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Life At Conception

The fetus is turned to a breech position, if necessary, and the doctor pulls one or both legs out of the cervix, which some refer to as 'partial birth' of the fetus. The doctor subsequently extracts the rest of the fetus, leaving only the head still inside the uterus. An incision is made at the base of the skull, a blunt dissector (such as a Kelly clamp) is inserted into the incision and opened to widen the opening,[4] and then a suction catheter is inserted into the opening. The brain is suctioned out, which causes the skull to collapse and allows the fetus to pass more easily through the cervix. The placenta is removed and the uterine wall is vacuum aspirated using a cannula

So basically they don't let it take a breath and suck the brain out.

Reading this will give me nightmares for a week.
 
Interesting discussion. I personally don't get the liberal acceptance of abortion. I don't understand how "my body my choice" became a mainstream sentiment that people freely advocate as if it's common sense. I agree that abortion is a necessary evil when the pregnancy presents a health risk to the mother. And I understand the practical side of making abortion available as to avoid dangerous underground procedures. But I do not understand the cultural acceptance. I have yet to hear a morally consistent defense of abortion on demand, and I think allowing it to become a social norm is surely a net negative for society.
 
And I understand the practical side of making abortion available as to avoid dangerous underground procedures. But I do not understand the cultural acceptance.

Making abortion illegal does not reduce the incidence rate of abortion.

I have yet to hear a morally consistent defense of abortion on demand, and I think allowing it to become a social norm is surely a net negative for society.

You don't think the moral argument behind the famous violinist case is consistent?
 
Interesting discussion. I personally don't get the liberal acceptance of abortion. I don't understand how "my body my choice" became a mainstream sentiment that people freely advocate as if it's common sense. I agree that abortion is a necessary evil when the pregnancy presents a health risk to the mother. And I understand the practical side of making abortion available as to avoid dangerous underground procedures. But I do not understand the cultural acceptance. I have yet to hear a morally consistent defense of abortion on demand, and I think allowing it to become a social norm is surely a net negative for society.

I dont think people should have abortions, I dont think it is a good or healthy thing to do. I think if you get pregnant you should have the kid, love it, raise it, do the best you can. But, I also think it is immoral to bring a child in to this world if you won't love it or will just pass it on to the government to worry about. If you aren't going to be responsible for your child and you are going to **** up its life, dont get pregnant, but if you do either carry it and find an adoptive family, or have an early term abortion, the earlier the better. I think abortion should be an option. I would never do it, but who am I to tell someone else they cant?
 
Making abortion illegal does not reduce the incidence rate of abortion.



You don't think the moral argument behind the famous violinist case is consistent?

I agree with your first statement. It is what I meant when I said that I understood the practical reasons of providing legal abortion.

The violinist argument is completely artificial. The protagonist finds herself in a situation where her life is completely taken over by strangers using her against her will to help someone she's never met. I don't see how that relates to abortion at all? It is an artificial and somewhat farcical scenario that bares no relation to the subject. I can create a similar scenario, but with the hero finding the violinist passed out in his vomit after drinking too much of her home brewed alcohol, and her deciding not to flip him over because it is her body, and thus her choice. The scenario is artificially constructed to reach a certain conclusion.
 
I actually think this is a complicated question, no matter your religion or spiritual believes. I'm an atheist who certainly supports birth-control--I think a person should only have two kids--but the idea of abortion still makes me a bit queasy. I'm not sure there is a right answer. In my mind you can't force a woman to carry a baby. With how expensive it is to raise a kid these days--when in the past it was an economic asset--it's just not a possibility for some people. The only thing you can do is not put yourself, or your woman, in this moral quagmire and make sure you don't cause any unplanned pregnancies.

And that's why you should always do it standing up; they can't get pregnant that way.

I was certainly raised to be a good pro-choice atheist, but I too have a hard time getting it to completely jive with my overall philosophical outlook. There are many moral(philosophical) inconsistencies and even more arbitrary distinctions. I don't like that and to me it is an indication that we're all operating under some false premise that we are taking for granted.
 
Making abortion illegal does not reduce the incidence rate of abortion.



You don't think the moral argument behind the famous violinist case is consistent?

In a lot of ways, I sorta think the government's business ends at my skin, and there is absolutely no legal jurisdiction by the government or anyone else over what goes on inside me. A pregnancy, and the reality that this is another human being inside a woman is just the kind of thing to prove man's incompetence to logically and consistently apply any of our notions about wrong or right. I think it is an excellent example for refuting the whole concept of elitists with their fascist models of governance imposing their views on mankind.

there just isn't any natural authority for doing so.

And if the "Right to Life" folks win this political battle and force their view on the nation, I believe there will just be millions upon millions of women not telling anybody their pregnacy test was positive, which they did in their bathroom, or what they did about it. There will be a huge "black market" for abortifacients, maybe big enough and profitable enough to make drugs like heroin and meth small change.
 
The protagonist finds herself in a situation where her life is completely taken over by strangers using her against her will to help someone she's never met. I don't see how that relates to abortion at all?

The woman finds herself attached to an embryo/fetus she has never met. You really don't see that?

Some people, with more patriarchal mindset, see the embryo/fetus as some sort of extension of the man who did the insemination (at least, morally), but I did not think you were among them.

It is an artificial and somewhat farcical scenario that bares no relation to the subject. I can create a similar scenario, but with the hero finding the violinist passed out in his vomit after drinking too much of her home brewed alcohol, and her deciding not to flip him over because it is her body, and thus her choice. The scenario is artificially constructed to reach a certain conclusion.

In your scenario, is it a crime to refuse to flip over the violinist? Should it be?
 
I don't know, maybe the demand can't keep pace with the increase in irresponsible free whores.

Yea maybe if there weren't so many viagra/steroid up little boys running around dipping their sticks there wouldn't be so many pregnancies. Seriously, your comment is putting all the blame on the women.

Religious beliefs should never be part of law in a democracy. I certainly think that men should have some say in whether they want their child. You can't expect the man to be financially responsible if he has no say. I am against partial-birth abortions but feel the government has no right to tell any one what to do with their bodies. Making laws prohibited some never works just look at prohibition, drugs etc. People will find a way around the law. Do we really want to start throw women into jail because they took the morning after pill? Our prisons are already filled up enough, so how about all the conservatives move on to some other issue that matters.
 
Yea maybe if there weren't so many viagra/steroid up little boys running around dipping their sticks there wouldn't be so many pregnancies. Seriously, your comment is putting all the blame on the women.

Religious beliefs should never be part of law in a democracy. I certainly think that men should have some say in whether they want their child. You can't expect the man to be financially responsible if he has no say. I am against partial-birth abortions but feel the government has no right to tell any one what to do with their bodies. Making laws prohibited some never works just look at prohibition, drugs etc. People will find a way around the law. Do we really want to start throw women into jail because they took the morning after pill? Our prisons are already filled up enough, so how about all the conservatives move on to some other issue that matters.

while this response is pretty good, the first bold is just not consistent with "democracy" if the people in a democracy are religious. Neither is the last if the people are conservative.

democracy has by some thinkers been called a "dictatorship of the majority", deemed to validate the will of some slight majority over the liberty of the minorities in any way the majority wishes. That was a consideration in the minds of some of our founders in favoring a representative constitutional republic with a Bill of Rights and a statement in the text of the Constitution about how it conveyed to the Federal Government no power not enumertated in the Constitution itself, with the Tenth Amendment reserving all other powers to the States, or to the People.
 
I would support a law where, if the child is viable, it would be removed without killing it.

this seems a little atypical for you.

so you would support forcing a woman to submit to a medical procedure (one that does not benefit her) against her wishes?
 
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