darth_ender said:
Mrebo said:
To illustrate my view that what is important is where one's views are anchored on this topic.
Ugh. I hate this topic, though I feel more strongly about it than most any other. I just know how these "friendly" discussions tend to go. But here I go, jumping back in when I'm trying to actually spend less time at this site.
I know what you mean but overly contentious debates tend to put me off a forum. I do hope the article will inspire those pro-choice people with philosophical underpinnings on the issue to reconsider their view at least a little. I feel hopeful when I read a prediction that the current attitude and laws on abortion will one day be viewed as one of our society's greatest moral failings. This thread is a good example of how intractable the debate is.
should we move the legal age for "abortions" up to 4 years of age?
For my college newspaper I wrote an article on post-natal abortion. There were quotes from fictitious individuals praising its value and exclamations about how it truly protected a choice by giving women the opportunity to see if the child actually does create hardship, rather than having to guess. It was entirely political incorrect. Though it was written for April Fool's Day, I was really surprised it did not inspire some outrage on the liberal campus.
I teach my sons to respect the ants around our yard and not to kill them. Many liberals are completely in favor of the rights of animals, creatures who don't even have a chance at gaining personhood. Why, oh why do we find the life of an embryo or fetus (terms that in many ways dehumanize what is really a developing child) so relatively meaningless?
I like the not-killing-ants :)
Your question is a big part of what motivates my view.
I know I can be long-winded in this topic, so I'll stop with one last thought: I do sympathize with mothers who did not intend to get pregnant. It is a scary thing, it causes changes to one's body and alters her life forever. But I see no reason for her ability to choose to be so much more important than the child's. I am pro-choice: choose not to have sex unless you're willing to have a child with that person.
I struggle with precisely how the law can handle these issues. But I agree with these principles. I thought the journal article might be eye-opening for those who think the slippery slope is not real, that the killing of infants would never be considered intellectually defensible.