On the other hand, why do people think life is SO sacred these days? There's a lot of it about. Children dying at a huge rate in poor countries, which the prolife people are not going to save. Religious books such as the Bible and Koran don't seem to elevate life above virtue etc. and Christians have the pleasure of thinking life is better after death, so why are they so fierce about life? I ask for information only.
I am against abortion.
I believe it is killing a child no matter if just conceived or full term.
Life is sacred because God gave us life.
His gifts should always be considered as sacred.
And about all the children dying in the world, yes, it saddens me. But, I can only tell you that I believe that we should take care of our own first.
I can't stand the fact there is one homeless person in the United States while we spend billions on space exploration. We need to take care of our own first.
I see. Yes, I understand the reasoning.
But it rather begs the question - if you weren't a Christian, would you not feel you should live as ethically as you can, simply for its own sake, or for humanity's sake?
And it seems that it is a catch 22 for you - meaning Christians generally - to sort out your motives: if you behave well you will get a reward, yet behaving well in order to get that reward is behaving badly. How do you resolve that?
I see. Yes, I understand the reasoning.
But it rather begs the question - if you weren't a Christian, would you not feel you should live as ethically as you can, simply for its own sake, or for humanity's sake?
And it seems that it is a catch 22 for you - meaning Christians generally - to sort out your motives: if you behave well you will get a reward, yet behaving well in order to get that reward is behaving badly. How do you resolve that?
I can't stand the fact there is one homeless person in the United States while we spend billions on space exploration. We need to take care of our own first.
djbt wrote:Frank Apisa wrote:djbt wrote:It seems entirely arbitrary.
In what respect?
First of all, I'll assume that my 'right' to freedom should be limited to some extent, and that this freedom does not extend to killing other people. Is that a fair assumption?
Yup!
Quote:If so, then you need to explain what differences between a fetus (especially in the very late stages of pregnancy) and a baby make it justifiable to limit freedom to prevent the killing of babies, but not justifiable to limit freedom to prevent the killing of fetuses. Merely stating that the difference is that one is in the womb and the other is not, without explaining why the difference is important, makes the statement arbitrary.
How the hell can you people consider a statement like: The moment an egg is fertilized...there is a whole living human being present....to be logical and reasonable...
...and then consider my comment: "Until it is born into this world...it is not a whole living human being"...to be arbitrary????
Do you have any brains?
Do you use them?
Try again.
How the hell can you consider "It is my opinion that until there is birth...there is no "living human being" present"...to be absurd?
Until birth...the object is called a fetus. A fetus....IS NOT A LIVING HUMAN BEING."
djbt wrote:Frank Apisa wrote:djbt wrote:More generally: where do 'rights' come from? In what sense do they exist?
"Rights"...as I have often mentioned...are a fiction. They truly do not exist as a set of specifics.
A person is born into this world...when it exits its host's body...and has freedom or the right...to do any damn thing it wants.
Governments are instituted among humans to limit that freedom...those unlimited rights. We outlaw certain conduct...usually for reasons that have to do with allowing society to function.
But not just to allow society to function. Also to make society more, well, good. That would be why, for example, torture is illegal. Or is it only wrong to kill because having a law against killing generally make society run more smoothly? If not, if there is something morally wrong with killing, then you must explain why it is morally wrong to kill a person, and why this does not also make it wrong to kill a nearly-born fetus.
I don't have to do any of that...but I have several times already in this thread. I suspect you are voluntarily blind to any arguments in this respect, in any case...so it probably will not register.
What can YOU do about homelessness? Do you have an extra bedroom in your house? Offer it to a homeless person. If you see an obviously poor person waiting at a bus stop, do you offer him a ride? Do you bake cakes, or cook casseroles, and hand them out to people on the streets? It is very easy for someone to suggest that "the government" (translated- all of us, through our taxes) should pay for the people who have not achieved an acceptable (to the person making the statement) lifestyle.
I have worked in the mental health field for many years. Yes, there are selected cases of unfortunate things happening to hard working people, rendering them homeless. But I believe that is the exception. For many, believe it or not, quite a few people who are homeless prefer it that way. Often when they are taken into a shelter, or given a chance to have a place of their own, they are back on the streets in short order.
M.A.- You are very quick to label people who become pregnant, and go for abortions, "irresponsible". Do you think that irresponsibility might account for some percentage of the homeless? And is society, through the government, obliged to lift up these people?
I believe that it is the job of the non-profit agencies, including religious institutions, to care for the homeless and the downtrodden.
Who are 'you people'?
No, wait, never mind, you'll only offend someone and evoke ten pages of useless backwards and forwards ranting...
Once again, as I thought would have been clear to anyone capable of reading the English language, I do not think that the statement :"The moment an egg is fertilized...there is a whole living human being present" is logical or reasonable. On the contrary, I find it to be illogical, and frankly absurd.
But if you're saying that because another statement is arbitrary that I cannot say that yours is also arbitrary, then you are scaling new heights of absurdity. I would recommend you take your own advice, and try again.
Frank Apisa wrote:How the hell can you consider "It is my opinion that until there is birth...there is no "living human being" present"...to be absurd?
Until birth...the object is called a fetus. A fetus....IS NOT A LIVING HUMAN BEING."
I am distinctly uninterested in what you happen to call it. I am interested in the difference in its attributes, and how this difference in attributes makes it fine to destroy it one minute, and utterly wrong to destroy it the next.
Frank Apisa wrote:djbt wrote:Frank Apisa wrote:djbt wrote:More generally: where do 'rights' come from? In what sense do they exist?
"Rights"...as I have often mentioned...are a fiction. They truly do not exist as a set of specifics.
A person is born into this world...when it exits its host's body...and has freedom or the right...to do any damn thing it wants.
Governments are instituted among humans to limit that freedom...those unlimited rights. We outlaw certain conduct...usually for reasons that have to do with allowing society to function.
But not just to allow society to function. Also to make society more, well, good. That would be why, for example, torture is illegal. Or is it only wrong to kill because having a law against killing generally make society run more smoothly? If not, if there is something morally wrong with killing, then you must explain why it is morally wrong to kill a person, and why this does not also make it wrong to kill a nearly-born fetus.
I don't have to do any of that...but I have several times already in this thread. I suspect you are voluntarily blind to any arguments in this respect, in any case...so it probably will not register.
Please point out where. The thread is now fairly long, and I haven't read every page, for which I apologise. You certainly haven't done this since I joined the discussion.
Yes, I am also interested in this, snood.
But the thing that interests me most is the data Terry has presented. I don't want to take the word of just one article, but no-one is countering it. Surely someone from the anti-abortion side of this debate has criticisms of it, or at least links to contradictory research...
In any case...it is obvious that the idiots on the other side of this question intend to limit a woman's right from the moment an egg is fertilized in her body.
The only way to deal with that is not to budge from the opposite extreme.
So even if I didn't feel as strongly as I do on this issue...I would take that position as a contingency against them gaining ground.
I don't know how to make that any more clear. Once again, I suspect you simply are refusing to see my postion for some reasons not yet explained...and that it has nothing whatever to do with whether or not I have articulated my opinions clearly enough....or whether my reasoning is logical.
Well, I guess your tactics are up to you, but it seems to me that this would be playing into your opponents' hands. But never mind....
Frank Apisa wrote:I don't know how to make that any more clear. Once again, I suspect you simply are refusing to see my postion for some reasons not yet explained...and that it has nothing whatever to do with whether or not I have articulated my opinions clearly enough....or whether my reasoning is logical.
You have been absolutely clear what your position is, but rather less clear on why it is you position.
It seems to me like there's you on the one hand, saying "fetuses have no rights because I say so"
..., and Christians on the other saying "fetuses do have rights because God says so". Not believing in God, I'm not going to take the Christians' word for it, but I can't see why I should take yours either.
Every time I ask you why you believe what you do...
...., you merely restate your beliefs.
Sparring of insults aside, I am genuinely interested in your point of view, I have no agenda, I may even end up agreeing with you. But I still can't see the big why.
It would help me if you could answer these questions:
(1) What attributes must a thing possess for it to be wrong to kill it?
(2) Why does having these attributes make it wrong to kill it?
(3) Does a new-born baby possess these attributes?
(4) Does a fetus, at any time, possess these attributes?
To be fair, I'll answer them too. I'll be happy to explain further, if necessary.
(1) Sensation. If a thing experiences, it is wrong to cause it to cease to experience.
(2) I wish to stay alive because of the positive (pleasurable) sensations life allows me to experience. I see no other reason to place a value on life. This life may well be the only chance I will ever have to experience. Likewise, anything else that experiences. I think it is wrong to deny anything its only chance to experience.
(3) Highly likely.
(4) Very likely, in the later stages of pregnancy, if Terry's article is to be believed. Certainly it does not at conception, but at some point during pregnancy.
I said a fetus has no rights??????
Can you tell me where?
I did say that it is my opinion that the fetus has no rights that cause its host to lose certain of her rights. I also said that it is my opinion that a fetus is not a living human being. But I do not remember saying that a fetus has no rights.
djbt wrote:Every time I ask you why you believe what you do...
You are never going to get anywhere asking me about "beliefs." I have none.
If you want opinions, I will give them. If you want guesses...I may give them. But don't suppose I have "beliefs", because I don't.
djbt wrote:(1) What attributes must a thing possess for it to be wrong to kill it?
If it is alive...a case can be made that it is "wrong" to kill it.
I try not to kill things. I shoo mosquitos...and capture spiders in the house to release them outside.
I try never to kill vegetable matter unnecessarily (mushrooms on a golf course, comes to mind.)
djbt wrote:(2) Why does having these attributes make it wrong to kill it?
If it is alive...it should be allowed to continue to stay alive. That is strictly an opinion. Nothing more complicated than that.
Obviously, this is not something set in stone. Sometimes bees will not cooperate...and a decent family barbecue requires more than reasoning with them. They die. Sometimes a mushroom is in the way of a shot...and gets clipped. Sometimes a mosquito takes me by surprise and gets squashed rather than shooed.
djbt wrote:(3) Does a new-born baby possess these attributes?
Yep.
djbt wrote:(4) Does a fetus, at any time, possess these attributes?
Yep...
I tried to answer your questions to the best of my abilities.
Make your point. We can discuss it. I am interested in where you are going with this.
Thanks for your patience and repose, dgbt. I think you make excellent points. Some here try to lump everyone together as "the other side" of a 2-sided argument, when it isn't necessary. In this case for instance, my interest isn't in trying to side with anti or pro abortion camps. I'm interested in dissecting the thought processes of those who so resignedly leap to, and hold to, one side or the other. Why, as you've so much more eloquently pointed out, would anyone insist there's a quantifiable difference between a baby inside the womb and moments outside of it, that's immutable enough that with these differences, hard lines of political and legal argument can be drawn? Besides the regretable tendency so prevalent in this country for everyone to try to herd everything and everyone into 2-dimensional categories of "right", "wrong", "liberal", "conservative", etc., I can't understand a reasonable human being who doesn't at least minimally struggle with the very complicated subtleties involved.