Brainstorm

[Excited Penguin]

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But why at the moment of conception? Do we consider a sperm quasi-human, prior to this?

I think we should consider whether it can suffer and maybe think(or be self-aware) in any way before we actually define it as a person and consider it with the same dignity we consider other humans. Otherwise we are merely talking about its potential to become a human being.

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Because at the moment of conception a brand new set of human DNA is formed. A sperm is just a sex cell from the man's body, it isn't its own separate entity. 

To address your last paragraph though, a human fetus begins to feel pain about midway through the second trimester... at least as far as we can tell, though it could be before that. But I don't think the ability to feel pain should be the indicator to being human. If you are comprised of human DNA, you are a biological human being, whether you have the ability to feel pain or not, imho.

What about the body's ability to spontaneously abort? Few chromosomal abnormalities allow for a fetus to survive past a certain point. I would ask you if you find this acceptable and if so, then you would have to agree with abortions. Anyone in the reproductive medical field will tell you that a spontaneous abortion is the medical terminology used when the body miscarries a fetus that has abnormalities that will not allow it to survive on its own. Non-survival isn't always the case, there are some babies who are born with severe defects, but who don't live long after.

Some humans that do survive, face the possibilities of lifelong struggles with their physical and/or mental health. My daughter got lucky and she was born with Down syndrome. Given what we know about DS (or Trisomy 21) we can accurately and confidently say that children born with this can go on to lead active lives.

Others with different chromosomal abnormalities aren't as lucky. They suffer unimaginable pain and may not be able to communicate that pain. So now enters the issue of the following:

If a woman is given accurate genetic testing early on and an abnormality is found, instead of that baby suffering a lifetime of medical issues, it is the mother's right to determine how best to deal with that, and no one else's.

Unless strangers plan on stepping up and providing the money it will cost to care for such a person, they should stay out of it.

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If we're talking about too much suffering, having that child is paramount to being cruel. I don't think mothers should be allowed to be cruel in that way, either.
I hope you won't get emotional about this. I don't think we can navigate these issues by getting emotional.

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You should terminate the hide tags prior to ending the quote tags. And only use the hide tags in the manner I'm using them, to hide a whole post but the poster's name, by doing it using the the quick reply feature. It doesn't work as you want it to in the full reply version.
Also, I've been told that this way of posting doesn't alert the one you're replying to about your reply. So there's that.