Abortion is morally wrong

[Jenny A]

It feels wrong to me, it feels awfully wrong.

Late term I agree with you. More about that next post.

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Assuming the fetus is a person (which I don't think he grants), Esquilax uses the analogy of should anyone be forced to be an organ donor, or to hook their body up to anyone else to provide life support. I would say not. There is no such moral duty.

But, I think it a false analogy. After all the fetus didn't demand the mother take it in at gun point. A better analogy might be this. You are clutching a rope in danger of falling into an abyss and certain death. You caught the rope. Someone else caught your ankles. You can't support both of you. Is it moral to kick them loose. I would say yes.

But suppose someone has grasped your hands and will not let got and you are now both sure to be saved. Is it moral to kick the person clutching your ankles loose now? I would say not. Sure, your arms might hurt more and it might even dislocate your shoulders but the inconvenience is temporary.

A fetus will take up more time than it will take to be pulled up off the rope, but while you might suffer from some bodily changes, it's a temporary inconvenience and nothing like having your shoulders dislocated.

I would go even farther than this though. The hypothetical person clutching your ankles didn't get there because you did something. The fetus is something the woman (absent rape---which might push us back to the organ donor analogy) was complicit in causing the fetus' dependent position. That changes things. Failing to provide this temporary loan is more like child neglect.

However, that still does not answer the question of when the fetus becomes an entity deserving of the consideration we give another person. I'm really sure conception isn't the moment. Nor is a heartbeat. But having had two, I'll tell you babies behave very differently from each other once they begin to move. They have personalities. That's the point at which I begin to think of them as people--when they have enough brain to have a personality.