Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
I think whatever line we draw would be somewhat arbitrary. I would say that once it's becomes impractical would be the line and the real beginning of life is either when the organism in question can exist unaided or when they develops consciousness. Neither of these things are true at the time we legally can perform abortions, at that point it's still a biological process.
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This, too, is at the heart of the issue under discussion. 24 weeks is arbitrary. If an unborn child is not a person at 23 weeks, they are not in fact a person at 26 or 28. In fact if it is a matter of when they can live unaided, a lot of premature births result in the delivery of a non-person. Yet we do not treat them as such.
The use of consciousness is also highly problematic. Animals are conscious yet are not people at any point in their lives. If you mean self-conscious, then babies are arguably not self-conscious at the point of natural, unaided birth.
Question: At what point after conception does the biological process become a person?
---------- Post added at 14:35 ---------- Previous post was at 14:34 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by danielf
To be honest, that article is pretty much an opinion piece. Now clearly, I can't speak for the reasons why women do have abortions, but in the absence of any data to back up the claims I'm tempted to take that article with a pinch of salt.
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It is an opinion piece, but it is one that relies on anecdotal information the author assumes to be accurate and I think we have no reason to disbelieve him.