "like" abortion, but I'm not passionate about the issue. People who are passionate about it make me uncomfortable, and anytime I write about it I know I'm inviting passionate people to descend upon me. Thus I don't mention it often.
I do not believe a zygote has rights-- you can't violate it. I believe a full-term baby does have rights, even though it isn't capable of exercising many of them yet. I believe those things as strongly as I believe gravity is a real force which I can depend on to be consistent, but I can't think of a way to prove it so I can't be 100% positive.
That means I believe somewhere along the path from zygote to blastula to embryo to fetus to baby, this living tissue- the zygote into the future, undergoing continual cell division- becomes a human. Not just human tissue or a unique human genetic thing, but A Human with human rights no one has the right to violate. And I don't know how to know where that happens so my position would be to err on the side of assuming rights earlier rather than later.
I do absolutely believe pregnant women have every human right.
It seems to me that rights could probably be said to correlate to nervous system function in some way. Yes, I know this opens the door to debating how functional a human's brain must be before I would say they have rights. And, like all the rest of this, I don't know.
This lack of knowing is why I can't be passionate about it. It's why I'm not going to go hard against others for their opinion, whichever way they believe. I'm not going to argue very hard for my opinion on the topic. Because, no matter how passionate you are on either side, it is an opinion (not based on enough facts) you are passionate about. You don't know, even if you believe you do. No one does. It depends on subjective definitions and assumptions. It leads to absurd declarations from both sides when passion gets involved.
And, usually, it leads to calls to make something "illegal". I don't believe it's ever right to get government or its "laws" involved in anything.
If you are passionate about the topic, on either side, do what you feel you must. Just don't expect much support or attention from me.
Life, as per human reproduction, doesn't "begin". It is a continuum, a cycle. Neither the sperm nor egg are ever "not alive". It may not be a baby yet, but it is not dead. It is alive, it is life. And something doesn't feel right about killing it.
ReplyDeleteBut that position doesn't apply to what is not my responsibility. It's not right to tell anyone what to do with their body or children. That is their problem, their responsibility, their values and judgement.
Thus I take a pro-life/pro-choice position.
If she isn't carrying my baby, I cannot say much about it. If she is, then I am obligated to do whatever I must in order to protect her and the baby. If she intends to kill it unnecessarily, as in out of convenience when there is no health threat/issue or something of that nature, when there is no 'good reason', I would have an issue.
The time to have an 'abortion' out of convenience is, in my opinion, before intercourse. Abstain, use contraceptives, don't have sex with anyone you don't want to be stuck parenting with, ..whatever works. It's better than the issues of sacrificing life you create.
Using law to force your opinions and judgement onto women is wrong. You cannot say that a girl who got raped by her father, or who will die giving birth, or who is carrying a fetus while on heroin or one that is so severely malformed that it will likely die before age three or suffer for life, is definitively wrong. It's simply not a call for anyone but family, ultimately the parents/mother of the baby.
I am not an advocate of abortion. I think it should be legal in cases of medical necessity and in certain circumstances. As far as timing goes, I would say that things become problematic at about 6-7 weeks. At this point, there's a working nervous system, and response to stimulus.
ReplyDeleteGiven a working nervous system, there's a possibility for rudimentary experience. At this point, a fetus is a developing human, just like a baby, a small child, or a teenager is a developing human. Or a twenty year old. Or a octogenarian. Experience is the basis of learning, and the framework upon which consciousness and personality is constructed. Cognitive ability changes with physical development, time, and experience.