Plain sperm is your own genetic material. Masturbating and throwing away your sperm therefore is akin to cutting your fingernails- it's not apart of another human being, therefore you have the right to do what you like with it. However, as soon as that sperm merges with the females egg, it becomes different genetic material than either than the man or the woman; it is now it's own being. Sure, it may not be able to "feel" as you or I are able to, but then neither do the mentally retarded and some of the very old and sick... it's a slippery slope were getting on that eventually leads to fascism-if you can't contribute, you need to die. Abortion is a tough issue, because even though morally I disagree with it, I may have to use it someday for my own personal and selfish reasons. So yes, I may commit legal murder someday, but at least i'm man enough to admit it and not hide behind murky arguments with very poor logical foundations.
The second a sperm and egg meet.. is there a brain? is there a heart? is there eyes or feet? ... does it have a heartbeat? How can you kill something if it's not alive? How can you say something is alive if it doesn't even have a heart or heartbeat? Until it's got all the things that make it an individual living being its still part of the womans body, and her decision what to do with it.
So when a woman listens to her child's heartbeat at the doctors office while seeing the baby alive in her womb via a sonagram, that heart beat doesn't mean anything? Save the murderers and rapists, but murder the innocent babies. Cognitive dissonance rears it's ugly head.
The real question is, do you want to force (by law) people to have children they don't want, can't afford, will abuse, will exploit and prostitute, etc? Is it really a good idea to force 2 people who don't know each other and had a one night stand to have a baby together? Is that not a recipe for disaster? How about a drug-addict prostitute who doesn't even know who the father is? Do you want the law to force her to have that baby? I certainly don't.
Those points are very valid, sometimes I think that certain kids would be better off not to have been born. But there are also those who come from the worst of upbringings and environments and use that as their advantage to make something out of their lives. They are sometimes very driven because of that, while on the other hand others give up and wind up living the same lifestyle that their parents lived.
I voted no! it is not reasonable to abort a child just because your not ready or something that you don't like... it is everyones responsibility. both partner. you should not kill a life... what if it was you on their case? what would you feel if your mother wants to kill you? how would you feel?
Yes, abortion should be allowed. No, neither a mature woman nor a young girl should not be made to feel like a pariah for making that choice. No. abortion should not be a form of birth control. Yes, the woman in question should be offered some sort of counselling both before and after the fact. I wonder how many of these mostly male responses would have been different if it was their bodies, their hormones and their emotions that were being most affected. You can say yes, in the case of rape or incest, go on and abort and all will be right with the world. What about a young girl who is used and abused by someone she thinks she loves and that loves her? Should that 14, 15 16 year old (yes, sad indictment of our society) be forced to have the baby when Sir Galahad cuts and runs? And the 45 yo woman whose religious upbringing denies her the right to birth control. She should just keep popping out the babies till her resources, both personal and financial are stretched to breaking point? What about when a baby in the womb is found to be suffering from a genetic disease and for the life it has, it will be in pain? Its a life, a soul? We should force the mother to have it though she may not have the financial ability for full-time care. That's okay, she was stupid enough to get pregnant. She can give up her job, stay at home with the new baby while the rest of her family can struggle to help make these new ends meet. Abortion is not a yes or no, black and white issue. If my 34 year old, roundheels friend came to me and said, OMG! I'm, pregnant. I'd say, well you knew it was going to happen. Get on with it. If my 45 yo, exhausted neighbour told me she's fallen again (6 kids and a full-time job plus a deadbeat husband who neither works nor washes a dish), I'd say dear God, get rid of it and go and get your tubes tied or ask that randy old goat to sow his oats elsewhere.
When the sperm and egg meet, the genetic material that is created is most definetely alive by any medical definition. Life is not necessarily defined by brain, heart, eyes, feet, etc. Those are appendages to life. I think what you are trying to say is that a creature that cannot support itself (like a fetus) and has to rely on others can be killed with no moral qualms. But following that logical process out, you can kill children up until maybe 12 years old (when they are capable of fending for themselves). And once again, if I don't want to support my elderly disabled parent/grandparent/retarded cousin can I "abort" them? Do you want to kill an innocent human being to make up for someone else's mistakes? My parents couldn't afford to have me, abused me and didn't want me, but I'm still glad to be alive and I am an active member of society making contributions. There has been something like 36 million people aborted since Roe v. Wade passed. I just wonder how many MLKs, JFKs, Einsteins, Brett Favre's and other's we've killed. Maybe cancer and aids would've already been cured.
Thank you for your opinions. This theoretical woman who's religious upbringing denies her the right to birth control gives her the right to abortion? I've never heard of a religion that denies birth control, but grants abortion. The denial of birth control in religion is based on the idea that birth control is like abortion. Once again, should we kill anyone with a genetic problem? Male pattern baldness is a genetic problem, perhaps we should kill them as well. Yes, it is. It's murder. I'm cool with murder though. Are you? Please don't try and blind yourself to the real truth.
For one, it's not an innocent human being. It's tissue inside of a woman's body. That would make roughly 72 million men and women who's lives weren't ruined by being forced to have children they didn't want. 72 million men and women who didn't have to give up their dreams of going to college, etc to stay home and take care of a child.. and 36 million would be babies that weren't prosituted, traded as slaves, starved, beaten, or exploited.
At what point does that "tissue" become human? And how (and who-are you God) do you decide that? Yes, I'm sure all of those babies would've been prostituted and traded as slaves, seeing as that is such a common practice here in the U.S. And I'm sure that killing their children helped mommy and daddy have extra time to get a college education (seeing as they were brilliant enough not to use birth control in the first place). Or maybe they just made sweet love again and killed more innocent humans.
Exactly. Who are you to decide that it's a human and tell me it's murder? Are you god? That's exactly why it should be up to each individual to decide what they believe in and make the right decision for themselves, without your (or anyone elses (especially religous)) twisted judgments.
I'm in favor of keeping abortion legal, but not in favor of having it so easy to do. It ought to be a major decision, and certainly not merely birth control. It can be interesting to see how strong convictions are on this topic. I used to work with a girl who was strongly against abortion. Then she got pregnant off a one night stand and decided to have an abortion, basically because she didn't see it as a problem when the pregnancy was due to a one night stand. No, I don't get the logic either. She did regret it later, though, and that's why I think there needs to be some counseling or more time spent on the decision. She got quite weepy for a while after, especially around what would have been the baby's birthday. I've discussed this topic often with my husband, and told him that there's no way I'd have an abortion due to an unintentional pregnancy. Due to rape? Maybe. Can't say what I would do in that kind of situation, but I would certainly want the option available without being made to feel guilty about it.
I think abortion is a sad thing, regardless. Although statistically what we do now, in regards to it being legal up to giving birth, isn't what America wants. Generally speaking if you look the polls roughly 60% of America supports it up till the end of the first term....then afterwards it's not supported...incredibly so in the last three months. I think it should be left to each state.
Your logic makes no sense. Yes, murder IS defined as killing another human being. That "tissue" inside of my stomach is not apart of me (different DNA, different living creature) and by destroying it I am killing what IS a person (although it may not be able to support itself yet). We support the elderly, sick and mentally disabled too and don't think anything of it. Or maybe we should use hitler's tactic and kill everyone who is not useful to society. That is where your logic will eventually lead you. I am actually an atheist, but it is still offensive to me to hear your anti-religious diatribe. And also to continue your wonderful thought train, if each individual decides what he/she believes in and makes the right decision for themselves than Dahmer, Bundy, the Unabomber and Osama Bin Laden should/ should've been left in peace. And you won't have any issues when I kill your mom because "it feels right to me".
No. my logic leads me to believe in the lesser of two unfortunate events. 1. abort what will BECOME a human being 2. force people who don't want to be parents, to be parents which creates more poverty, abused children and unhappy people in general. It's really not tough... let a woman chose what she wants to do with something in her body. No law you make is going to stop her from aborting it (in a much more dangerous way) anyway. You're right.. I'm anti-religion. Anti-orgnised religion to be exact and I really dont care who finds that offensive. Actually you aborting something you made and you killing my mother aren't on the same train of thought at all. Maybe you're missing some of your common sense today?
At what point do you consider something human? My thoughts: Most scientist claim it's when one achieves conciouness...which I believe is roughly 2.5-3 months after conception.
I don't have a concrete answer for that, but I guess the short answer would be after a functioning brain and heart have devloped.. a few months old i suppose.
So would you consider it murder (or just wrong) at that point? Believe me, even I feel it's tender issue...and even my answer feels odd. Technically, at the point of conciousness, I believe it's wrong. I can't say I can go to the moment of conception, but I respect that view...as I think the whole issue would be nice if it was never an issue ie unwanted pregnancy never existed. I'm sure people would agree with that.