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Old 02-23-2006, 01:23 PM  
Drake
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Join Date: Mar 2003
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jayeff
If you actually believe that egg + sperm = human, then aren't you condoning murder by not supporting an anti-abortion law??
I'll make the legal distinction here. Under the law, killing is defined as lawful act of death (in other words if I kill somebody in self defense I killed rather than murdered him). Murder however is defined as unlawful killing (therefore a robber who shoots a victim murders that victim). So I suppose under extreme cases (such as incest or rape), I support lawful killing because of the political, financial, and personal ramifications involved. i won't go on at length that men and women theoretically need to take different levels of responsibility on this issue because one sex bears children after carrying it for 9 months while the other can shoot sperm and disappear. The whole issue of autonomy, equality, and financial burden of an unwanted bastard child is a difficult one but in a world where their is no such thing as pure black and white, I think exceptions are made for almost every rule and there would be instances where abortion may be the lesser of numerous evils.

Quote:
Originally Posted by jayeff
I'm also curious how you equate a protozoan with human life, yet claim that is not a religious view? And if your point is that a fertilized egg is the beginning of human life, why do you draw an arbitrary line there? Why isn't the line a while later when distinctly human characteristics begin to emerge? Why not before fertilization when both partners to the sex act are already impelled by genes and hormones to reproduce? Isn't their nature the real source of life??
Two partners in a sex act does not produce a baby so their is no argument that human life begins there just as their is no argument that mastubating is when human life begins.

We can give different names to a developing human being but it doesn't change the fact that after the sperm fertilizes the egg, that is when the process of development begins. Whether it has no arms, no brain to think, or no heart yet makes no difference because the code is already written and the process has already begun. An infant may not be able to walk, talk, or have teeth but it no less a human life that needs to be protected.

I don't see anything arbitrary about where human life begins.

Quote:
Originally Posted by jayeff
And if so, do you have a problem with placing a barrier between sperm and egg so that sex becomes recreation instead of solely a means to create new life? Vasectomies? Hysterectomies? More ways to deny life.?
I see nothing wrong with this because if the egg and sperm haven't met, their is no human life created.

Quote:
Originally Posted by jayeff
So to clarify. Is your concern the denial of life or the termination of life? And if you perceive abortion at any stage as the termination of life, again, how can you oppose any anti-abortion law without being an accomplice to murder?
See answer to your first question above.

Last edited by Drake; 02-23-2006 at 01:25 PM..
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