| CaptainHaplo |
10-27-09 08:14 PM |
Ahh an interesting debate.
First off, let me squash one item stated to start with.
"Its a woman's choice"
Well - it was the choice of 2 people to concieve a child - or at least partake in the activity that can create one. If the child is born, can the man look at a judge and say "well I aborted my part of the child, so I have no responsibility?" Of course not. Both parties have an equal responsibility in the creation of a child, and thus both should have a say on the outcome. Currently, there is no such thing as "equal rights" when it comes to this subject, which is a travesty of the system.
Now, with that said. I am likely to tick off a number of people, and probably suprise a few.
My view is that life is defined not at conception, but at the point where independant brain and circulatory activity can be detected and verified. My reasoning is this. At a certain stage, a heart develops. At a certain stage, a brain develops. However, for those of us who are "alive" in the legal sense, your considered "dead" when your brain can no longer cause your heart to beat. This is known as being "brain dead". For a fetus, prior to that moment when the brain sends its first electrical pulses to the heart to make it beat, the fetus does not meet the standard required to be "alive" that the rest of us do. Once that happens though, then an seperate (while still dependant) life exists.
For those that say life does not begin until birth, let me share something. I have a picture that I will cherish for my entire life. My youngest daughter was in the womb, and I would put my head on my lady's belly, and sing to my daughter. I would talk with her, got her used to my voice. Whenever I did, she would kick and bounce in recognition. The moment she was born, I reassured my lady, and then moved with the nurses to where my daughter was being cleaned. She was, as all baby's do, screaming. To her, it was bright, she was cold (both new sensations), and she was reacting in the only way she knew how. I had the camera in one hand, I reached down with my finger, and spoke gently to her. My finger touched her tiny little hand, and she grabbed onto it, without even knowing how. She also stopped crying immediately at the sound of my voice. The doctor rushed over, concerned that something was wrong, and the nurse who was cleaning her looked at me and said something to the effect of "I have never seen a baby do that, she knows who you are." That moment she recognized my voice, and it reassured her immensely. The doctor smiled at me and said "you have talked to her alot, haven''t you?" I told her yes, and she started telling my lady all was well and how our new daughter knew everything was ok. She also looked at me and told me I was going to definitely have a "Daddy's girl" on my hands. She was beyond right! But that moment held more than enough proof to me of whether or not an individual, capable of learning - a truly high brain function - existed well before "birth". It also gave me a memory (and a picture) to have forever.
I can see the need for abortions when there are severe health challenges to the child, or the health and life of the mother is in danger, as in the case of an egtopic pregnancy. Issues of incest/rape as well I feel should be valid reasons. *I am assuming that the incest was a part of rape, if its voluntary on both sides, well.. I honestly don't know..... Don't really want to think about that unless I have to.
But what I don't understand, is why some carry a baby while they know they won't have it, allow themselves to develop a deeper emotional bond (which is proven to occur), only to then abort. Its like self torture as well morally reprehesible.
This is why I am perfectly fine with things like the "morning after" pill.
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