Abortion

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Dennis Hackethal’s avatar
Dennis HackethalOP revised about 1 year ago·#299· Collapse
3rd of 3 versions leading to #120

I’m pro abortion but I have some pro life in me.

Banning the abortion of a zygote seems ridiculous. So does aborting a seven-month-old fetus.

Why not go with: you can abort until the nervous system develops.

Clearly, an embryo without a nervous system can’t be sentient and thus can’t be a person, right? And as long as it’s not a person, it doesn’t have any rights.

According to https://www.neurosciencefoundation.org/post/brain-development-in-fetus, “an embryo’s brain and nervous system begin to develop at around the 6-week mark.” And: “At as early as 8 weeks (about 2 months), you can see physical evidence of the brain working (the electric impulses) as ultrasounds show the embryo moving.”

This idea is for viable pregnancies only. Other considerations may apply for non-viable ones.

Dennis Hackethal’s avatar
Dennis HackethalOP, about 1 year ago·#120· Collapse
1st of 2 versions

There’s ‘evictionism’: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evictionism

I like this view because it sidesteps the issue of personhood and at what point it arises. It says you’re free to evict anything, person or not. We don’t how creativity (ie the universal-explainer software mentioned in #119) works so this is handy.

(Amaro)

Criticism of #299Criticized3oustanding criticisms
Dennis Hackethal’s avatar
Dennis HackethalOP, about 1 year ago·#121· Collapse

The linked Wikipedia article says:

Evictionists view a woman's womb as her property and an unwanted fetus as a "trespasser or parasite", even while lacking the will to act. They argue that a pregnant woman has the right to evict a fetus from her body since she has no obligation to care for a trespasser.

If this is an accurate description of the evictionist view, it strikes me as deeply flawed.

A pregnant woman does have an obligation to care for her fetus (at least once it’s a person). She took an action which resulted in the fetus’s existence.

Criticism of #120
Dennis Hackethal’s avatar
Dennis HackethalOP, about 1 year ago·#122· Collapse

Building on #121, a baby is not a “trespasser”. A pregnant woman ‘invited’ the baby into her womb. Unless she was raped, in which case the rapist ‘put’ the baby there. But the baby is blameless either way and thus can’t be likened to a trespasser.

Criticism of #120
Dennis Hackethal’s avatar
Dennis HackethalOP, about 1 year ago·#135· Collapse

Superseded by #134. This comment was generated automatically.

Criticism of #120