Though Experiment with Abortion?

Question

This is a question that I would not personally touch even with a 10 foot pole but I'm curious as to what people think.

By the logic presented by Fundamentalists abortion is wrong because it is the murder of the unborn child. But that child is commonly barely formed, almost certainly not capable of thinking at the point that it is aborted.
The principle behind it then is what is important, that a baby that would exist otherwise, won't.

But if that is the case then every time you use birth control you are aborting the birth of the baby that would have been made had you not used birth control.

Following that logic not having sex is murder because you are aborting the baby that would have formed from the egg that is passed out of the body during menstruation.

By that logic it is murder for any good Christian woman not to have unprotected sex every month until they get pregnant. And then again after the birth.

Thoughts?

ahhh CarneyMan35, but a half formed mass of cells or a fertilized egg for that matter is not a baby either, it simply has the potential to become one, just like a sperm cell, or an unfertilized egg.

REM sleep is also recorded in those chickens you love eating so much.

Well pretty much 90% abortions seems to happen well before the stage where a fetus can even be compared to a lab rat (which are slaughtered on a scale far beyond that of abortions)

http://www.abortionno.org/Resources/fastfacts.html
Well reading the description off of a different site of the different stages of fetal development I would say that at about 18 weeks a human fetus is roughly equivalent to a newborn rat in terms of mental and phyisical capacity. According to that site less than 5% of abortions take place at or past that period.

Answer 1

You would be surprised by how early a fetus can feel pain. My wife gave birth to our first child a year ago, and leading up to it we spent a lot of time looking through books at the stages of development.

The proverbial "lump of cells" lasts a very short time.

Brainwaves have been recorded at only 40 days (6 weeks) on an EEG.

Brain function is present in the fetus at six weeks after conception.

Thumbsucking happens as early as 7 weeks after fertilization. If the child is touched it reacts at 8 weeks. All body systems are present by 8 weeks. At 8 weeks from conception a baby can feel pain and react to it. By nine weeks the child can bend its fingers around an object in the palm of its hand.

Note that all of the above take place in the first trimester, long before the legal cutoff for abortion.

The baby can taste at 13 weeks, and can hear at 14 weeks after conception. Sounds from the environment are remarkably clear inside the womb.

The REM state of sleep, which indicates dreaming, have been recorded as early as 17 weeks after conception.

Do a search on Youtube for a film of a doctor performing a suction abortion at 12 weeks. The baby tries to avoid the device, and eventually opens its mouth in pain as it is dismembered by the operation. Warning that it is very disturbing.

In response to your chicken comment:
Yes, so the chicken has thought. You stated that a child is barely formed when it is aborted. REM sleep indicats a level of sophistication in its formation. Are you declaring chickens to be barely formed?

Eggs and sperm, seprately, are merely cells of a man or womans body. Combine them, and they quickly take on the form of a human complete with brain function by 8 weeks from conception.

What is the standard definition of human death? Braindeath. When a person is sustained by machines that keep their heart and lungs going, we still consider them alive as long as there is brain function.

Re 90% comment:

According the CDC, a government organization...

Actually, only a little over half of abortions are performed before 9 weeks gestation. Remember that we have brain function at 6 weeks and reaction to pain at 8 weeks.

Another 30% are performed in the next 4 weeks, after the baby is able to grasp objects.

Almost all of the remaining are performed before week 20.

1.4% happen after week 20.

What stage of development would you say indicates human? What abilities would a baby require in order to be human? You keep comparing the fetus to animals. What distinguishes us from animals? It takes few years for babies to be able to speak. Should we be able to kill babies up to age 2 since they aren't really any more sophisticated than animals at that point?

Even when they do speak, it takes a few more years before they show higher thought process more sophisticated than the more intelligent animals. Perhaps we should be able to kill children before age four or five?

Kerrigan, would you care to pop over to my question and give it a go at answering? http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070622084615AAlvpDM&r=w

Answer 2

You are incorrect. An egg alone is not a baby. A FERTILIZED egg is. That is like saying flour is a cake, before you add everything else to it. Conception begins when the egg is fertilized by sperm. Then there is life. There is no denying that it is alive. It grows. Aborting then is killing a living, growing being, a baby.

But an egg alone or sperm alone cannot become a baby. If sex does not occur, the egg can't just continue on growing, and neither can the sperm. The "unformed mass of cells" can and does, as long as there is no outside interference. That is what makes me believe abortion is wrong, just the same as drinking/smoking/doing drugs during pregnancy is wrong, in my opinion.

Answer 3

It is true, as you say, that most christians willfully murder most of their unborn children. Women murder by not attempting to fertilize each and every one of their eggs, and men murder because they have no choice but to let 99+% of their sperm die without fertilizing eggs. Therefore, christians are hypocrites who should worry about their own murderous sins and leave others alone.

Answer 4

I think its less that they care about an egg dieing, it's more about the fact that undeveloped babies still have semi-human form and it creeps them out for something alive and with human form to be killed.

It's about applying anthropomorphism in places where it's not really due.

Answer 5

If it can be called logic, you have caught the conundrum of birth control, unwanted pregnancy, and abortion....all in one sweep.

Answer 6

Hmmmm not sure what to say...never thought that deep into it before.

Answer 7

Quit thinking so much about some strangers vagina.