Quote:
Originally Posted by Chesby05
Hmmmm interesting - and you're right I hadn't thought of it that way.
But in a sense you have kind of supported my argument - i.e. it's pointless to speculate on whether or not a foetus would `like' being aborted - because as you say, it wouldn't know - nobody would.
BUT I do think that that `not knowing' is even more profound for a foetus, because it has no point of reference or understanding of life and death - they way we do after we are born and get older. It doesn't even know it's alive, whereas we do. So whilst there are situations where we can be `killed instantly' it seems more tragic that way because there is more to be lost - a whole life lost, rather than a few weeks of `existence'.
|
Well that is the thing for me. Not knowing is not knowing. Does not knowing make it right?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chesby05
This is not how I feel personally - I am merely putting it forward as an argument that people might use.
|
I understand. But you seem to be up in the air on a lot of issues, which is good because it shows you have an open mind, and I commend you for that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chesby05
However, the potential in an unborn foetus cannot be measured against the experience that living people already have. The two are separate and equally important entities. For example, let's consider my foetus. We (Max and I) know already that she is going to be an accomplished dancer, win the female Tour De France, and find a cure for cancer. So to abort her would be a great loss to the world!  |
As we are talking about how other people would see things, lets take this from not a religious perspective about right and wrong, but from a contribution factor (because right and wrong is kind of a religious thing). I would argue this from the other side.
A five year old girl would have experienced more than a fetus, a 16 year old boy would have experienced more than that five year old girl, a twenty year old man in the military would have experienced more than all of the above, a seventy year old man would have experienced more than, once again the above. But all of the above are already closer to death than the fetus, so who has more to give to this community? Now still talking without right or wrong, and simply from who can contribute, is it now wrong to kill the old guy simply because he now may contribute less to the community? Because, lets say we extract God and religion from the equasion, that is what this is really about, the community (not that I would try to remove God from anything).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chesby05
No, but seriously - I see what you're saying, and I think we actually both agree on that particular point - the conscious `knowing' of being killed / aborted. Whether that conscious knowing has any bearing on the moral rightness or wrongness of killing / aborting is a whole different argument!
|
I can agree with you on this. But from a moral stand point, killing is still killing to me.
For me, if I feel as if that person wants to kill me with malicious intent, or kill mine with the same intent, then ok I can try to kill them back. But that person is not trying to kill me and has no malicious intent, and I kill them, then it is plane old murder.