I dont think of it in religious terms, but ethical none the less. IF you aren’t willing to practice abstinence, you are responsible for the consequences. Of course, very few people would practice the above, but still, its like downloading music off the internet, haha, you take the risk.
Yes, you are killing a person. If it doesnt exist, there should be credible adoption agencies that are purely confidential and free of charge for those who are either not mature or incapable of raising a child.
If i seemed adament about my opinions, its merely in the sake of arguement. Abortion is obviously a hot topic and has probably been discussed millions of times before. But i still want to know what people have to say. HOLD NOTHING BACK
Depends on your definition of “person”. Me, I don’t consider it a person until the brain activity starts, and that’s around the 22[sup]nd[/sup] to 24[sup]th[/sup] week. As far as I’m concerned, abortions before then are fine, since the embryo is not yet an individual.
Abortion would not need to be debated if everyone excersised personal responsibility!
Oh, I’m sorry, you didn’t mean to get pregnant but you sure did like it when you were doing it huh?
If you are going to f*&k then do it responsibly and use birth control, but if you screw up then you should face the consequences of your indescretion.
If you hit and kill someone while DUI the court holds you accountable. Why should it be any different for a fetus? Were your actions any LESS reprehensible?
Other than abstinance (or something drastic, like castration), there is no perfect method of birth control.
Yes. A fetus (before the onset of brain activity) is not a person, as far as I’m concerned. Oh, sure, it has the potential to be a person, but so does an egg, and you don’t see women getting called murderers every time they menstrate.
In the ends, you have to draw the line somewhere. At what point should a fetus be considered a person? Why? I think my stance that person-hood is defined by brain activity is perfectly reasonable.
So then, no one who is ever faced with that decision finds abortion to be reasonable? Since abortions continue to be performed, that is obviously not the case. Thus, your statement (anyone who finds abortion reasonable has never had to make that decision) is false.
Could you maybe, you know, actually give some reasons why you hold the position that you do? I mean, I explained why I am not anti-abortion, and I feel that my reasons are sound. This topic obviouslly strikes an emotional chord with you, but you could at least try to make a reasonable argument for your case rather than simply attacking everyone who is against you, couldn’t you?
Can someone please give a valid reason why an unwanted pregnancy somehow isn’t a person…and yet if a woman who is carrying a baby, and gets murdered, along with her unborn child, that is a double homicide?
IMO, that shows me that people use terms of convenience to describe the unborn.
How about some medical reasons? How about the fact that there is a direct link to abortion and breast cancer in the potential mother? With each passing abortion, the chances of her getting breast cancer increase. By the third abortion, the chances are very high (perhaps 80-90%) that she will get breast cancer. This has been studied, and proven to be accurate.
That study wasn’t done by any radical fundemetalist group. It was done by a group wishing to prove the facts otherwise, and just plain didn’t see the results they thought they would.
Abortion is wrong.
Morally, ethically, and medically.
Can someone please explain why a separate sperm and egg somehow isn’t a person, and a blastocyte is?
All three entities are simple cellular structures incapable of “life” outside of the larger organism, and a separate sperm and egg has a similar probability of later becoming a “person” as a blastocyte.
I don´t really know whether that is true, but beside that study, any operation bears certain risks. That should tell you that people don´t have an abortion for the fun of it. The pros and cons are carefully weighed and in some cases it is deemed the “best” solution.
Rape victims, as Angelicgemma pointed out, should have the right to an abortion. Furthermore there could also be medical issues that make an abortion a necessity.
Other than that, I think Marley23 nailed it on the head with her (his?) statement.
I’m not going to bother debating this with anyone on this, as we’re not going to come to an agreement on this subject.
An abortion isn’t an operation. It’s a (technically) procedure. Can you honestly say that these risks are presented to a woman beforehand? I doubt that very highly. The results of that study
Yes, indeed, that study is true.
Looking on the net, I see contradictory sites. I’m not surprised at all.
As for my comments about homicide:
We could look at the Laci Peterson case as an example of double homicide. That isn’t the only one I’ve ever heard of, but it’s recent, in the news, and obvious to see.
That only relates to one state, though. I was hoping you’d use the occasion to do some research, in which case you would find that California’s law is far from universal.
Ok Joe you want my take on this. It did strike a nerve with me. My wife and I had to terminate a pregancy last year because of a severe fetal birth defect. My wife could have carried the child to term but the chances of it surving the birth process and ever living ANY normal life were Slim to none and Slim left the building.
While we were at the clinic I saw probably 40-50 women from age 16-30 who were there for the same procedure. All of them were there because they wanted an abortion. My wife and I didn’t and we would have given a body part to have a healthy child which none of these women seemed to want.
Abortion, being used as a form of birth control is terrible. There are reasons for an abortion which ascend this (like in the case of rape as stated before) but for the shear sake of an unwanted pregnancy I cannot see it being ethical or right. Again, I stress that people should be responsible for their actions.
If you are going to screw at least do it responsibly and take precautions. If you screw up then face your responsibility. You know there is still adoption as an alternative. At least this way you can have a clean conscience knowing you haven’t killed anyone. The few women I know who went through this all seem to have some form of nagging regret or sorrow.
Erm… You´re aware that the forum you´re posting in is entitled “Great Debates” though, aren´t you?
Come to think about it, this would make a great description “Great Debates - the place where we don´t bother debating”. Heh, sorry mate, but if you don´t want to debate, why are you even posting?
I’m sorry. That’s a very difficult position to be put in.
The thing is, they aren’t you. Maybe those women could not financially support a child. Maybe they had health problems and were put at risk by carrying a child to term.
Yes, it’s a shame that they were willing to throw away something that you desperately wanted. However (tasteless comparison warning), I regularly throw away leftover food that starving children in Africa would desperately want, too. Sometimes rich kids will throw away the college education that kids trying to escape the ghetto would love to have.
My point is, not everyone places as much value on having a child as you do. Are they somehow “wrong” for not wanting a child?
I don’t think very many people use abortion as birth control. It’s not exactly safer or cheaper than the pill or condoms, after all.
Why not? This is the point that you haven’t really addressed. You’re obviously anti-abortion, but are your reasons simply a feeling that it’s wrong?
Why should carrying an embryo to term be a responsibility? Why should a woman’s life become subservient to a small group of cells that isn’t anywhere near being a person yet?
I can understand how your experience could leave you with a bias against abortion, but why do you think that women have a responsibility to carry an embryo to term? I could understand being against abortions in the third trimester, but where do you draw the line? What about use of the “morning after” pill, for example?