RE: Atheists, the death penalty and abortion...
March 19, 2013 at 4:04 am
(This post was last modified: March 19, 2013 at 4:13 am by catfish.)
(March 19, 2013 at 3:07 am)Esquilax Wrote:Yes, it a question about what you and I both would do. Would I be out of line to infer from your words above that you're pro-life, yet pro-choice? I.E. You respect all (any) life but do not wish to oppress others?(March 19, 2013 at 2:24 am)catfish Wrote: If you could hold a live, undeveloped fetus in your hands, could you crush it if you knew what it was?
My gut instinct says no, but then I would never purposefully extinguish any life without a reason to do so, least of all to prove a point. And I can't really pin down how much of that reaction is down to squeamishness anyway. But then, this isn't a question of what I would do, now is it?
(March 19, 2013 at 3:07 am)Esquilax Wrote:I would argue that "alive" is either a yes or a no concept. I think you're refering to having "enough" attributes to be considered a "person" here? I would say causing the life of any individual lifeform to cease would be "killing" it. I.E. Cutting a branch off of a tree is not "killing" it but destroying enough to cease it's biological activity is.(March 19, 2013 at 2:24 am)catfish Wrote: You're muddling "potential human" with "potential person" again. A zygote/fetus is an individual human, a sperm/egg is a "potential" human.
Sure, that's the way you've chosen to define it, and that's fine. I guess the question should really be whether that zygote is alive enough to have an abortion be considered killing it.
(March 19, 2013 at 3:07 am)Esquilax Wrote:(March 19, 2013 at 2:24 am)catfish Wrote: Here again, you describe life as "potential life". What we are talking about is already "life". You meant the potential for personhood, correct?
Yeah, pretty much. I just don't see a zygote as having sufficient life to justify robbing an actually living person of their rights for.
Again, I'm going to say that "life" is a yes/no proposition. Can we at least agree that it's an individual lifeform and now add to that description that it's fully alive?
Basically, at which point do you consider it sufficiently developed to consider it an "actually living person"? Heartbeat, cerebral cortext, brain activity, 8.5 months?
(March 19, 2013 at 3:33 am)EGross Wrote: And the debate is not about a potential person (that blob in your one hand) being allowed to continue, but it is about the person who holds that blob having the right to choose.
IOW, might makes right?
