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Originally posted by isis
In this 'SPECIFIC' equation, there is only one, I believe.
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#2 is the zygote.
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And thus, the crux of the problem, which people (usually on the prochoice side) refuse to recognize: What is human life? What does it mean to be a "person"?
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It actually isn't the crux of the problem for everyone. I happen to know a pro-choicer who insists that the z/e/f (zygote/embryo/fetus) is obviously a human being. His issue lies with what force is appropriate for the government to use in the issue of abortion. Whether it's possible for the government to outlaw abortion effectively without violating the pregnant woman's rights. Something like that.
But in most cases, you're absolutely right.
One way I look at it: we need a straight and reasoned line, one the law can act on. Birth is such a line, but partial-birth abortion has shown it to be, for all its convenience, false. Consciousness isn't very clear, but neither is adulthood. The problem with this line is that there is nothing to base it on. It's arbitrary. It can't be the 'feeling pain' thing, or otherwise dentists could become very effective hired killers. And so it can't think? It will, given the time to develop. And that's the key for me; it's developing. Organically. Its own organs. Its own mind. Its own body. It's a life, in an early stage of development.
But then, that's not enough for many. No, human beings are conscious by definition, human beings are independent by definition. And we fight over whose definition is best. And so the story goes on...