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No Abortion in South Dakota!
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Neutrino 123: [QB] Hello everybody, I have certain views on this controversial issue, and have wondered for some time what other people would think of them. To start, I'll say that I'm an atheist abstaining guy (hell, I don't even date). :cool: Let us consider abortion from an ethical point of view. Clearly, if abortion is murder (not just killing, we kill thousands of bacteria per day and nobody cares ;) ), it should not be allowed, but if it is not murder, then no one should care what happens to the potential abortee. Now, to determine if it is murder, we must start with certain standards. Killing a newborn is obviously murder, and a fetus a couple hours into being born is essentially identical to a newborn (a living feeling being), so just because a fetus is in the womb, should not prevent it from having rights that a baby has. Thus, aborting a fetus in this very late stage should be considered murder with the full penelty. On the other side, a newly fertilized egg is one measily cell. The growth potential of the cell is irrelevant, all that matters is its current state (yes, it is "human life", but there is nothing special about that - it is just a worthless phrase). Smashing a handful of individual cells is not destroying a feeling being, so an abortion at this stage is surely acceptable, and preventing it should be illegal interference in other people's business. The question is, where does one draw the line? When should an abortion be considered murder, and when should it be considered a regular legal activity? I would think that this line should be theoretically drawn at the point where the fetus can be considered a feeling being. I define this precisely as the ability to EXPERIANCE cost and/or gain (this is different from 'good' or 'bad' things happening to the fetus, though this might be obvious :) ). Though this is a precise definition, it is, of course, extremely difficult to actually determine. One would have to be able to consider questions such as, "Is the fetus in pain? Is the fetus content?". When the fetus' nervous system (including the brain) is sufficiently developed, then it should be able to experiance cost/gain. Technically, the fetus thingie is called an embryo for the first eight weeks of pregnency. Several sources say that shortly after the embryo becomes a fetus, it can experiance pain, and that at about six weeks the embryo has detectable brainwaves. Therefore, I would say that at about this time is where the line should be drawn between murder and legal activity. Of course, different embryos develop at different rates, so a scientifically determined safety factor (eg, to make sure that an abortion does not take place when the embryo/fetus 'might' be considered a feeling being) is needed to determine the precise nature of the laws in this matter, but I'm not a biologist, so I have no clue on what this would be. I estimate that an abortion would be o.k. for at least a month. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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