(September 6, 2012 at 6:53 pm)Chuck Wrote: It seems to me the right of an fetus to life is confered by the willingness of the mother to give it birth.
If the mother is not willing, then the fetus does not acquire the right. Once the mother commits herself to either giving it birth or an appropriate equivalent thereof, such as caesarisn followed by incubation, then the fetus acquires the right.
A in-womb fetus has no independent claim to any rights except through the intention of the woman of whom it is a part to separate it from herself and add it to the human society. Prior to that the fetus is not part of the society but part of her. So it has whatever right the woman chooses to give to any other part of her body, like her toe nail, or her nose. After that the fetus becomes part of the society and has claim to the rights the society grant to all its members.
I'd disagree on two points. Firstly, since the fetus is in fact a completely new entity, it cannot be considered a part of the woman simply by the virtue of being inside her body. It has its own genetic code and organ system and is using the woman for nourishment and residence. I mean, you wouldn't call a tapeworm in your intestine a "part of you".
That being said, I do recognize the right of the woman to rid herself of the entity - the same as I recognize the right of a person to have any foreign body removed. Whether or not it has a right to live beyond that point, is something to be determined independently of that.
