Abortion Ban (page 3)

"Where do these baby slaughterers come from?" - uninformed

Personally, I find the idea of abortion repugnant, and the procedure as described in purplesofa's post is just horrific.

I am not a doctor, so I simply don't know much about women's health problems that can occur during pregnancy, and

I don't know what the safest way to save a woman's life would be. As I understood it, this is not meant to be an

operation to get rid of an unwanted baby, but to save a woman's life in the case of a serious medical complication

where a qualified doctor has determined that his patient's life is at risk or that the fetus, if brought to full term,

would be born with horrible birth defects and would die anyway. Each situation is different. I would hope that the

doctor would know what to do. Perhaps medical techniques will improve so that more pregnant women can avoid life threatening

complications and give birth to healthy babies.

I think that the posters who disagree with this law and the Supreme Court's decision on this thread do so out of concern

for the health of pregnant women and not out of a desire to slaughter babies. I wish no one had to suffer,

and I believe all life is precious. Respectfully.

Dave

I'm trying to understand the way abortion is being compared to the Holocaust. In particular, I wonder what definition of “human” is being used. The Holocaust was responsible for the deaths of millions of conscious human beings, creative centers of consciousness whose minds had propositional content. If there is a locus of consciousness, a sense of “self,” an awareness of one’s own being distinct from one’s environment, not to mention reasoning sophisticated enough to be identified as propositional, I could accept this as a provisional definition of what I minimally view as “human.” However much pain an animal may feel when it is killed (and I do not deny that this pain is a bad thing, generally to be avoided), it is not the same sort of bad as the loss of a rational, self-aware mind. I agree that from the time of birth and for about a month afterward an infant is characterized by the power of sensation, but, as far as I know, that’s about all. Only at around the 4 to 6 month stage is it even able to perform the sort of intentional grasping and identification of familiar faces and strangers which the average house pet can perform. And it does not respond to its name and start using spoken language until from 10 to 12 months after birth; however, I think a case could be made for consciousness as early as 8 months based on the evidence from babies who have been taught to use sign language. The lives of mothers and the lives of these fetuses (feti? nah!) or infants or whatever you want to call them are not comparable. I never cease to be surprised that choice is considered a liberal position. The definition of “conservative” should be that one is opposed to excessive governmental interference. It is interesting that the “liberals” are the ones fighting against the government taking more control over women’s lives and bodies. Abortion is a serious decision. None is more acutely aware of the value of her baby’s life than the mother involved, for she has a number of biological imperatives forcibly impressing this upon her consciousness. I’m sure there are perverse exceptions to this rule, people who use abortion as a form of birth control, but I’m relatively certain that they are just that, exceptional. I think adults should remain free to make these weighty decisions about their bodies under the guidance and care of their physicians. They do not need the government to compel them to do what they are likely inclined to do anyway, but they do need the government to get out of the way when their situation requires extraordinary measures.

Abortion Ban

PrimateDave

veradico

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