Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike33
To me abortion could be seen as an example of erosion of rights. It's not just the mother's body in question - it's the unborn child's body too. What gives the mother the right to choose what happens to the body of the unborn child - choosing to end its life.
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Consciousness, thought and intelligence are the defining qualities of human life. An embryo/fetus has none of these to begin with, and only attains them to a certain extent in the later parts of a pregnancy.
The embryo/fetus has no rights because it isn't a human being yet. It is a parasite with the potential to become a human being. More potential than a single sperm or egg cell, admittedly, but mere potential nonetheless.
Over 10% of pregnancies end in miscarriages. These occur especially often in the first six weeks of pregnancies. Now, if one couldn't make a distinction in "humanity" between a six week old embryo and a newborn baby, that would be pretty gruesome indeed. But somehow, people - and that most likely includes you - don't react in quite the same way to these miscarriages as they do to infant death. Sure, an early miscarriage is sad, or even tragic, but not nearly as bad as the death of an infant. Moreover, the reason that it is sad or tragic generally is its effect on the would-be parents, who most often were looking forward to having and raising a child, not because a human being died.
Your "cycle of life" postulation is nice and fluffy and spiritual, but it's a completely random and irrational theory, lacking any real arguments.