Although not properly elaborated upon here, this statement is the crux of the fallacious thinking on the part of many who support anti-abortion legislation. It involves their denial of the fact of space-time continuity.
The simple fact is that there is no point of meaningful transition from non-human-being to human being. The process of conception involves millions of individually similar and insignificant chemical events occuring serially and in parallel. On some time scale, the process appears quite smooth and gradual. Life can be said to exist at specific time points, but it does not start at any point.
So, if anyone askes "When does life start?", the answer is simply, "It doesn't."
In short, there is no poof.
Deconstructionist clap trap. I fail to see the fallacy you are trying to manufacture. Are you trying to say that just because an event is not fully understood, or cannot be seen, that it does not occur? That's toddler logic. My son (age three) is still pretty well convinced that if he can't see me, I can't see him. Your argument makes similar assumptions.
Irreducible complexity does not negate causality. For a review of the causal factors surrounding conception, see biology 101.
Your argument about continua fails as well. Pursue time and space down to the smallest observable scales, and reality is essentially discontinuous.
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To many of us pro-lifers, this question is irrelevant until the abortion debate shows even a hint of sanity. Our ultimate goal is to have abortion completely illegalized, but we know that in a democratic society that is never going to happen (without extreme intervention from above). Therefore, we call for at least restrictions that can be passed with a majority of voters. For this to happen we have to make public such research as this.
All we want are sane restrictions at this point in time. When abortions are legal until the baby pops out, when minors can have abortions without their parents being informed yet cannot get their ears pierced, and when any question of viability is met with condemnation about trying to govern women's bodies, our priorities have been skewed.
No sanity exists in the abortion debate at this point - when sane restrictions have been made, then we can talk about narrowing things down to a consensus on when life starts. As it is right now, we are out of control.
tSG
Any mother who pays attention knows all this. Each of my children had the same personality when I got to know them as they did in the womb.
How do people get to the point that can say abortion is okay? When I have mentioned it to my 10 year old he can't believe there are people who would not think a fetus is a real baby, let alone would want to kill the baby.
You're as bad as she is. Science is science except where unborn babies are concerned. Freaking garbage and part of the reason why us evil creatanoids can not stomach techno-bs artists.
Thanks for the post - excellent info!
Self-ping for later read
That's not dew. I love babies, but I'm not gonna touch one until they wash off the blood, bodily fluids, and vaginal mucus.
That's not all he's touching. It's like permanent bathtime in there.
I say, when a fetus is old enough for masturbation, abortion should be off-limits.
Onanicide is Murder!