# Are You a Good Person? Documentary that discusses this subject and Abortion. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 21, 2011, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-good-person-documentary-that-discusses-this-subject-and-abortion/606998 "2011-12-21T21:17:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-good-person-documentary-that-discusses-this-subject-and-abortion/606998/281 "2012-01-07T02:25:04Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > Are you under the impression that mentally handicapped people don’t have minds? No, but the mentally handicapped once known as “idiots” (ie those with mental ages equivalent to babies) are not much more conscious of themselves than fetuses. ---
**Author:** ![Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omg_a_Black_Conservative)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-good-person-documentary-that-discusses-this-subject-and-abortion/606998/282 "2012-01-07T02:27:45Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > Actually in most cases I imagine it is. The mother simply isn’t allowing whatever potential there is in the fetus to be the only factor in making the decision. The mother who chooses abortion rather than to continue a pregnancy has to weigh the effects of that birth on the rest of her already born family and community. The one thing I hate above else about the anti-abortion movement is how they will sacrifice many lives for only the potential life of a fetus. For one baby (that could be mentally or physically disabled vegetable or grow up to be a serial killering drug dealer) the anti-abortion movement is willing to allow generations to be destroyed. I just have to ask; what the hell is a potential life? I keep seeing the phrase thrown out, but I’m waiting for someone to qualify it. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-good-person-documentary-that-discusses-this-subject-and-abortion/606998/283 "2012-01-07T02:28:30Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > What about the mentally handicapped or someone in a coma? That depends on exactly how bad off they are; there’s a lot of room between “normal” and “brain dead”. If someone is badly damaged enough we can and do let them die or disassemble them for parts. Do you oppose organ harvests of the brain dead? > [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > An individual human. An appendix is just part of an individual human. So? Except for the mind it’s all just meat that doesn’t happen to be dead. That’s why I can, for example, donate a kidney without consulting the kidney’s opinion. It’s alive, it’s human, but it isn’t a person. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-good-person-documentary-that-discusses-this-subject-and-abortion/606998/284 "2012-01-07T02:32:27Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > No, but the mentally handicapped once known as “idiots” (ie those with mental ages equivalent to babies) are not much more conscious of themselves than fetuses. This comment is so wrong that I don’t even know where to begin? Hmm, how about you just give me a cite for that assertion? ---
**Author:** ![SDMBKL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sdmbkl/32/7297_2.png) [@SDMBKL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SDMBKL)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-good-person-documentary-that-discusses-this-subject-and-abortion/606998/285 "2012-01-07T02:37:48Z")
I stopped at the part with the guy who had the cigarette in his ear. I am having a funny feeling that this movie is going to compare the Holocaust and abortion, correct? So… is this debate about Adolf Hitler or abortion or being a good person? I can see how abortion can be a debate, but I don’t really see Hitler or being a good person be a debate, unless one worships Hitler, denies the Holocaust, and calls oneself an bad person. Of course I am a good person. I do make mistakes. Would mistakes make me bad? I am not a criminal; I respect other people; I follow laws and rules and social etiquette. So, yeah, I am a good person. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-good-person-documentary-that-discusses-this-subject-and-abortion/606998/286 "2012-01-07T02:43:06Z")
> [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](#): > > I just have to ask; what the hell is a potential life? I keep seeing the phrase thrown out, but I’m waiting for someone to qualify it. Something that has the possibility of one day being an independent living being, but if kept in its current state is not. Take a fertilized egg out of a woman and slide the nipple of a bottle of formula next to it, it’s not going to lap up the formula and eventually develop into a baby. Most feti won’t either unless we use a lot of technology completely alien and incomprehensible to the herding societies of 1200 B.C.E. Middle East and come to think of it the authors of the United States Constitution. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-good-person-documentary-that-discusses-this-subject-and-abortion/606998/287 "2012-01-07T02:43:10Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > That depends on exactly how bad off they are; there’s a lot of room between “normal” and “brain dead”. If someone is badly damaged enough we can and do let them die or disassemble them for parts. Do you oppose organ harvests of the brain dead? Not until they’re physically, truly, really dead. > [@](#): > > So? Except for the mind it’s all just meat that doesn’t happen to be dead. That’s why I can, for example, donate a kidney without consulting the kidney’s opinion. It’s alive, it’s human, but it isn’t a person. A kidney isn’t going to be an independent human being someday. ---
**Author:** ![Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omg_a_Black_Conservative)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-good-person-documentary-that-discusses-this-subject-and-abortion/606998/288 "2012-01-07T02:48:39Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > Something that has the possibility of one day being an independent living being, but if kept in its current state is not. Well then. I do hope you’re a vegetarian, otherwise you’re eating a person every time you bite into a non-tofu/non-veggie hamburger. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-good-person-documentary-that-discusses-this-subject-and-abortion/606998/289 "2012-01-07T02:51:54Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Not until they’re physically, truly, really dead. Then you oppose organ donation, since dead organs are useless. > [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > A kidney isn’t going to be an independent human being someday. Neither is the typical fetus. Nor does what it might be someday matters,w hat matters is what it is now. You’re going into “Every Sperm is Sacred” territory. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-good-person-documentary-that-discusses-this-subject-and-abortion/606998/290 "2012-01-07T02:56:48Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Then you oppose organ donation, since dead organs are useless. Eh? What about all the organs taken from people who are dead in car accidents or whatnot? > [@](#): > > Neither is the typical fetus. Nor does what it might be someday matters,w hat matters is what it is now. You’re going into “Every Sperm is Sacred” territory. No because conception directs the fetus on a direct path toward persoonhood while just being a sperm does not. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-good-person-documentary-that-discusses-this-subject-and-abortion/606998/291 "2012-01-07T03:01:25Z")
Well, now the OP has supporters, which I guess is good as it was getting awfully one-sided. Their contributions thus far aren’t especially useful, but you go, fellas! ---
**Author:** ![Paralogic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Paralogic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paralogic)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-good-person-documentary-that-discusses-this-subject-and-abortion/606998/292 "2012-01-07T03:06:21Z")
> [@lockmat](#): > > I’d like to share and discuss this video… Please, tell us what it’s about. ---
**Author:** ![SDMBKL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sdmbkl/32/7297_2.png) [@SDMBKL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SDMBKL)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-good-person-documentary-that-discusses-this-subject-and-abortion/606998/293 "2012-01-07T03:15:44Z")
> [@Paralogic](#): > > Please, tell us what it’s about. Up to the interview with the guy who has the cool cigarette in his ear (no kidding), it has been about an interviewer who asks a few random people about whether or not they know of Hitler, and according to the respondents, they all seem very oblivious to this issue. How ignorant they are. You know, I am beginning to wonder where these people are from. Location counts and is very important in determining how credible the sources are. It appears that those people either (1) do not live in the United States, (2) have not learned anything about World War II in school, or (3) denies the existence of the Holocaust. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-good-person-documentary-that-discusses-this-subject-and-abortion/606998/294 "2012-01-07T03:23:17Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > No, but the mentally handicapped once known as “idiots” (ie those with mental ages equivalent to babies) are not much more conscious of themselves than fetuses. First, the word “idiot” only became an insult because it was associated with the handicapped. It wasn’t an insult originally. (Look up “euphemism treadmill”) Second, what do you mean by “mentally handicapped”? And second, if I’m in a “coma”, (if by that, you mean a “vegetive state”, there are different types of comas), I’d definitely want someone to pull the plug. No way I want to stay on life support for years. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-good-person-documentary-that-discusses-this-subject-and-abortion/606998/295 "2012-01-07T03:32:23Z")
> [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](#): > > Well then. I do hope you’re a vegetarian, otherwise you’re eating a person every time you bite into a non-tofu/non-veggie hamburger. Only if the meat comes from something that if fed a steady diet of human baby formula or human breast milk will developing into a person. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-good-person-documentary-that-discusses-this-subject-and-abortion/606998/296 "2012-01-07T03:35:50Z")
> [@SDMBKL](#): > > Up to the interview with the guy who has the cool cigarette in his ear (no kidding), it has been about an interviewer who asks a few random people about whether or not they know of Hitler, and according to the respondents, they all seem very oblivious to this issue. How ignorant they are. > > You know, I am beginning to wonder where these people are from. Location counts and is very important in determining how credible the sources are. It appears that those people either (1) do not live in the United States, (2) have not learned anything about World War II in school, or (3) denies the existence of the Holocaust. I would go with (4) do live in the United States and have not learned anything about World War II. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-good-person-documentary-that-discusses-this-subject-and-abortion/606998/297 "2012-01-07T03:38:19Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Eh? What about all the organs taken from people who are dead in car accidents or whatnot? Most of them are as “alive” as a fetus or more so. > [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > No because conception directs the fetus on a direct path toward persoonhood while just being a sperm does not. :rolleyes: What do you think a sperm is for? ---
**Author:** ![PigArcher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bcef8e/32.png) [@PigArcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PigArcher)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-good-person-documentary-that-discusses-this-subject-and-abortion/606998/298 "2012-01-07T03:52:31Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Eh? What about all the organs taken from people who are dead in car accidents or whatnot? They have to be alive when they harvest the organs, otherwise it’s pointless. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-good-person-documentary-that-discusses-this-subject-and-abortion/606998/299 "2012-01-07T04:01:48Z")
> [@kenetic](#): > > They have to be alive when they harvest the organs, otherwise it’s pointless. Who does “they” refer to in the above post? ---
**Author:** ![PigArcher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bcef8e/32.png) [@PigArcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PigArcher)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2012, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-good-person-documentary-that-discusses-this-subject-and-abortion/606998/300 "2012-01-07T04:05:56Z")
> [@x-ray\_vision](#): > > Who does “they” refer to in the above post? They (the organ donors) have to be alive when they (the doctors) harvest the organs, otherwise it’s pointless. Sorry for any confusion. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-good-person-documentary-that-discusses-this-subject-and-abortion/606998.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-good-person-documentary-that-discusses-this-subject-and-abortion/606998.md?page=16)