From a theist viewpoint, I believe at some point a soul is placed into the foetus. I am obvioiusly not sure at what point. It could be at the moment of conception. The point you make that a woman should have a right to do with her own body what she wishes is not valid in the least. A child then, is essentially captive by the woman until birth, just as a prisoner is captive in a cell. Just as the prisoner should not be subject to the whims and fancies of the jailer, so a child should not likewise be subject to any external pressures, and there are hundreds...pressure from the woman's boyfriend, shame, fear of telling parents, fear of a hundred other things, selfishness, ineptness....so many possible things that a woman may feel to cause her to terminate the child's life. NOT FAIR! NOT JUST!
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Quote by: bishop your analogy of killing someone in your basement is a stretch.. the zygote is a part of the woman's body. it belongs to her body. does she not have the right to choose whether/not this entity stays within her and grows until birth? the crux of the issue as i see it is whether/not the woman has the rights to control her own body.
how do you define life? i think that question supercedes the one you've asked in this thread. is life defined by a clump of cells, or by something that thinks, has a conscience, etc? the classic characterization of when life begins was at the quickening, when the fetus would kick around in the mother's womb. that sort of event is undeniably human.
what about a zygote? even further, a sperm and an egg could also be termed alive, by the same notion as a clump of cells could.
i completely oppose late term abortions, but i support early term abortions. my definition of life (regarding this topic) must differ from yours. |