Should all atheists be pro-life?

Question

If your atheist, you almost certainly have more appreciation for human life, because you essentially recognize nothing else to be greater.

Im Agnostic and see it the same. Human life is so precious...I now see it...its all we have!

I wish human life never had to conflict with a womans ability to control every part of their body all the time. I really do. However, because human life is so precious, I just cant see why we arbitraliy chose to one spot along the human growth continum to be so magical and spirtual. Pro-choicers are like religious wackos to me.

I dont see why a fetus has less significance as a human. In fact, any attempt to give a larger human more significance, as a matter of law, just seems like religious babble to me.

"Ahh, a human fetus aint special enough yet". That so, ok, tell me what religious ritual must we perform to make it special or viable?

Answer 1

This answer is more to the answerers of this question then to the questioner.

People who don't want their kids can adopt their kids to people who want them. They don't have to murder the innocent child, if blood must be spilt, behead the rapist not the baby..
BTW keeping the child in a child for less then nine months doesn't make the hurt of incest go away any faster, and many rape survivors say knowing they killed a baby makes the pain worse not better.. And in many cases incest perpetrators are the very people who take the children to the abortion clinic so they can get away with their crime just to do it again.

It is not the woman's body that is getting chopped up into little pieces it is the child's body. The child's body should matter more than the mother's.

Everyone here who is younger that 34 was at risk for being aborted, are you glad your mother didn't abort you?

I had a crappy childhood but am very glad to be alive, who are we to judge if an unborn babies life is worth living. I hear Oprah had a crappy child hood, should her mother have killed her if she had the option back then, or are you happy for her that she took the bricks life threw her and built a mansion?

I am not self important enough to judge if someone's life is worthwhile, and I have been accused of being a big head arrogant windbag.

Please don't tell any mother who just miscarried a wanted baby that it wasn't a life yet, her husband is liable to knock you to the floor.

It doesn't effect me if someone in Alaska gets killed but I am not pro killing Alaskans So it not effecting me if someone aborts their baby doesn't cause me to be pro-abortion. In fact we don't know how these dismembered babies could have effected our lives, some of the babies that have been aborted could have come up with a cure that would save the life of someone we know and or love,, but because he/she was never born they will never get that chance.
Sorry I have ranted for so long I have known many people whose lives have been ruined by abortion, even to the point of one abortion causing 8 miscarriages, and one birth deformed child all because her uterus got to much scar tissue from her abortion..
Ruined lives tick me off to no end!

Answer 2

Nope, many are pro-choice. A fetus is not a human - it is not self-aware, or conscious, or able to communicate. It doesn't even feel pain until the seventh month of pregnancy (and I think if you've waited that long to make up your mind, you might as well go through with it if it's not going to hurt you or the fetus). Yes, human life is precious - why should a woman have to suffer through a pregnancy she may have had no choice in to have a child she doens't want? Why should she have to ruin her life, and possibly that of the childs? Sure, I think all human life is precious. But I don't consider every one of my eggs and everyone one of a guy's millions of sperm to be a person.

So you would consider a pregnant 10 year old, who was raped by her father and doesn't want to have a child that may kill her to deliver it equal to a 'religious whackjob'? I hope you will never be in that position to make that kind of a choice. However, not every abortion is like that. If I found myself to be pregnant now, I would get an abortion. I have plans for my life, and they don't include kids at the moment.

Answer 3

Quite the opposite, more often than not.

Pro life advocates, a vast majority of them anyhow, use scripture and biblical references to defend their position, believing abortion to be wrong because the bible tell them that the soul enters the zygote at the moment of conception. (Don't attempt to show them the scripture that tells how God ripped the fetus from mothers' wombs and smashed them against the rocks, they won't acknowledge it).

Pro choice advocates, from what I've seen in the debate forums I'm a member of, mostly tend to be atheist or agnostic, and one of the main reason of this is simply that we don't care about biblical interference. The bible or belief system has no bearing on our standpoint of the issue. We believe women have the right to autonomy, and that their rights supersede the rights of the fetus, simple as that. We view abortion as a medical procedure, and little more than that.

The idea that we have a greater respect for humanity has no bearing on the issue, because as pro choice, I can tell you that my respect for humanity first has to establish when humanity begins. I don't consider a fetus before it's viable to be yet a person, and is therefore not deserving of the same rights that a living, sentient mother is.

The common sense and rational thought that leads many atheists to deny religion and existence of Gods is also the same common sense and rational thought that leads many to be pro-choice.

Edit: For Eri's post below, I'm not sure where you're getting your medical information from, but the data indicates that a fetus is able to feel pain from approximately 24 weeks up, which is why elective abortions after the first trimester are illegal, and are only available in the case of danger to the mothers health. 7 monthes? Really, think about it. A fetus can be considered viable by that time, able to be removed from the womb and live independently.

Answer 4

Why ask a question? The headline should've just been "All atheists must be pro-life"

I doubt that will happen. If a crack ho gets raped should she keep the babe? My guess is not.

Remeber a fetus can be anything from a future nobel prize winner to a future serial killer...I prefer adoption but heck if one day I get pregnant (which I won't) whose to say?

What if tommorow you are pregnant? Will you be pro-life when your own quality life and the quality life of another is at stake?

Everyone is pro-life but life isn't perfect.

Either way its a womans choice and the wheel keeps turning.

Answer 5

I think you are seeing the issue as black and white, abortion or no abortion. It is a continuum. Is using a condom abortion? Is using a spermicide abortion? Is the morning after pill abortion? Is it abortion to abort the zygote the next day? Or the next day? Or the next day? Or when?

There is a large gray area. I don't think most pro-choicers would support abortion past the first 3 months, where what exists could hardly be called a fetus.

Answer 6

Well, if a fetus is going to recognized as an actual human then all the smokers should be fined for smoking in public because they're endangering the welfare of children.

[edit]
Since when were religious people pro-choice?

Who are you to force people to conform to your beliefs anyway? If a woman decides to get an abortion, it's none of your business because it doesn't even affect you.

Answer 7

A fetus is life. Look at all of the definitions for life. I don't remember them, but it's like "If the organism's species has the ability to reproduce or multiply, if it has a maintained structure," and like..5 other ones. A fetus has all of those. It's definitely alive.

Answer 8

If picking a point along the growth spectrum is completely arbitrary, then I'm sure you capture ALL your sperm and make sure that each one fertilizes an egg and is implanted in a woman. I'm sure you wouldn't want to make an arbitrary decision on where life begins, would you?

Or are you just a hypocrite or a troll-baiter? Hm...

Answer 9

professional-determination. i do no longer think of this is particularly worth bringing a existence into this international if it means destroying different lives, killing human beings, trashing undemanding human rights, trampling undemanding empathy, dehumanizing born human beings, orphaning born infants, making human beings loose jobs, making human beings loose residences, and demonizing human beings for determining what grow to be maximum suitable for themselves and thier relatives. that's just some issues that take place while abortion is stimatized and made unlawful. particularly litterally, making abortion saves no person. in the historical past of human style, making abortion unlawful has in no way as quickly as stopped abortion. It only led to the above, and maintains to accomplish that. you p.c. to decrease abortion? high quality, this is uncomplicated. inexpensive and obtainable birth control. ideal intercourse ed. Make having and raising a newborn inexpensive. Make adoption a available determination for each guy or woman. those are only starts off, yet they have all been shown to decrease abortion. They shop lives.

Answer 10

I consider myself to be pro-life, but I believe that life, and the right to life, begin at birth. I oppose war, executions, and pollution, and support universal health care, because I am pro-life. I can't understand how anyone can think that they are pro-life if they are pro-war.

When the right to life is secure for everyone who has been born, then we can worry about the fetus.