Hi Krimmel, On Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 12:49 PM, Krimel <[email protected]> wrote: > [Steve] > I was trying to address the issue of trying to draw a line during the > development of a fetus between a human person that we will give rights > to and a mass of cells that we don't give rights to. Anti-abortionists > think that the only place where we can meaningfully draw a line is at > conception. It is this assumption that I am criticizing. I think we > can draw real lines for distinguishing humanity during fetal > development because we already do draw a real line for distinguishing > humanity from nonhuman ancestors. And the line that we decide to draw > would be as real as the one we've already drawn. Drawing the line at 2 > weeks, 4 weeks, 9 weeks, etc. would be no more arbitrary than drawing > the line at some point in time between homo sapiens sapiens and > previous ancestors. At some point our ancestors were not just animals > but human beings with human rights, and we can say the same thing > about a developing fetus at some point in gestation. > > [Krimel] > Actually the Roe v Wade decision is a brilliant exercise in jurisprudence > and the line they drew was the age of viability. Prior to that time, about > 28 weeks, all of the rights accrue to the mother's wishes; after that time > the rights increasingly shift toward the fetus.
Steve: That makes a lot of sense. I just wish the national conversion was concerned with finding a reasonable place to draw the line instead of about whether killing a zygote is murder. Best, Steve Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
