Beagledave:
No, the “human life” was a case of imprecise speech. I thought I had made my view – that “humanness” is a continuum from single-celled origin up through prenatal development, birth, babyhood, childhood, and adolescence, with each stage adding to the construct. I presume you do not let small children in your care make major and possibly dangerous decisions, but make them for them – undermining their human right to decide for themselves in favor of providing the nurturing care appropriate to their age. I simply refuse to draw a line and say, “Before this point is not human; after is” – but do make the obvious distinction that at the point of viable independent existence, when the fetus has become an organism that can live outside the womb (though with specialized care), and especially at normal birth, there is a presumption of independent life that did not exist before.
I was not accusing any of the pro-life regulars here of raising that “straw woman” but just inserting a mini-rant against the regular raising of that issue as though the majority of women seeking abortions were doing it as a casual choice: “Oh, I guess I’ll have another cup of coffee, do my nails in lime green, and then go down and get this kid scraped out of me, if there’s time before my lunch date.”
Stoid, I was not aware of that item in your life history, and would welcome your speaking in more detail about it. Knowing you as I do, I do not visualize this as a spur-of-the-moment decision, but your words imply to me something that does not fit the Stoid I’ve come to know. Obviously I’m missing a point.
Mr. Billy, I generally vote Democratic though not the straight party line, and look for the more libertarian candidate. My reasoning here is that on many issues, including abortion, one candidate (and in recent years this is more apt to be the Republican, though not always) is so convinced of the correctness of his views that he would like to impose them on everyone else. So I don’t vote “pro-life” or “pro-choice” but “pro-freedom.”
And I see the point you’re making – but I believe you may be mistaking “pro-choice” as PC for “pro-abortion.” I know several people, including at least one other on this board, who think largely as I do – while abortion is nearly always the wrong choice, nonetheless it is something that must be the moral choice of the individual and not legislated on her.
And AHunter and yourself have defined modes of action that I can only concur with. I object strenuously to anyone – be he conservative Christian or radical atheist, pro-life or pro-abortion, hawk or dove, fish or fowl – demanding that his views and his alone be the rule by which society must live. (I do, of course, make the obvious exception of safety of life, liberty, and property. But my doctrine can be expressed by the Pagan Rede or by the second half of Jesus’s Summary of the Commandments, and it says that whoever it is who “knows how we must live” is ipso facto wrong.
I like it when you call me, “my esteemed colleague”.