Wouldn't it be more mature to view abortion as the legally sanctioned taking of a life?

Question

It seems to me that people are attempting to justify abortion by saying that life doesn't begin at conception.

I think abortion is like capital punishment. Occasionally necessary, legally sanctioned taking of a life.

Answer 1

no it wouldn't be more mature. it would be less scientific and more moral.

life doesn't begin at conception. an embryo isn't alive.
life and its quality varies by person to person.

if abortion is murder than miscarriages must be manslughter, criminal neglegence, or possibly third degree murder. all deaths must be accounted for.

personally, I define being a live human as having the abilty to think, feel, and have conscious awareness. that happens around 14 weeks. until then you have cells and a form that has the potential for human life in the future. thus abortion between 1 and 13 weeks is not murder.

- I would call the intentional attack on a pregnant woman to cause a miscarriage murder. but it should carry a special penalty since it violates a woman's reproductive rights. I think charging them with an unlawful abortion might be a nice penalty, its a felony-

Answer 2

It is human life - although at a very early stage of development. Those who say otherwise are ignoring science - they very thing they say that religious conservatives do.

It may not be defined as a "person" under present law. So what? Neither were blacks for a long while. So I'll not resort to dictionary definitions of zygote, embryo, etc. and stick to the genetics, and moral arguments.

Many women who have abortions know that it is the termination of a human life. "I can't have this baby," they will say, not "get rid of this embryo."

Society has allowed the taking of human life when some other concern outweighs the interest in preserving it. Self-defense is the best example. War, abortion and the death penalty are others. In each case, there are those who say there is another concern that outweighs the interest in preserving the life in question. We argue about what those interests are, but we all apply the same balancing test. God help us.

Notice I didn't give my views on any of the exceptions I mentioned. But we ALL draw lines, whether we like it or not.

Maybe I am being too picky about the words people use. And many people have advanced reasoned, sincere arguments in support of legalized abortion. But I find the defining away of the abortion issue by saying the unborn child is NOT human to be a gross evasion, with sinister consequences.

Answer 3

No it would not be more "mature". It would be a new viewpoint on the abortion debate that almost agrees with pro-life. All arguments on the subject are "mature". The whole debate mainly is for a "mature" audience. Those who have no concept of what it means to have a child (A majority of minors). The responisbilities, stresses, consequences , and the joys of parenthood. My personal opinion, men (and this is coming from a man) have no stake in the debate. All men have the "right" to abort the responsibility, the stress, the consequences and the joy of parenthood(i.e. dead beat dad). A mother does not have that option except through abortion or adoption. So as far as I'm concerned, any male viewpoint has very little substance.

Answer 4

I get it maturity is the lacking factor in the abortion debate..

I don't think abortion is a political handball..it is an issue the left loves to point out to ferret out Republican moderates
they see as a threat..

and the one thing that the Religious Right projects..as a litmus test of worth..when they need to work on their local
level..not nationally..if they eliminate abortion within their own parish..they are taking care of their mission..

Answer 5

it sure is strange how people think, for example it is okay to have an abortion and kill a life with no repercussions, yet if in a accident and a pregnant women is injured or killed along with the fetus the guilty party is charged with murder of the fetus or another person,?? if the fetus is not a living being how can they charge a person for murder when it is killed accidental, yet not if it is killed on purpose? contrary to what one answerer said, a person who refuses to give blood to a dying person is not guilty of murder ? they are , but not legally prosecuted,his argument is without substance, if a Dr, or some one pulls a person off of life support in a hospital they can and will be prosecuted,without court approval, so how can you say a woman can refuse life support to a fetus legally? if any of the above can be deemed illegal then how can you justify a abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or to spare the life of the mother?

Answer 6

Just because it's legally sanctioned doesn't mean it's justified or necessary.

Abortion is not like capital punishment. You can make an argument that capital punishment is justified, since the people who are killed deserve it, but abortion isn't, since the fetuses who are killed don't deserve it.

Answer 7

I think it would be more intellectually honest, even if you unequivocally believed that a foetus not yet viable outside the womb constituted a 'life' to characterize abortion as, as a conscious decision to allow another life to end, rather than putting your own at risk to save it.

While the alternate decision could rightly be called heroic, most of us decline heroism on a daily basis, and would balk at legislation that forced such behavior upon us.

Answer 8

there's the whole problem "YOU THINK". the rest of the world may not share your views, & it's arrogant to think the whole situation should be framed by what "YOU THINK."

the philosophical questions are wide. if life starts at conception, can the fetus survive outside the womb before X number of weeks? if the answer is no, then how can it be considered a viable life? If life starts at X number of weeks when the child is considered full term & able to survive on its own, how can abortion before then be considered "taking a life."

and it's pretty sh1tty for you to associate abortion with capital punishment. one has ZERO to do with the other, since capital punishment is society's way of exacting the ultimate punishment on criminals who WILLINGLY commit crimes.

don't be an intellectual @sshole. abortion and capital punishment are two distinct & VERY separate issues.

Answer 9

No. Because that's not what's happening.

If someone needed a blood transfusion, and you are the only possible donor, you have a right to refuse to donate blood. Even if that means the other person dies. But you do not have the right to kill them yourself.

The issue in an abortion is that the mother is providing nutrition and life support out of her own body -- just like you would be if you were giving blood. She has the right to refuse to do that -- just like you would have the right to refuse giving blood.

BUT here's the important distinction. If (and when) the unborn could be taken out and continue to grow in an artificial incubator, all the mother has a right to do is stop providing from her own body -- she does not have the right to proactively terminate the unborn -- she can only terminate HER involvement in the process.

So, those who are pro-life should be spending all their time financing medical science to come up with artificial incubators, so that if a mother decides she doesn't want to be involved, that doesn't mean the unborn needs to die. Because her involvement is no longer necessary to the process.

Answer 10

so the cause of the abortion is of no consequence right.
Lets sacrifice the baby to a mother who was raped, and ruin her life even further, and hey, lets go ahead and force young girls ot have babies that they will resent for the rest of their lives, and possibly abuse that will nodoubtedly result in a imprisoned little kid who lives half his life in prison and hates the world.

These are the same people who try to justify priests touchign little kids. Terrible

the vatican just wrote a letter FOR that guy who killed a police officer. Asked to keep him in jail for life rather than put him to death.

With only the hope of one day escaping to live for, or learning to adapt to tthe terrible non-rehabilitating jungle that is our prison system.

Yeah keep him alive so he can rape or be raped in the prison system.