re-igniting the torch. . . .
Exactly. And that's why the state should stay out of the discussion. That's been my point all along.
while I don't agree with your choice of vocabulary or some of your conclusions, at least we seem to have reached a level of agreement that a decision to terminate a pregnancy (up to a certain point) belongs with the woman and not the government.
A lot of folks could benefit from a thoughtful study of the time-line of any moral imperative, alongside the state/society that cultivated it. Most of us are just satisfied with some inane cliche that gets us out of the bind of actually thinking and drives our critics away.
Very early Israelite religion/culture was strongly anti-statist. There was no "King" just "judges" equipped with a plethora of sacrifices that could "atone" for sins and transgressions of their moral code. These "judges" and priests waited like our mods for complaints to be brought before them, and while they had moral imperatives calling for a "death sentence" or "banning", they definitely preferred to do the sacrifices. After all, the sacrifices were their primary means of support. . . . they ate the lambs after burning some small portion.
Unfortunately, we have few actual remnants of this ancient moral code and few references to how it was handled in practical terms. The Bible was written later by King Solomon's priests as Solomon's calvary raided the outlying Israelite population centers, wrecking their temples and altars and commanding all to bring their business to Jerusalem, along with hefty tax payments. Thus Solomon introduced "Statism" to the formerly agrarian idyll that was Israel.
Today's "conservatives" of the fundamentalist Christian culture/religious background fail to understand the superiority of the earlier, less centralized primitive Israel. And that our founding fathers, in upholding individual human rights including freedom of religion, were actually breaking new ground that early Christians never dared to postulate. Thus those who claim that the "Constitution" was inspired by God are actually saying that they have now realized that the Law of Moses and indeed the early Christian faith as well were never rightly understood as the "law" of any nation or rightly taken to be the actual antecedents of our legal system. . . . a tough sell, I know. Nobody has ever believed me for saying so.
However, a "libertarian" as I dream to be, when I went with my wife to a very early ultrasound evaluation of her pregnancy, and saw two little specks the size of a grain of rice with an evident "heartbeat", I was forever rescued from the delusion that this was not human life. The choice a woman makes as to whether she will protect this life is no less a fundamental decision at this stage of a pregnancy as it is when she is deciding whether to smother a bawling colicky babe six month old.
We could divide ourselves into warring camps and slay millions of one another in all stages of life if we just can't find a way to let actual freedom solve this issue. I would be happy to conduct the discussion with kindly entreaties on behalf of the unborn, pictures of little unborn humans and such, and medical investigations into the cognitive development of our unborn.
My wife, on the other hand, has devoted a lifetime to saving these human lives. We have very good results medically in saving a lot of premies at twenty weeks or so. The critical issue at this stage is not neurological nor cognitive, but simply the lung capacity. . . .
One observation I have in strong favor of the fundamentalist Christians in their movement to uphold the sanctity of human life are the testimonies of thousands of women who have turned to Christ after having abortions, who grieve for their decision while having compassion on others in the same straits they once were in. . . .
I don't think we need the government to make us do the right thing. I'm not sure about the murder of adults being equivalent. Even the old Bible did not equate the two but made a separate case for each. If the state cannot protect objectively demonstrable citizens in their life or property, there is no excuse for government at all.
