(December 8, 2013 at 5:29 pm)NoraBrimstone Wrote:(December 8, 2013 at 5:25 pm)Duck Wrote: I assume you are saying 'some of the atheists I have spoken to' seeing as atheists share no ideology or commonality beyond not believing in god.Well, I liken this way of putting it:
A fetus is not aware, does not feel and is not conscious. There may be a point at which it is, and perhaps after that it should not be allowed to be aborted. But, this would curtail the woman's right to determine what happens to her body. Who has the more important right? The unborn fetus or the woman?
Hannah Goff Wrote:There is a concept called body autonomy. Its generally considered a human right. Bodily autonomy means a person has control over who or what uses their body, for what, and for how long. Its why you can’t be forced to donate blood, tissue, or organs. Even if you are dead. Even if you’d save or improve 20 lives. It’s why someone can’t touch you, have sex with you, or use your body in any way without your continuous consent. A fetus is using someone’s body parts. Therefore under bodily autonomy, it is there by permission, not by right. It needs a persons continuous consent. If they deny and withdraw their consent, the pregnant person has the right to remove them from that moment. A fetus is equal in this regard because if I need someone else’s body parts to live, they can also legally deny me their use. By saying a fetus has a right to someone’s body parts until it’s born, despite the pregnant person’s wishes, you are doing two things. 1. Granting a fetus more rights to other people’s bodies than any born person.
2. Awarding a pregnant person less rights to their body than a corpse.
There is one crucial point missing here. The fetus is not there through choice, but rather through the actions of the mother. So you could infer the permission to use her body for support, as she got pregnant. The mother gave her permission implicitly by committing the act that caused the pregnancy (this particular avenue would not apply to a rape case, however. But, the fetus should not be considered there as of choice)