I've read the thread. But I do not comprehend your position. You acknowledge that abortion is killing, and you also acknowledge that at some point it is the killing of a human being. The problem I have understanding your position is twofold:
First, let's suppose for a moment that there were real uncertainty about what constitutes a living human being. It seems to me to be your position in effect that because there is uncertainty, then killing should be morally and legally allowable. Let's say you and I are in the same neck of the woods and you are deer hunting, and I am just out on my own, going for a walk in the woods across a clearing from you. You see something moving in the woods across the clearing, but you don't know if the target in your sights is a human being or a deer. You don't know what it is. What is your appropriate response, since you are in doubt about the identity of the moving object. Do you just go ahead and fire because of your uncertainty? If you had a neighbor with you, would you tell him it's ok to just go ahead and fire? Or is the appropriate thing to do to excercise caution when you don't know if your target is a human being or not? If you truly do not know, out of caution, and reverence and respect for human life, then you will not pull the trigger. If you do pull the trigger, and the bullet strikes and kills me, then you have shown a callous and wanton disregard for human life.
Now, I realize that you have already passed the fifth month of your mother's pregnancy so it is easy for you to forget where you came from and consign other human-beings-in-fact who have not yet reached that level of maturity to death because of your own uncertainty as to their humanity. But that seems to me just like not seeing anything wrong with pulling the trigger in the woods when you don't know if the target is a deer or a human being. That is the first thing I do not comprehend.
The second thing I do not comprehend is your use of words in the sentence: "I find it more realistic to say a fertilized egg grows into a fetus which grows into a baby which matures into a human being with all its powers." In my understanding, if words mean anything, 'fertilized egg', 'fetus' and 'baby' are all subsets of the category, 'human being'. I am referring here to objective, scientifically and ontologically irrefutable facts that have been proven beyond cavil, beyond any reasonable doubt for over 150 years. While there are many things of which we human beings are uncertain, this is not one of them. So it simply seems like a category mistake to say that these mature into a human being for the simple reason that they all are already members of that class.
You are right that killing has been going on for a long time in history. There have always been people who did not regard others as being on the same level of humanity as they, but I don't see any reason to tolerate or accomodate it, or even hideously promote it under the rubric of 'population control.' If something is wrong with abortion killing, then EVERYTHING everything is wrong with it. If nothing is wrong with it, then it is no worse that clippings one's fingernails.
Cordially,
If something is wrong with abortion killing, then EVERYTHING everything is wrong with it. If nothing is wrong with it, then it is no worse that clippings one's fingernails.
Here perhaps is one of our major points of difference. I believe it is, under many conditions, worse to bring a fetus into this world - results in more misery and death - than the opposite. So - as I said at the very beginning of my argument - we have a lesser of two evils situation. Let each couple decide for themselves, at least to some extent.
It's not a good situation. There will be abuses, but there are many such. People drive around in Rolls' while others starve, for example. Since I am not religious and am not bothered by the lack of absolutes and the shifting sands we seem to live on, I find my position quite reasonable. I can see why others wouldn't, but I still hope we can find some common ground where we can all live comfortably.