On 01/09/2008, at 10:32 AM, David Hobby wrote: > No, it's the honest terminology. Abortion kills children, > very young children who can't survive outside the womb, and > who wouldn't count as human at all except for their human DNA.
They're not children yet! Children have *been born*. Late-term abortion kills the unborn at a time when they're likely to survive (except in cases where the abortion is because they won't and they'll probably kill the mother in the process), and is something I strongly oppose (because adoption is an option for delivered healthy babies). But talking about a 12 week embryo as if it has the same status as a 5 year old is both unhelpful and dishonest. > > > Now this happens to be the same term adopted by some religious > zealots, but that doesn't make it incorrect. > > Here's an analogy: It's like using degrees Kelvin to measure > temperature, instead of Celsius. The melting point of water > is a pretty arbitrary place to put the zero of a temperature > scale, just as "birth" is an arbitrary place to start counting > a child's age. No it's not arbitrary at all. It is the point at which it becomes an independent being, which is just as important a milestone as fertilisation, the first cell division, implantation, blastulation, the start of the heart beat, the start of brain activity, the opening of the eyes, or the achieving of full self-awareness. (My wife says it's not fully human until it can do its own laundry... I'm not sure she's helping...). > If we're going to talk about abortion, it's > only common sense to do it using a scale that starts at > conception (or the start of cell division). If you're talking about abortion, yes. If you're talking about personhood, it makes no sense at all. There's a grey area between implantation and birth. I think that if an abortion is to be carried out it should be as early as possible, and certainly before measurable brain activity starts (which is 22 - 24 weeks). After all, we define the end of human life by the end of brain activity. Why not define the start of human life by the same criterion? Charlie. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
