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Old 10-10-2004, 07:26 PM   #15 (permalink)
Robaggio
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Pro-life is physical altruism taken to extreme absurdities. There are far less people whining about contraceptive methods that destroy eggs or sperm. This shouldn't come as a surprise. Lets face it, sperm and eggs don't look like baby humans- who would want to save these ugly things?

The term 'life' as we know it today is merely the bastardized offspring from idealistic/religious extrapolation of it's true meaning. Using the real definition of life, a non-viable organism (something that can't exist on it's own) is not alive. Fetuses are not viable outside the womb and therefore are not alive. By true definition, life begins at first breath.

Interestingly enough, today we have millions of people who are living artificially. Some have machines that breathe for them, some take blood pressure medication, and some require dialysis. But does this mean that these people are not alive because they could not live without forign devices?

Consider this: food is a forign device required by our body to live. If we do not eat food, we die. If someone with diabetes doesn't take insulin, they will die too. To look at this, we must turn back to the definition of life. A viable organism is alive. By viable, we mean "something that can exist on it's own" (it is significant to note that viable can also be used as "something that can produce living offspring"). Basically, 'existing on one's own' encompasses 'means for which to aquire artificial devices'. For example, if an organism can aquire food on it's own, it is alive. By the same hand, if an organism somehow has the means to manipulate another organism to give it food, it is alive. You and I have the means to aquire food: we go to the store and buy it. Babies also have the means to aquire food: they cry, which manipulates it's parents to give it food. Fetuses do not have means to aquire artificial devices for which to live.

If fetuses do not have the means to aquire things to live, then why do adult humans go to such great lengths to care for them? The answer lies in what fetuses are ultimately made to do: turn into a baby. It is known that certain physical characteristics of babies have the ability to stimulate the brain of other humans. With homo sapiens, this stimulation is more profound in females than in males- i.e. the 'motherly instinct'. Because a fetus is a baby-in-progress, it tends to look like a baby; and thus, begins and ends humanity's fascination with saving these non-viable globs of stem cells.
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