Infants are nonsapient, and some of them don’t even have the ability yet to recognize their own toes. They can’t speak, and they’re not learned.
Fetuses don’t even have that much going for them. At least infants can laugh and cry, and recognize their parents’ faces.
Why does our society treat the lives of the unborn and of infants with so much greater regard than those of adults?
I’ve heard tell of a woman suffering from ovarian cysts who wanted her ovaries removed, and the doctor wouldn’t do it in case she changed her mind and wanted children one day, never mind the fact that she’d first have to change her sexual orientation, find a man she wanted to have a child with, and oh yes, divorce her wife.
Or the story of a single woman working three jobs and struggling to feed three children who got pregnant again; is bringing a fourth life into this world really such a good idea? Who’s gonna pay for that child’s food and education after it’s born?
Why are we taking these decisions out of the hands of the people who are actually impacted by them?
I disagree with your premise. The U.S. has the worst infant mortality rate among the the Western industrialized countries; on the other hand it spends a massive amount of money on futile care for dying seniors.
Because the imaginative possibilities of a potential human exceed the actual reality of any given actual human.
Also, in the case of the woman with the cysts, a potential child is potentially male, where as a woman with cysts is female; this also plays into the abortion debate, though (I would hope) at a subconscious level rather than a fully-thought-out-one.
“Futile”? Everybody is “dying”. Seniors deserve no less medical care than anyone else.
I think part of the answer to the OP’s question is that most of us have a natural instinct to protect and nurture infants. I don’t think we generally value them more than adults, it’s just that we tend to feel protective because they’re unable to protect themselves.
Now, attributing that same value to an early-stage fetus or even a zygote is just a form of insanity, and valuing that non-sentient seedling more than the life or well-being of the mother is just plain criminal insanity.
Well futile care for everyone, but the vast majority of this futile care is for seniors. For example extremely expensive ICU care. This should only be done if there a significant chance the individual will return to a reasonable quality of life. Instead much of it is: instead of a patient going through a very unpleasant one week dying process he goes through a very unpleasant one month dying process.
To the extent that this happens, it’s because many people aren’t astute enough to recognize this reality, or are in denial. But unless they have a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) or equivalent order on file, the medical community has no choice in the matter.
Infants being adorably cute is indelibly wired into our psyche. If it weren’t, who would put up with that? It’s the same for pretty much all mammals, I guess – the big head, uncontrolled limbs, slavish adoration of the adult, and so on, means the offspring don’t get left behind when the going gets tough. For humans, this is all way pre-rational.
I think the fetus fetish is different though, especially when it’s someone else’s fetus (i.e. someone else is carrying it, someone else made it through sex). Then it’s control and hatred of people who have sex for fun.
I don’t think the idea that a future maybe-child is male factored into that, just that she might want to have a baby of her own, and yes, lesbians can do that nowadays. Ovariectomy is a big operation (just because it’s internal doesn’t mean it isn’t castration) but if less drastic measures don’t work, it’s going to be necessary.
(And I bet it was a FEMALE doctor who told her this; over the years, I’ve heard waaaaaay more horror stories about female OB/GYNs than male ones, and not just because they’re rapidly becoming the majority.)
Probably not - there is an ovewhelming belief that every woman will at some point in her life have this amazing lemming-like urge to hazard her life and pop out a child, probably after seeing one in someones arms on a Hallmark film. And if htey had somehow permanently fixed themselves would go into paroxyms of self loathing at never being able to scream in agony for 30 hours to pop out one of their own [upon holding will forget the hours of pain and the future of diapers, vomit, tiny destructive crawling terrors]
Ya - nope. Not every woman wants to be a walking womb unit. Some are even as parenthood-avoiding as some men are. Some would like to be able to get off without having to risk 18 plus years of being owned by a tiny human growing.
Seems like many, including the OP, are begging the question. Are we not taught that no life is more valuable than another? [ETA where is it posited or argued that infants are “more valuable” than everyone else? In some countries declining birthrate is an issue, but that is not quite the same statement.]
My suspicion is that, in practice, out there, all too many people value their own lives over yours, mine, adults, infants, and the dog in the street.
This is a good example of how over-the-top ridiculous the OP is being; probably on purpose (I doubt this is a serious question). A woman can bear children regardless of her sexual orientation, so no she doesn’t have to change that. And anyone can have children before, after, in, or out of wedlock; plenty of people have children with multiple different adults at the same time. You don’t have to divorce your current female partner to have a child fathered by someone else. And no, she doesn’t have to find a man to have a child with; ever hear of a sperm donor? Sure she’d need at least a little something from a man, but she can get pregnant by that man… it doesn’t have to be a long-term partnership of being with him.
I thought I mentioned she’s firmly decided she doesn’t want children. Why do so many doctors, and family members, not respect that decision? Especially when keeping her ovaries means she’s going to have health complications?
It is very basic evolutionary drive that has ensured our species and our forebears have survived. Parents that did not place special regard for their offspring run the risk of not passing on their genes.
You may be looking for an intellectual rationale for this but it really starts from what I’ve stated above. The special regard for babies came first, our brains ability to rationalise further came later, as can be seen by the observation of that same special regard elsewhere in the animal kingdom.
Infants are nonsapient, and some of them don’t even have the ability yet to recognize their own toes. They can’t speak, and they’re not learned.
I would disagree with this and your own statement implies that some do have the ability to recognize their own toes, and it appears this may be true in the womb also. Misrepresenting things is not a good way to present a case. But anyway, even if we assume what you say…
Why does our society treat the lives of the unborn and of infants with so much greater regard than those of adults?
My take is we as a species have a natural duty to protect our young, and extended to stand up for those unable to stand up for themselves. Unlike the adult, who has the ability and responsibility to chose for themself, we have to make those choices for a person unable to do so, and in that we tend towards the greater ‘life’ option. With that said this was not always the case as many early societies practiced exposure and other forms of discarded the unwanted, though usually they also practiced slavery.
Recognition of life and humanity tends to help create a more equatable society, so as slavery and discrimination fall in a society I would also tend to think this applies to infants, and perhaps fetuses. Or another way of thinking about it is humanity is at the moral level as we treat the least of us.
Now for the woman, that just sounds like treating women like children, though I guess a weak case can be made for the preservation of the species, and it is a net good to have her able to bare a child, but really that is as weak as my pop’s coffee.