July 20, 2013
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Would You Ever Say This? Why Not?
I often think about the joy of bringing a new child into the world, but I realize pregnancy is not thought always thought of as a blessing, and sometimes the decision is made that it would be better if the pregnancy is terminated. Abortion is currently legal in the United States. Although I don’t judge girls or women who decide for whatever reason to have an abortion, I do condemn those who downplay the seriousness of aborting a child, and those “medical professionals” who profit from performing abortions. Many condemn those “radicals” who are pro-life, not pro-choice. Never mind what the expected child’s father wants, either. Who are we to tell a woman what to do with her body?
One argument we often hear is that it is not really a baby, it is “just a mass of tissue”, kind of like cancer is a mass of tissue. So you are not killing a child, you are just dealing with an unwelcome medical condition. After all, being pregnant, especially if you actually have the child, and then let’s say you keep the baby, and raise it, will change your body, and your life, forever. If you offer that child up for adoption, you further have to wonder what is happening to that child, and if it is okay and having a good life, if you have any human feelings at all. It (He or she) may even show up later on, and intrude into the life you have led since giving birth.
When the pregnancy is one that is wanted, and the child is wanted, though, there is no doubt that it is a baby in there. When a woman miscarries, a funeral is sometimes even held for the little one, although not usually. If a person causes a woman to miscarry, they are often charged with causing the death of the unborn child.
I was born to a woman in prison for writing bad checks. I was adopted by good people who had already adopted my (half-) brother, and later adopted my adoptive sister. They also provided foster care to about a dozen boys over they years, and treated all children as their own. I realize not everyone who is adopted or taken in by foster parents is as lucky as I was. I understand it’s a rough world, and some live in homes that are less than perfect, even downright bad. I would rather grow up in a rough home than never have the chance to live at all, though. So, try to imagine saying to a woman who is pregnant, “You appear to have a mass of tissue in your abdomen. Are you going to have it scraped from inside you so that you can return to a normal life?”
Comments (16)
A fetus is, however, a parasite and a parasite has no right to occupy its host’s body against his/her will, regardless of species. I think of a fetus as no different from a tick or tapeworm. Abortion is not evil. It is not bad. If anything it is moral and just as it prevents a potential person from coming into existence, because coming into existence is the greatest harm of all.
Further: I don’t believe killing a pregnant woman should count as double homicide, nor do I believe that someone inducing a miscarriage should be charged with homicide. They should be charged with assault (or single homicide if they kill the subject), definitely, but not assault AND homicide (or double homicide, whatever the case may be).
Fucking can cause pregnancy. Women need to accept this fact and be accountable for their actions.
@AutumnStrength - I agree!
I am very pro-life, and I don’t support or encourage those seeking abortions. I feel there are several ways in preventing a pregnancy even if you are sexually active. Birth control is more accessible now with ObamaCare, and condoms are cheap. However, in some cases it’s hard to judge on specific circumstances when a woman becomes pregnant like rape. It’s hard to say to abort or not to, when the baby was conceived in rape. Regardless, it’s a living being, and should be considered so.
Paraphrased, in certain situations, I can hear myself asking this.However, first, it is oddly worded …if anything I’d ask if they “abort” or “get” it. Secondly, it is subtly telling them how to live their lives, and usually not my business. I do think it is normal to ask about abortion e.g. in the family though. Would you ask a random person if they get an (ugly) mole removed? and if, would you ask if they “get it removed”, or if they “have a doctor cut into their skin 3 or 4 mm deep, make a circle and take out the mutated skin, so that [they] look like a normal person”?…the latter would only show you go out of your way to provoke them.While I don’t think that the life of a 10 week old fetus is akin to a human life, I understand that some people, especially parents have this opinion and it leads to certain feelings.I respect their feelings and share their happiness, and I sympathize with the feeling of dissapointment if they had a miscarriage. However, if it is during the first few weeks, I do think they actually miss the imagination and not ‘a little person’. When it happens later during the pregnancy I do have more objections, and yes, even defend the rights of what I perceive as a living being with rights. (e.g. I think 3 months is enough time, and I am vehemently against ‘termination’ of disabled children or multiples after the ‘normal’ dead line. )Adoption is indeed wonderful (especially in the cases I mentioned.) However, when you are of the opinion that the ‘thing’ in you just ISN’T a person yet, it also makes sense to abort it and leave the foster-family places to children that aready exist. As for the fathers, you get a say into whom you put your penis. You also have a political voice, which enables you to fight for the rights of all fetuses. In that frame you can tell them what to do, as much as we all can tell each other what to do.A father who expected a baby and doesn’t get it deserves sympathy, but no, he can’t have a say in what a specific woman does with her body, just because it has his dna in it. I agree with@secretbeerreporter ‘s second comment.well the first part of it. Definitely not homicide.
People who advocate for abortion really forfeit any defense against someone taking their life. If you advocate for murder of a class of humans, you really cannot advocate against your own murder, if we assume equal standing before the law for all humans. If someone else can be murdered legally, then so can we all be murdered legally.
@secretbeerreporter - Why don’t you just go ahead and put that bullet thru your brain ahead of schedule?
@soccerdadforlife - Concerning your first comment, you are erroneously claiming that all humans have equal value. They do not. There are humans who are more valuable than others. Fetuses are among those with the least value. This notion of “all people are [created] equal” is a load of first-rate bullshit. That said, if someone really wanted me dead I’d hand them a gun and let them shoot me. I wouldn’t deny them that satisfaction. I would even go so far as set up the crime scene to make me look like the aggressor and that they were acting in self-defense so they wouldn’t get charged and/or would be acquitted in court. Concerning your second comment, you just don’t know the definition of the word “class” now do you? That comment isn’t even worth a response, but I’ll dignify it anyway. There’s a difference between life worth starting and life worth continuing. No life is worth starting, because all lives include some degree of pain. The only life that would be worth starting (and thus the only time existence is preferable to non-existence) would be if life was absolutely and totally perfect. Even if life was 99.9% pleasure and 0.1% pain it would be preferable to never have existed (because the non-existent are not deprived of pleasure since they don’t exist and therefore can’t be deprived). However, a life that’s already started might be worth continuing even in light of the pain present, because at that point one CAN be deprived of pleasure as he does exist. However, there can come a point where pain is absolutely unbearable and no amount of good will ever come close to balancing it out, and at that point life is no longer worth continuing.
@secretbeerreporter - Actually, you have less value than anyone and should shut the hell up.
@soccerdadforlife - Because character assassination is the tactic that all good debaters use to substantiate their arguments. Congratulations.
@secretbeerreporter - Actually, you were too dim-witted to realize that I had turned your argument against you, using argumentum ad absurdum. Congratulations on being a twit, lol.
@soccerdadforlife - In other words you resulted to an improper debate tactic. There are objective ways to measure the value of an individual. Wealth, intelligence, genetic health, (lack of) disabilities, etc. just to name a few. Consider as an extreme example Bill Gates vs a retarded cripple. To say these two have equal value is absolutely preposterous for obvious reasons.
@secretbeerreporter - Nope. Pinhead. lolz
@soccerdadforlife - Now you’re resorting to name-calling. My work here is done.
@secretbeerreporter - No, you’re not done you turkey. Now turn over and cook on the other side.