Abortion: 10 years as an atheist and I still don't get it

[Alan V]

Most women who have abortions have children at other times, children they may not have had if they had not aborted the earlier fetus.  In other words, many women who have abortions are pregnant in the wrong circumstances for them to take care of a child.  You can't judge such cases in isolation.

But the real issue is awareness.  We are morally obligated to minimize suffering, but fetuses are typically not developed enough to feel pain.  Life itself is trivial without consciousness, which is why we don't feel much compunction about cutting down trees and killing bugs.

If I had the ability to annihilate planet earth in an instant, I would minimize suffering. But that would be immoral. So I think your approach is wrong.

Or... classic example. We have an emergency room with a brilliant engineer who needs a heart transplant, two billionaire philanthropists who each need a new kidney, and a homeless person with no friends or family who is a compatible donor to all three.  So... we just give him happy drugs and take his organs.  He feels no pain, and wonderful people survive. Suffering minimized. Is that the moral way to go about it?

Good points. Yes, there are other issues involved in deciding moral questions. I was adding a couple. I liked Robvalue's post about not trivializing the debate.

Many of our moral choices are between bad and worse. Imposing a one-size-fits-all rule because of a religious idea is the problem at the heart of the debate. It's far too over-simplified.