RE: Abortion/Consciousness/Life
October 4, 2014 at 3:15 pm
(This post was last modified: October 4, 2014 at 3:17 pm by Chas.)
(October 4, 2014 at 3:02 pm)FatAndFaithless Wrote: Even if person hood was defined to start at conception, it would still be the woman's right to abort.
No, it wouldn't. It would then be murder. That is the crux of the argument.
We need to have a legal definition of personhood to ground the abortion debate. When something is legally a person, then that person has the same protection as other persons.
Fundies want that to be conception, others seem to settle on birth. Neither of those is as nearly defensible as a point somewhere between brain/nervous system formation and viability.
That is, somewhere in the 6 - 7 month region.
I think we all agree that once a baby is born, that it is legally a person.
And that it matters not whether that birth was at 9 months or 8 months or 7 months of gestation.
So, is an 8-month-old fetus a person?
Skepticism is not a position; it is an approach to claims.
Science is not a subject, but a method.
Science is not a subject, but a method.