Abortion, how you view it and the definition of a human life

Philippines
January 16, 2007 11:16am CST
Please before answering , answer what is on your mind and your heart or soul etc. Do not answer things that you have read, seen or heard from somewhere or someone. I am asking for personal views and opinions. Do not intellectualize. It's a matter of your personal understanding. We studied this is our Health Ethics/ Medical Ethics class I'm really confused as to why they argued the "humanity" of a fetus during the case of Jane Roe where they favored her human rights vs. her unborn child. I am not condemning abortion or the people who practice abortion. What I am questioning is how did they come up ( the people who approved it )with a value of how one can be deemed a person with human rights. They said that since a fetus of under 7 months cannot live outside the mother's womb it is said that it is not yet human or a person and so it can be terminated. They defined it as a combination of criterion of one incapable of living outside the womb or on it's own, one without reason and rational thinking, with no contribution to society. So a fetus has neither of any of those that is why it is not a person and it can be terminated. It has no human rights. Here is where it got me really confused. So I asked my professor, if they put that value or definition of a person/human then what do they call it? What does a human man and woman produce? Is it a dog? A rabbit? A cow? How can they possibly question the humanity of that unborn child if the one bearing it is a human female impregnated by a human male. A human will produce a human. Anyone human out there who produced something other than a human please speak out. And guess what? My professor didn't have an answer for me. So I asked him again that a full term baby or a child the age of 4 or 5 years will still not be a contribution to society. They still have no real reasoning skills, they cannot rationalize. So do we kill them? How about psychologically challenged persons? They also fall under the criterion of a non-person like a fetus so do we kill them? Our elderly who cannot even distinguish a husband and son, who thinks that it's still World War 2, do we kill them? Do they have no human rights as well because they did not meet the criteria for personhood that has human rights? And that basic right was the right to LIVE. And yet still my professor in ethics did not have an answer for me. So what do you think guys? Please no lecturing, flaming. I just want an honest response on your personal thoughts on the matter of this people defined being a person and therefore having the rights of one.
2 people like this
2 responses
• United States
16 Jan 07
What really changed my view of abortion was studying genetics. Hours after conception that "blob of tissue" has a completely new DNA sequence that has never existed before and will never exist again. You bring up some REALLY good points. When abortion was legalized, people said "just wait, this will lead to euthanasia" but the pro-abortionists called them hysterical worryworts. But what's happening in northern Europe right now? Euthanasia of handicapped children.
• Philippines
16 Jan 07
Thank you for your additional info. Your comment is well received and I appreciate it very much. I really had a lot of questions on my mind when this case was discussed to us. And the thing that actually appalled me was how those people defined the a person/human. It made me think that those people were not really thinking when they gave those criterion. And that my professor did not have an explanation or even an answer to my questions.
1 person likes this
@pusiket (1756)
• Philippines
17 Jan 07
Abortion for me is denying the right of a certain individual to live. Human life is very important especialy in the eys of God. It is His gift to mankind. So who we are to take it away?