Let me ask you this: How does one argue the point of whether human life has any meaning? There are no facts to point to and science is useless, because it is a personal matter. How do you feel about human life? The only opinion that matters is the opinion of the majority and the majority says that they value human life(more or less). Lifers and....nonlifers? have only one course to take, and that is to convince the majority that their opinion is the correct one. You have made a valid argument, why is life special? For each individual, the value of a single life isn't that special in regards to the big picture. However, who are you to say exactly what happens throughout the course of that persons life? Amazing things could happen, they could cure cancer, eliminate world hunger, or discover the answer to life, the universe and everything(42!!!! ). The potential in each human life is too great to ignore and while the majority won't be remembered, even the smallest of contributions could have been vital to whatever it helped. Of course, this could also go the other way and that person caused the worst disaster in human history. But I have taken the "Let everyone live and see what happens" stance, and that is why I think human life should be protected. Hmm, I was surprisingly calm while writing this. I usually get a little ticked on the issue of life.
You need to understand that leftists are pesimists with doom and gloom outlooks on life. This will help you understand and pity them.
Yeah, well I get a little ticked off when people suggest that a woman has an obligation to "give life" at every possibility of giving life. Don't you realize that you don't have to take it too much further before you're saying every woman should be actively TRYING to get pregnant every month? Don't you realize that "giving life", i.e. pregnancy/childbirth, takes so much of woman's energy/life force that she cannot live up to the full potential of her OWN life. It's typical to get all smug and self-righteous about "life" when you don't even fully understand the costs to a woman of "giving life."
Well if you had read my OP you would know that human life, in and of itself, has nothing special about it UNLESS it is inhabited by a mind that can sustain an interest in its own survival. You dont understand my argument. It isnt about "the big picture" far from it. Its about the smallest picture of all - the fact a person needs to value their own existence for it to have value. In that sense human life means nothing - what counts is the interest. This means that many animals must also be considered. They could end world peace to. Problem is the women involved doesn't want to have a birth and the baby has no interest either way at that point. Sorry but that does not trump the right of the women to have control over her body. You could easily say the child has the potential to be evil - Hitler or something. Its a contradictory argument. In the situation of abortion, there are only two people involved - the baby and the mother. Only one has an interest, that is the mother. Hence only the mother need be consulted. Sure you can try and persuade her of the "possibilities" that her child is worth keeping alive, but ultimately its her interest that calls the shot. As yourself realize, its contradictory and self defeating. Then I thank you for your patience.
I agree with the OP. For me the entire argument of whether a fetus is "technically a human being" or not is nothing more than legal semantics. We all know what abortion means, we know what it does. I'm pro-choice and I'm perfectly happy to call a fetus a "human being". I do not believe that any rights are "unalienable". Rights only exist because they exist in law. Laws can and do change, even constitutions. I do not approve of abortion but nor do I want it criminalized.
Getting pregnant doesn't create that obligation. There is simply no reason why a woman shouldn't abort if she chooses.
That is ridiculous. She creates a new person, she should not be allowed to kill the child at will. It is that simple.
Just be practical. You can't stop a woman from aborting. You CAN'T stop it. You can just stop with all the talk about "allowing" cause women aren't listening and will make up their own minds. It is that simple.
You can't stop any determined killer if she really wants to kill. That doesn't justify her doing it. They should face consequences when they kill though.
Will you be happy with almost half of all women in jail? The prediction is that 43% of all women will have an abortion sometime during their reproductive years. But of course you have to catch them first, and that ain't gonna happen.
I don't care how many are jailed, if they are all guilty. BTW I dispute your numbers are they are pure hyperbole.
This pro-life site agrees with me.... http://www.abortionno.org/Resources/fastfacts.html Likelihood of abortion: An estimated 43% of all women will have at least 1 abortion by the time they are 45 years old. 47% of all abortions are performed on women who have had at least one previous abortion. http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0904509.html An estimated 43% of women will have at least one abortion by the time they are 45 years old. How do you like this pro-life site? http://www.prolife.com/celeb.htm It's estimated that approximately 43 percent of women who've reached the age of 45 have had an abortion. Want more?
This is actually a lie, they merely quoted Guttmacher. They never said they agree with their assertions. If true, all this does is make it more obvious that legalizing abortion merely condoned it and caused its frequency to skyrocket over time.
Even pro-lifers recognize the accuracy of Guttmacher. Legalizing something is not the same as condoning it, or approving of it. The frequency of abortion is about the same as it was when illegal, but the maternal mortality rate has dropped.
Guilty of what? Attempting to control the number and timing of their own children? Should the US be like Latin American third world countries that jail women for abortion forcing existing children to fend for themselves without a mother?
Would they jail her if she killed a born child? If the answer is yes then you answered your own question.