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What constitutes a human being?

Even from a biological point of view one can debate the question - since all classifications are human constructs. We have something of that question actually being debated when we discuss our several million year old ancestors.

But I don't want to get side-tracked. I can grant you the humanity of a newly fertilized egg and try to make my point using a slightly different argument. A newly fertilized egg is not a late term fetus. A late term fetus is not a 2 year old child. A child is not a teen-ager. A teen-ager is not a man. We have always recognized these distinctions and many more by treating individuals in these classes in different manners. How we do so depends on race, culture, social class, etc. It's our choice and always has been.

I think it is better for us to legalize the least destructive form of abortion currently possible than it is to continue as we are - or return to the days of totally illegal abortion.

I don't have any ready solutions for those who act irresponsibly - or for many other of life's problems. I don't find people who are pro-abortion to be uniformly disrespectfull of life or anti-abortion the opposite. Other values also count.

I've always been surprised at how different the past is from the present - and in what surprising ways. Europeans still practiced crucifiction at the time of the Napoleonic Wars. They also sold their children. Slavery was legal in America through the 1860's and lynching much engaged in thereafter. Europeans currently regard us as barbaric for continuing to use the death penalty. And so on.

Yes, and they were all wrong and shouldn't have happend in the first place.

I think it is better for us to legalize the least destructive form of abortion currently possible than it is to continue as we are - or return to the days of totally illegal abortion.

The least destructive form of abortion is illegal abortion. All others murder a human. Murdering a child is no less destructive then murdering an adult. Comparison holds for baby-child, fetus-baby, etc. Thinking that certain lives are worth more then others is what lead us to such things as slavery to begin with.

I don't have any ready solutions for those who act irresponsibly - or for many other of life's problems. I don't find people who are pro-abortion to be uniformly disrespectfull of life or anti-abortion the opposite. Other values also count.
Technically, pro-abortion people are uniformly disrespectful of unborn human life, else they wouldn't be pro-abortion by definition. In other words, they don't give the same value of life to a fetus as they do to a child or adult, thus the value of life is lowered for a particular group.

Then I would be for mandatory pregnancy testing of all women who miss a single period - or mandatory monthly testing of all sexually active women who are even contemplating an abortion. Anything to reduce the destructiveness of the procedure. As I said when I suggested compromise in my earlier post - it's just an idea, just a beginning.

Pro-active applied law makes for bad law, especially in this case. One shouldn't have to watch everyone because some might do an abortion. Just watch those that attempt it, or would be suspected to attempt it, as we do with any other crime (or try to). We simply don't need nanny-police watching people every moment of their lives because some may commit a wrong. This goes against the concept that we're innocent until proven guilty. If you illegalize it, then you don't have a nanny-state watching innocent people, and you have a way to deal with those that commit the abortion. If applied completely, your idea may work, but it would at the cost of our freedom, and that cost outweighs the benifits. In other words, it wouldn't be worth it.

-The Hajman-