As I pointed out in my first post the central argument for or against abortion generally centers around whether or not the fetus is a person.
just as the argument for or against slavery, or for or against killing the retarded centers around wither or not the human involved is a person.
I have a criteria that bypasses granting the spiritual 'personhood' that society may or may not want to expend to those they find utility in repressing.
my criteria is "is this a human" if a human life is in the balance, then we have to favor keeping the human alive and recognizing inalienable human rights.
it's not 'person' rights, and just because fundamentalist Islamic countries don?t recognize women as 'persons' in no way removes their human rights.
just as, in this country, just because some don't want to recognize a number of human-children as 'persons' in no way means they don't have human rights.
In my opinion after the first trimester unless the mother's life is at stake then an abortion is not an option. You are saying killing a person but in the first trimester it isn't a person, its a collection of divding human cells that could become a person.
replace 'could' with 'will probably' and you'll see the problem with 1st trimester abortions. Without the removal of life-support from this human you would most probably have a young person in 8 or so months
of course the argument for personhood doesn?t end at birth, many believe that infanticide is fully acceptable up t?ll a number of months after birth.. as it?s still not a ?person?. What defines a person? It?s a spiritual question, one pondered by those who had utilitarian reasons to call humans non-persons for as long as slaves and bigotry have existed.
Notice you are not forcing anyone to have one due to probable circumstances however if abortion was illegal you would be forcing those women to have a child under the probable circumstance that it is a person and not just a fetus.
in gaining personhood in American society women have done what humans do when they gain a new-found status: do the exact same thing that was done to them.
Calling a human child a ?non person? is as arguable and defensible as calling any other human a ?non-person?: the arguments rely on improvable emotional appeal and facts about how much ?utility? we get from calling this particular group of humans non-persons.
'pro-life' removes the choice frocing people to take actions they don't want to and that in this modern time they don't have to.
replace 'could' with 'will probably' and you'll see the problem with 1st trimester abortions. Without the removal of life-support from this human you would most probably have a young person in 8 or so months.
of course
the argument for personhood doesn?t end at birth, many believe that infanticide is fully acceptable up t?ll a number of months after birth.. as it?s still not a ?person?. What defines a person? It?s a spiritual question, one pondered by those who had utilitarian reasons to call humans non-persons for as long as slaves and bigotry have existed.
'pro-life' removes the choice frocing people to take actions they don't want to and that in this modern time they don't have to.
we can kill infants that are born retarded, that way the mother doesn?t have to deal with the handicapped child. Why not give the family the ?option? instead of forcing them to deal with a life that we shouldn?t have to in these modern-times?
If I don?t recognize the personhood of a child that?s less than 3 months old, why can?t we just ?agree to disagree? over whether or not the 3month old is a person and give my family the ?choice? to kill it? If you don?t like the killing of 3 month olds, then don?t kill any.
Without the a fetus is a person at all stages argument can you show the benefit of illegal abortion?
sure:
Reducing the future population is bad for society, both in terms of the value of the nation ?land labor and capital? and in terms of respect for human life: every life is valuable to mankind, even that born to a poor unwed mother.
But like 90% of the "discussions" on P&N my point of view and yours will not change, nor will probably 99% of the people who are reading this.
that's not the point, the point is to come to an agreement that we both have logical points of view and get-past partisan single-mindedness.
But
you have yet to make an argument that shows why we should accept the slaughter of 'non-person human' for the utility of a 'person human', less to beg the question of ?is a ?person? entitled to more rights than a ?non person??
I?m arguing that we?re all humans with equal rights, no matter who our law-makers determine to be ?persons?