Toribash
Original Post
[Sensitive Topic] Abortion, ethical or not?
Well uh, RayA75 asked me to make a discussionthread about abortion.




Here is my view on this matter:

• I do not think killing an unconscious, not self-aware being is murder. That is more a matter of definition than anything so I'd rather not go into that.

• Aborting a child can be traumatizing for the mother. When they chose to do it anyway their choice should be respected and be supported, or left alone at least. Trying to force her not to do it will cause more problems than it would solve.

• Prohibiting something that is high in demand never works out properly. You have to ask yourself “is it worth it?”
My answer, in this case, is “no!” for the following reason:
When you try to prohibit abortions they are going to happen anyway, just not in a clean and save environment of hospitals. Desperate women will try to do it alone or with the help of illegal abortionists somewhere which is likely to cause bad injuries.


I do not encourage abortion, I'd prefer giving the child away for adoption.
But trying to enforce that will not work, so yeah, go for it. vOv

RayA75's Moderated Message:
Yo, keep this thread of high quality. From now on, if posts dip in content, sense, or literacy, people will get infracted
How are you?
For me, my opinion would depend on the situation. If your past the age of 24 with a steady income, why get an abortion? Why not just start a family. But if you're 19 or under still living off/with your parents, jobless and in school, barely able to take care of yourself, you're not ready to take care of a child
Last edited by Leaf; Mar 15, 2012 at 12:00 PM. Reason: God this spell check


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Originally Posted by MegaCash View Post
For me, my opinion would depend on the situation. If your past the age of 24 with a steady income, why get an abortion? Why of just start a family. But if you're 19 or under still living off/with your parents, jobless and in school, barely able to take care of yourself, you're not ready to take care of a child

uh, because you don't want to?
A child is gonna require hard work and most of your free time so don't you dare to just say “just get it because you can”.
Unless you are rich you will be stripped off most of your income. You won't have much fun unless you enjoy being a parent.
Many women chose to give their babies away, most of them probably want to get it abortet because it is easier and won't affect them too much. Yes, that can be considered egoistic, but there is no reason to hate on them. There are enough people.
Last edited by Redundant; Mar 15, 2012 at 11:55 AM.
How are you?
Originally Posted by hey12 View Post
Abortion isnt really killing, it's just killing a egg growing in a womans womb

Contradiction, perhaps? :3
Originally Posted by Redundant View Post
uh, because you don't want to?
A child is gonna require hard work and most of your free time so don't you dare to just say “just get it because you can”.
Unless you are rich you will be stripped off most of your income. You won't have much fun unless you enjoy being a parent.
Many women chose to give their babies away, most of them probably want to get it abortet because it is easier and won't affect them too much. Yes, that can be considered egoistic, but there is no reason to hate on them. There are enough people.

Mind bolding where I implied "get it because you can"? Unless you mean "keep the baby because you can" and not referring to the abortion. Who ever said the most fulfilling things in life are supposed to always be fun? Yea, there are enough people in this world but I'm pretty sure the some of the most bitter of the people in this world could find some sort of joy in watching their spawn grow up and progress through his/her's life


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@Ray:Very good,you have biology aspect of it explained very well.
Let me repeat something and add to it.

A fetus comes from the fertelization of an ovum,right?Your argument is that through killing that fetus,we deprive him from the right to live.But,if it wasn't for the entry of the sperm to the vagina of the women...the baby wouldn't have existed anyway.Meaning that if it wasn't for the "want" of the two people involved in this sexual act,the baby wouldn't have existed.In conclusion,if their was an actual "desire" for the baby to exist,then he would have existed.This case is more related to the case of "oops,I forgot to wear a condom!" in which mistakes happen.There are countless of other situations as well.

Another point is the negative effects which arises from not allowing Abortion which redundant covered pretty well.An increase in the amount of "unwanted babies" ratio will be really higher than the families who are will to adopt a kid anyway.
Originally Posted by RayA75 View Post

I will present my own argument:
When debating whether abortion is ethical or not, we need not argue about when life begins; but the process by which life comes about; and how abortion interferes with said process.
That is to say, abortion ceases the fetus' process to become. Murder ceases the human's being.
Allow me to define my terms.
A sperm in itself is in the process of being a sperm. Over its existence it will continue to be a sperm, unchanged, not becoming something else. This is overlooked when proponents of abortion talk rhetoric such as "Are you gonna say masturbation is as bad as abortion?" A sperm will not become a human being. A sperm will not gain person hood if left to its natural processes. When you kill sperm, you are killing sperm, because in itself, it is only being.
A fertilized egg, or fetus in itself is in the process of becoming a person. If left to its natural processes, it will become a baby, and then a person. A fetus is in the process of becoming. When you perform abortion on a fetus, you are ending the process to become whatever the fetus is becoming, namely a human. When you commit abortion, you are then infringing on the right to become. I will touch upon becoming later again, and how important the right to become is as well.
A human in itself is in the process of being a human, a person. When you muder a person, you kill that person. The person is not becoming something in that a fetus is becoming a person. When you kill a person, then you are infringing on the right to life.


I will return to your original argument and give it another go.You said that a baby is formed from the fertilization of a sperm and an ovum.The formation of those gametes is due to genetic recombination.What this means,is that a human can produce different kinds of gametes,and the meeting of X sperm,and ovum depends on a certain amount of chance.Now,according to your argument,if we're killing this fetus,then we are depriving that fetus from the right of becoming a human.But couldn't you say then as well,that there are "X" possible fetus that were deprived from "becoming" purely because of nature.There was the possibility for a Human "X' to be formed instead of Human "Y",but it didn't happen because of chance.
Your messed up world enthrills me
Originally Posted by RayA75 View Post
I will present my own argument:
When debating whether abortion is ethical or not, we need not argue about when life begins; but the process by which life comes about; and how abortion interferes with said process.
That is to say, abortion ceases the fetus' process to become. Murder ceases the human's being.
Allow me to define my terms.
A sperm in itself is in the process of being a sperm. Over its existence it will continue to be a sperm, unchanged, not becoming something else. This is overlooked when proponents of abortion talk rhetoric such as "Are you gonna say masturbation is as bad as abortion?" A sperm will not become a human being. A sperm will not gain person hood if left to its natural processes. When you kill sperm, you are killing sperm, because in itself, it is only being.
A fertilized egg, or fetus in itself is in the process of becoming a person. If left to its natural processes, it will become a baby, and then a person. A fetus is in the process of becoming. When you perform abortion on a fetus, you are ending the process to become whatever the fetus is becoming, namely a human. When you commit abortion, you are then infringing on the right to become. I will touch upon becoming later again, and how important the right to become is as well.
A human in itself is in the process of being a human, a person. When you murder a person, you kill that person. The person is not becoming something in that a fetus is becoming a person. When you kill a person, then you are infringing on the right to life.

Well, I don't want to endow embryos/fetuses with a right to become because I don't think of them as persons.
Similarly, I don't want to endow tumors with a right to become bigger tumors.

Personhood is, as you say, what the argument boils down to...

Ok, so those rights I mentioned:
In America, and through our common western ethics, particularly the Nicomachean Ethics presented by Aristotle, our right to life is held in extreme regard. That right to life is derived from the right to become. One cannot live without becoming into a living being, as a fetus is.
We can now reasonably infer that the right to become is, or atleast almost as, important as the right to life.

P1 People have a right to life
P2 People develop from fetuses
C Fetuses have a right to develop

Hmm...Doesn't really follow.
If there was never a person, his right to life could never have been violated. I still don't think we ought to allot fetuses a right to develop.

Anyhow, some thoughts on person-hood and whatnot:

We tend to think of people as having a right to life, but we don't extend that privilege to most living beings. We wouldn't think twice about killing scores of bacteria or killing a flea, but we like dolphins. It's not so much life in itself that invokes our empathy and respect, but rather beings with attributes we value in our own species. Attributes like consciousness, cognition, emotions, social behavior, ability to feel pain, etc. While I wouldn't argue that having all of these is necessary to qualify as a person, I think having none of these is a pretty solid disqualifier.

Human fetus lacks these attributes until well into development. It's a human non-person, and as such I don't see why it's entitled to rights which can greatly inconvenience actual persons.

Now, why is abortion legal? Our legality of abortion shows us, who have done such an analysis of our natural human rights, see that our right to become has been infringed on. What is the right on the other side of the argument? Sometimes, it is the mother's right to life. In cases like that, I think the cease of the right to become is justifiable. In other cases like that of rape, it is the trauma of the mother that should come into account.

The circumstances could also have changed since conception, for example: the father disappeared, one or both partners lost employment and income, or perhaps the fetus shows obvious birth defects.

We see that we put the apparent, near sighted, immediate good of convenience in front of a right as simple, as important, as universal, and as human as the right to become. We cannot afford to think this way, and I will challenge anyone to tell me otherwise.

Why not?
Last edited by Odlov; Mar 18, 2012 at 12:09 PM.
Damn, you responded already. I was in the process of editing my post, so re-read it in case you missed anything.
Originally Posted by RayA75 View Post
The argument boils down to how we come to have life. Also, fetuses are not persons. I know. They do not have life. They do not need to have life to have the right to become. They should be endowed with the right to become because through the fetus' processes, we get life. We need the to become to have life. Since we protect life, we must then protect the process by which we get life, the development of the fetus.

Ah, that's more clear.
Regardless, I think protection or termination of that process should be up to individual mothers, and not the government. I don't fancy the thought of countless unwilling brood maidens for the state.

P1 A is indispensable for B
P2 B is regarded as important and is protected
C A also must then be important and protected

I don't think the conclusion necessarily follows.
Saying that people (once they exist) are entitled to protection isn't quite the same as saying we need more of them. We need less. More abortions. Preferably in hospitals, and not with wire hangers.

Originally Posted by RayA75 View Post
Putting convenience in front of life is unethical, and misvalued. Without life, all other rights, including that of convenience. As a culture, we value the satisfaction of our desires, our convenience, our freedom, our wants, over more objective concerns such as that of the becoming. To become is an objective concern. To want is subjective.

Elaborate, please.
What makes 'becoming' an "objective concern"? As far as I'm aware concerns are subjective, and something a fetus lacks.
Last edited by Odlov; Mar 18, 2012 at 12:50 PM.
Originally Posted by RayA75 View Post
Not quite sure what you mean by brood maidens. As for the termination of that process, that deals with the legality of abortion. Entrusting the responsibility of terminating the process to the mothers in question I think is a serious liability that will more often than not, be exploited for convenience.

Well, I feel otherwise. I feel it's much more tragic when a woman can't complete her education and seek out a better father because she got knocked up by some guy she met in a bar. It may be foolish, but I don't think the punishment of incubating and birthing that accidental spawn is worth her crime. And what of the child, once it gets here? Oftentimes what awaits him is an over-crowded orphanage or an unprepared, unwilling teen mother. I think in asking whether abortion is ethical or not, we shouldn't focus just on the fetus.

Out of curiosity, what do you feel about morning-after pills?

No, it is not the same. Being against abortion does not mean that one wants more people in the world.

Yeah, that was a bit of a strawman on my part.
What I meant to say was that the conclusion doesn't necessarily follow.
Just because people are entitled to legal protection doesn't mean that fetal development should be legally protected, even though it is indeed essential for human life.

You feel fetuses are warranted legal "right to become" because they are the means by which people come to be. Why start at the fetus, though? The process starts earlier, with intercourse. You seem to be fine with contraception, though, which likewise precludes the development of a human, only earlier in the process. Why?

Life would be the objective goal for the fetus. No, a fetus does not have a subjective concern. It does not concern. But the ends which fetal development is a means to is life.

Ok, that I can agree with.

Wants are something we experience, like the want for convenience, the want for freedom, the want for happiness, and hell the want for grape juice, are not as important as objective natural ends, such as life, consciousness, person hood, and birth. I don't think it's a stretch to say that life is more important than freedom.

Life of our species is important, I think, but not the life of every potential person.
Last edited by Odlov; Mar 19, 2012 at 09:52 AM.