Tom Paine 1949
Diamond Member
- Mar 15, 2020
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Another thing is your (and CarsomyrPlusSix ’s) confusion about life, whether human or not. Life is complex and it isn’t one static thing of equal value … from fertilized or dividing egg to human child.Once conception results in division and multiplying there is life. A fetus, whether wanted or unwanted is still a life. It is a life that will most likely develop into a fully formed human being like your granddaughter or mine unless it is killed and if it is killed for convenience, it's probably legal murder.
In the real world its “value” changes as it develops, or if it is allowed to develop, and of course it is normatively and correctly most fully valued and protected by law after it is finally born and separated from its mother’s womb as a living breathing human baby.
To talk about the legal “personhood” or natural rights of an embryo is totally ridiculous and totally impractical. That a woman — pregnant or not — has personhood and natural rights, on the other hand, should be clear to all.
For a simple example, today fertility clinics freeze not just women’s unfertilized eggs, but also their already divided multicellular human embryos. This is done to help women or couples have future children. If these embryos are abandoned, or contracts simply expire, they are usually just destroyed, or sometimes donated for medical research. Are you upset about this? Do you think somebody is committing “probable legal murder”?
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