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It's not a question as to whether abortions should be legal or illegal, it's a question of "when does life begin".
Once the embryo/fetus is considered a human, it would then be murder to abort a pregnancy.
The hard-core anti-abortion types believe that life begins at the moment of conception; that the single-cell combination of the mother's and father's DNA is a new human and enjoys the same rights as a 6-month-old baby. Therefore, they believe that ALL abortions are murder.
The ultra-liberal "pro-choice" types believe that life doesn't begin until the baby takes its first breath. Anything done to it before that point is a medical procedure to be decided between the woman and her doctor. They believe ALL abortions are morally acceptable and should be legal. This is why the trial just occurred - the doctor thought it was perfectly OK to cut the spine of the fetuses if he could get it done before the baby started crying... except sometimes he wasn't quick enough, but he killed the baby anyway.
In my opinion, the vast majority of people believe that life begins (and therefore abortion ceases to be a moral option) sometime between these two points.
My personal belief is that life begins when the brain cells start to fire; when brain waves start. This is the definition used to determine death (cessation of brain activity), and it also works as a definition to determine life. This occurs roughly at the end of the first trimester. Anything after that is murder and shouldn't be legal.
I'll give you credit for at least thinking the issue through and using logic to arrive at your conclusion.
The question I have is, was I me before my first brain waves?
I have to believe that while I hadn't reached the point of producing my first detectable brain waves, I was nevertheless the same person, an individual living human and on my way to life outside the womb.
The egg and sperm that united to become me were not me and would have expired after a few hours or days had they not come together to become something they were not before (me).
A period of time from conception to first detectable brain waves in which what we all agree becomes a child is not yet a child seems clearly subjective, arbitrary and perhaps just a little too convenient.
Unless you happen to be a woman in a state where it is illegal......and you are poor.....and can't afford to travel to another state for a few days.....or if you can't get off work for a few days.....pretty scary then.
But then, what the heck......why should poor women have the same rights as women who are well off, right?
Well, I'm in Illinois which would likely keep it legal but it is sad when poor women (like Mississippi)don't have a choice. However even though it is legal, there it is very hard to get an abortion.
I'm not pro life. That is a cop out. I'm pro ABORTION. I come right out and say what it is. Don't sugar coat it and spin doctor it around.
I've said it before and I shall say it again: Abortion should be legal and FEDERALLY FUNDED. As a staunch conservative, who wants social security and medicare disbanded, I have no problem with my tax dollar going for abortions. In fact, we just don't do enough of them.
You're off a few weeks: "Week 6: [SIZE=2]Brain waves are detectable; mouth and lips are present; fingernails are forming." Brain waves are evident long before the end of the first trimester. [/SIZE]
Repeating an untruth again and again doesn't turn it into a truth. It turns out I was being overly generous when I said "first trimester": Brain_Waves
Abortion is and will remain legal. It is the right of every woman to choose what to do with their body and no one else's.
I don't get why so many people try to force control over women over this issue.
I think you and everyone knows the answer to that: A woman can do whatever she wants to her own body. She can get a tatoo, a sex change, a double-mastectomy, a hysterectomy, her tubes tied, her head shaved or have horns grafted to the top of her head (if she can find someone who can sort out how to do that.) She has the right to do all of these things. It is her body.
Abortion is about two people, not one. If that were not the case, there would be no controversy at all about it. The debate comes down to the baby's right to not be killed vs the mother's right to have sex without the headslappingly obvious consequence of possibly getting pregnant in the process. Any person's right to swing their fist around ends when their fist runs into somebody else in the face. So the entire debate centers on whether or not unborn babies have any rights and if so, when.
The vast majority of pro-life folks will happily concede that abortion should be legal in cases of rape, incest, or when the mother's life is in danger. That accounts for 3% of all abortions annually. The real debate centers on the remaining 97% of abortions. "It's my body" is a ridiculous oversimplification of the entire issue.
To you and your fellow bible thumpers. Others, not so much.
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