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abortion

redacted

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yeah. this is a scary topic to start.

anyways, i always see these bumper stickers that say "against abortion? then don't have one and shut up!" to me, that's stupid. if someone is against abortion, it's because they think life starts at conception. so to them, someone who has an abortion is committing murder -- why should they shut up? they should feel obligated to stop it, just like anyone should feel obligated to stop murder.

i personally am pro-choice, but i think many pro-choicers completely miss the whole issue; they think it's black and white. it's NOT. i'm tired of these blind ultra-liberals...
 

mooky

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Abortion.........Not something I'd do, well not unless there was something wrong with the baby anyway. I wouldn't want to see my child suffer.

I do think people should be able to chose for themselves though.

However having said that I think some people take it far to lightly, I know one lady that (rummor has it), has had 5 abortions, and to me thats just wrong.

I think i'd agree that life starts at conception, however thought dosen't, so is it really life?................Um tricky subject, i'll be watching this one with interest.
 

Grayscale

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i see nothing wrong with death in and of itself. however, in society no person has the right to end the life of another.

if pregnancy is bringing someone into life, then that should be correctable if the pregnancy was unintended.

all rights branch out from the existence of life, and if the existence of the life was a mistake then the rights are waived to correct that so that mistake is not perpetuated.

many will say that a fetus is not a person or doesnt have a life... what has a 'life' is anything that is alive, and a person is something that is alive that is a human, regardless of what stage of life it is in. a parent cannot kill their two-year-old-terror because they no longer wish to raise it. the only legitimate reason to end someone's life is if the creation of said life was unintended, and that can be known definitively as soon as someone realizes they are pregnant. past that, i see it as an earlier form of "killing your toddler".
 

Thursday

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i'm for abortion
especially if the parents cannot take care of it
whether it be because of their financial situation, or they are not fit to raise a child
although it is very inhumane to deny anyone of a right to bear a child,
it is also cruel to put a child in a state that it cannot be taken care of properly
especially if the manque parents can barely take care of themselves
 

SillySapienne

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Oh brother...


*leaves thread before full-blown misanthropy kicks in*
 

Thursday

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Oh brother...


*leaves thread before full-blown misanthropy kicks in*

*sings*

" he lies right at you
you know you hate his game
slaps you once in a while
and you live and love in pain

she cries alone at night too often
he smokes and drinks and don't come home at all
only women bleed
only women bleed
only women mmmm...
only women bleed, you know
eehh, sweet..sweet mmmmmm.... "

A.Cooper
 

heart

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yeah. this is a scary topic to start.

anyways, i always see these bumper stickers that say "against abortion? then don't have one and shut up!" to me, that's stupid. if someone is against abortion, it's because they think life starts at conception. so to them, someone who has an abortion is committing murder -- why should they shut up? they should feel obligated to stop it, just like anyone should feel obligated to stop murder.

i personally am pro-choice, but i think many pro-choicers completely miss the whole issue; they think it's black and white. ..

I have had these exact thoughts. It is a difficult issue. For those who believe in a soul, a life beyond this one, we cannot know when the soul comes into the body.
 

Owl

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This post isn't argumentative, but it will hopefully provide a perspective you may not be familiar with.

A human embryo is the type of thing that has the potential to use reason in order to guide its action. An abortion forever deprives this being from exercising its potential to intentionally act in such a way that brings beauty and goodness into a world that is full of suffering.

What is the value of being good and spreading love in our age? Is it worth being born into this age? Is it worth enduring poverty, poor health, and bad parenting? Is it worth dying for?

all rights branch out from the existence of life, and if the existence of the life was a mistake then the rights are waived to correct that.

If the existence of life is not sufficient to gaurantee rights, then in what sense do rights branch out from the existence of life?

I fail to see how it is impermissible to end an intended life if it is permissible to end an unintended life.
 
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I don't want to get into a whole big thing, but the basis of all pro-choice thought is that a fetus is part of the woman's body, not a sentinent being itself. Hence, "Keep the government out of my body" and the like.

If this is true, then why does a murderer face two counts of murder for killing a pregnant woman? This has aggravated me forever, yet it never seems to be a part of the abortion debate.
 

elfinchilde

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Am personally pro-choice.

note: pro-choice doesn't mean you kill every foetus though. It means the mother should have the right to decide whether or not to keep the child; rather than it being a blanket "yes" or "no".

Because rarely is it ever so clearly black and white. What about women who become pregnant after rapes, in countries where abortion is illegal?

There was a case once. An 8 year old Irish girl, who was raped. And become pregnant. No one knew she was pregnant til months later, because the girl was so traumatized, she couldn't even speak after the incident. The Catholic church did not allow an abortion.

Her parents caused an international furore when they took their daughter to England for the abortion instead. The Church had tried to stop them.

The way i see it, when the issue of abortion comes up, it is the measurement of the value of one life versus another: the life of the mother, or the life of the unborn child?

Which takes precedence?

And in that weighing of the balance, is the answer. It can never be so clearly cut-and-dried one way or the other. Because how can outsiders judge what is 'right' and what is 'wrong'?

Hence, pro-choice for me.

(having said that tho, my personal choice would be to keep the child. It's done nothing wrong to deserve death. For even if i don't have the means to bring it up, i can always give it up for adoption: there are so many thousands of childless couples out there, who'd love to have a child. Who'd do anything to have a child. So why deny life a chance?)
 

Grayscale

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If the existence of life is not sufficient to gaurantee rights, then in what sense do rights branch out from the existence of life?

I fail to see how it is impermissible to end an intended life if it is permissible to end an unintended life.

in my opinion, it is permissible to end an unintended life to resolve that lack of intention. if the intention wasn't there, then all that follows is a perpetuation of that mistake, therefore this intention is a dependency of a life without intrinsic error as well as all the rights that come with that life.
 

Owl

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I have had these exact thoughts. It is a difficult issue. For those who believe in a soul, a life beyond this one, we cannot know when the soul comes into the body.

If an infinite, eternal creator existed, and if that creator creates not becuase it is lonely, or because it wants to be worshipped--for it is eternal, and therefore self-maintaining, not standing in need of anything it creates--but it creates in order express its being as a creator, then it should be expected that a full display of its being would be expressed in the act of creation.

The most basic conceptual distinction that can be made is between being and non-being. The next most basic distinction is between material and non-material. A creator of infinite power and wisdom could create beings that are composed of only material properties, or only non-material properties, or both. If this creator existed, and it did not create one of these three most basic branches of being, then in what sense would its creation be a full expression of its power and wisdom?
 

Owl

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in my opinion, it is permissible to end an unintended life to resolve that lack of intention. if the intention wasn't there, then all that follows is a perpetuation of that mistake, therefore this intention is a dependency of a life without intrinsic error as well as all the rights that come with that life.

Just because I intended to have a child, how then am I obligated to refrain from killing that child? What if I decide later that my intention was a mistake, and I should never had intended to have a child?
 

pure_mercury

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Just because I intended to have a child, how then am I obligated to refrain from killing that child? What if I decide later that my intention was a mistake, and I should never had intended to have a child?

You should be a little more precise with the terminology, because that almost sounds like you are arguing for legalized infanticide there.
 

Totenkindly

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I grew up during the "Abortion Wars" -- and being immersed in the conservative church, I heard a lot about this stuff. It always tore me up, to watch two groups of people fighting for "good values" while simultaneously demonizing those who disagree with them. The hypocrisy on both sides was astonishing.

I don't know how I would have felt if I had lived (well, been fully sentient, I was living but still young) through the years before Roe vs Wade, then seen the changes occur. Maybe it would have changed me. But all I saw was the cruelty of adults directed at each other.

I don't think it is a black and white issue at all, it's very complicated.

So... why do we think that life begins at conception?
 

elfinchilde

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If an infinite, eternal creator existed, and if that creator creates not becuase it is lonely, or because it wants to be worshipped--for it is eternal, and therefore self-maintaining, not standing in need of anything it creates--but it creates in order express its being as a creator, then it should be expected that a full display of its being would be expressed in the act of creation.

The most basic conceptual distinction that can be made is between being and non-being. The next most basic distinction is between material and non-material. A creator of infinite power and wisdom could create beings that are composed of only material properties, or only non-material properties, or both. If this creator existed, and it did not create one of these three most basic branches of being, then in what sense would its creation be a full expression of its power and wisdom?

Owl: isn't the first bolded an assumption?

Because if the first is negated, then the second can be explained in one word, albeit flippantly: Humor.

The universe has a sense of humor all its own, some might say.

And all this is being approached from the teleological viewpoint. What if one adheres instead to the belief of random coincidences and chaos? ie, that there is in effect no "grand design", and the universe, and life, are just chance creations of atoms striking together?

Back to the topic though: the idea of life is something that has always been debated. Some would say it begins at the moment of conception. Others, when sentience begins (which is why many use the cut off of the first trimester as being legal for abortion: because before this, the foetus is not that developed yet). What's interesting is that, the moment the foetus has developed a nerve system, it will react to external stimuli on its own already. What constitutes life then? Sentience, or just the mere fact of being?

Slippery slopes.
 

Owl

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You should be a little more precise with the terminology, because that almost sounds like you are arguing for legalized infanticide there.

I'm not arguing for legalized abortion; I'm wondering aloud why it should be illegal.

What about the case in which someone becomes pregnant by mistake, initially decides to keep the baby, but then changes her mind before the baby is born?

Why should intentionality have any prescriptive force? OK, I intended to have this baby, but I intended to have it in order to harvest its organs, or feed it to my dog, or whatever.

What's wrong with that?
 

Ivy

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It seems clear to me that life begins at conception-- it's a multi-cellular organism with a separate genetic identity from its host, the mother. I don't think it follows directly from that that ending life at that stage constitutes murder. I have a hard time believing that preventing a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus, such as what commonly happens with many forms of artificial birth control, is an act of murder.

This murkiness is what makes this topic so slippery, and it's why I think certainty is hubris.
 

scantilyclad

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I thought I personally was pro abortion, until i actually ended up pregnant myself. To me, that embryo was definitely a life. I never understood why there were so many people who were pro-life, until i had my own child.
I don't think that a child's life should be ended because a person made a mistake. It's not the child's fault. As for the people who may not be fit for parenting, there is always adoption. There are lots of people who can't have babies, who would love to adopt a child that you don't want. Childbirth is a gift.

With that said, the only time i think abortion should be an option, is if the female was raped. I can see why you may not want to have that child in your life as a reminder.
 

edel weiss

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I'm pro-choice. I do believe it should be left up to the woman, whether she wants to have the baby or not. It's been proven in the past that making abortion illegal increases the crime rate by a substantial amount. I'm more inclined to believe that life starts after birth.

Of course, abortion shouldn't be used as a crude form of birth control.
 
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