What makes a fetus that the mother decides to abort at, say, 25 weeks different from a premature baby born at the same time? The only real difference, other than the mother being selfish, is one of location, not science, since babies as young as 22 weeks have proven themselves viable.
Possibility of something happening in a one in 6 billion rate does not make for decent politics. Gather all the information on 22 week old births. Note how ridiculously rare they are. Note how all of them have terrible health problems. Note how "viability" is reliant on the full extent of every artificial life support measure we have.
Translation, "thinking makes my head hurt, don't ask me hard questions."
This thread is not about political options, it is about abortion itself. I am not advocating political options here, I am challenging you to argue about the issue. As of yet, all you can do is argue about semantics and laws.
What, specifically, is different about the child inside a mother who wants an abortion from one inside one who doesn't? Provide scientific evidence to support your position.
Straw hominem: using the word "translation" to make up stances that have nothing to do with what's been said or hold any point of their own. Intelligence level: 2nd grade hick.
I answered your question quite directly, in that you can select whatever line in the sand you'd like, but it's still a line in the sand regardless of 25 weeks or 22 weeks. I assumed you were smart enough to expand my use of the term "decent politics" to DECISION MAKING, but I assume too much about you, as usual. But to dumb it down for you, the difference is irrelevant. If you want to claim viability ought to be at 22 weeks, you're just moving the line in the sand. But it still exists, which tends to make your question moot.
What is the underlying argument, other than you are right and I am wrong?
Good use of asking a question. I'm glad you're finally coming around. But the underlying argument is that the above line in the sand is based on an actual development, in that fetal viability is an appropriate state to deem a physiologic change towards becoming a developed human fetus, whereas conception is not. In fact conception is rather arbitrary from an anatomy, physiology, viability, and developmental perspective. The ONLY change at conception is a genetic one, but both sperm and egg are human cells, as is a zygote.
I did not answer because the question is irrelevant, we are not talking about plants here, we are talking about humans. For one thing, I eat plants, but I have never eaten a human being.
Your mixed metaphors always amuse me. But what you are claiming is that the possible development into a human is equivalent to being a human, when such is not true. It is effortless to prove this concept when applying it to, well, anything else. Is an acorn a tree even though it will one day become a tree? You avoid the answer because you know it is NO. So why do you believe the zygote of other living things are equivalent to the "hatched" form? You see unlike you who makes incompatible comparisons like fetuses to computers, likening an umbilical cord to a power cord, or likening humans to parasites, my comparisons can usually be broken down into distinct common aspects. In this case the point is simple: zygotes of higher order species are not an independent member of that species, but rather contain the potential to develop into such a role.
The fact that we even talk about fetuses using the term "potential" should tip you off. Are you aware of the definition? "
possible, as opposed to actual". A fetus has the potential to become a human. It is not actually a human.
You don't know what babies do? Perhaps that is the root of the problem, you should come back when you understand that part.
Hey you asked if you would tell someone if a fetus wasn't really a baby. Except it's not really a baby. It's a fetus. This the terminology difference. Don't get all hurt and avoid the actual point because I sarcastically used the term "I dunno" in a sentence.
Do I believe humans are symbiotic organisms? Considering that we absolutely cannot survive without intestinal organisms that help us digest food I would have to say yes. That comes with the caveat that I know very little about biology, so could be wrong.
If you claim humans absolutely cannot survive without intestinal organisms, and fetuses do not have intestinal organisms, it's safe to conclude you just shot your own argument in the foot in that you made the case that a fetus is not a human because it has no intestinal organisms. Unfortunately the only correct part of that quote was you knowing very little about biology, because that's not the case. I won't give you too much crap here because you honestly admitted your limits, which I appreciate. But we can actually kill off all the bacteria in our gut with antibiotics and keep going. Regardless, humans are definitely not parasites. Well, most of us.
Unlike you, I don't claim to be perfect, I meant embryonic sac.
Nice to see that, despite your superior intelligence, you don't actually have an answer to my question though.
As to what I can only interpret to be your intended question, there are a number of physiologic changes that occur
Those sound mechanical, not something that magically happens to change a non human into a human. What makes a baby not alive simply because you refuse to accept it is alive?
I don't claim to be perfect my dear hick. I only claim to be smarter than you. As for not having an answer to your question, you did see that the very next line I wrote was addressing what I thought was your intended question, right? You may want to read the full post, or at least the following paragraphs, before claiming I'm ignoring your point.
Do you believe something SHOULD magically happen to change a non human into a human? Perhaps that's the difference in our perspectives: you believe a human comes into being because of magic. And I do believe babies are alive, being the things that exist after birth. We've gone over this. A fetus is living tissue, non-viable as a baby for the majority of pregnancy.