Reply To: Abortion Ftw.

[tarheel91]

Vicelin said: In that sense of “right to life”, as it is defined by the law, then yes, I think that it should apply to unborn children who have developed the nervous system, unless there are circumstances discovered at that point which threaten the life of the mother, or of the fetus and mother simultaneously.

Chameleon said: But what about before the embryo develops a nervous system? Is it then alright to have an abortion done at that early stage, because by our assumed definition of a “human being”, that stage of development would not be included?

In my definition, yes, it is fine to abort a fetus prior to a functioning, developed nervous system.

As for that “gray area”, we’ve pretty much agreed that there is no way to -exactly- know when a fetus becomes a human being, so we’ve mostly just been debating based on a hypothetical situation (my definition of when a fetus becomes a “person” becoming the law).

So I think we can agree that in regards to abortion in a simple case where the mother wants to get rid of the baby, it should be legal before the point where fetus becomes a human and illegal after wards. I think everyone can agree to that. Legal precedent is going to disagree with your definition (people in a vegetative state still have rights, and their life can’t be taken without their permission according to the Supreme Court), so, realistically, if ever the government was to get around to defining such a thing, it’d probably be a bit before where you draw the line. That is not to say that you don’t have a case (or that the Supreme Court was absolutely right in their earlier decision).

The much more difficult issues are the ones you brought up. 1) When the mother’s life is in danger and 2) when both lives are in danger. In situation (1), you’ve essentially got 2 people who effectively have to kill the other to live. The only other comparable situations I can think of legally generally decides on person the aggressor and one person the defender, with the aggressor’s actions being illegal and the defender’s positions being legal. However, both people are legally equal in this situation.

In situation (2), it’s similar to situation (1), except one party has the potential to die no matter what. Again, though the same situation arises. Both of these issues are complicated by the fact that it’s only a chance of danger/death, not certain death.