Your definition of human life is invalid, as there are things covered in your definition as human life that clearly are not: an empty pregnancy sac is clearly not a human life, yet your definition includes it.
You've gone from saying that just because the unborn baby looks human - that doesn't mean it's fully human, to now saying that an empty birth sac means that there isn't life there yet....you're contradicting yourself. So visuals alone isn't proof....yet now suddenly it is. If the fertilisation has been successful, there is a life from that moment on. The life is not immediately visible to the human eye - many things are not <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> Check a microscope sometime. This is why women take the morning after pill. It a nice name for a "threshhold" abortion.
First, if there really is a question about whether or not an abortion kills a living human being, then all abortions should immediately cease until we can be sure that an abortion does not take a human life. In other words, the burden of proof remains on those who want to terminate life to demonstrate that it is not in fact a human life they are destroying.
If there are ANY questions at all when human life begins and clearly there is - then we should err on the side of life, we ought to give the benefit of the doubt to life.
This too is obviously false when 70% of zygotes do NOT have the necessary information to become human beings, because they fail to do so even with the best medical care.
Incorrect. It doesn't "become" a human being during development in the womb. The information is there upon conception. The baby only requires enough time in the womb to grow and be ready to enter the outside world. No amount of you trying to subtract the humanity out of the child is valid.
I said:
An egg on its own or sperm on its own does not produce a life.
You replied:
Nor does a zygote. 70% of them fail.
A zygote IS a life, regardless of "failure rate".
Any basic biology or zoology textbook will teach that at the moment of conception, that is when the egg is fertilized by the sperm bringing into existence the zygote, there is a unique, genetically distinct human being. Notice that this is not a religious question, but one answered by scientific and medical facts. Did you not know this?
Comparing organs to the beginnings of a human life defies belief. Those “bunch of cells” , even in a small number, make up a very complex organism that is already a human being. In other words, we don’t become human beings because we get bigger or become older. We are already human beings from the beginning, and at every stage of life.
Especially those where there is only a pregnancy sac? Especially those (55%) that are flushed down the toilet without you even knowing they were there?
Successful fertilisation produces human life immediately. Miscarriages can occur any stage of the pregnancy whether early or late. There are so many reasons for these happening. A failure of the pregnancy does not cancel out the humanity of the child, as much as you are trying to push this. Which actually lends even further validation to Russ' intial post.
Successful fertilisation must take place and from then on in, it is fingers crossed that nothing will go wrong in the pregnancy and all will allow the baby to grow fully and birth successfully.
My grandparents gave birth to two babies that died because the umbilical cord was wrapped around their neck and strangled them. Perhaps they too were not fully human because they were unable to remove it from their own necks <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
Over 60% of the preemies admitted to the neo-natal intensive care die even with the best medical care. Legally families have the right to refuse life saving medical treatment of children until they reach the age of majority. Traditionally families have had this right. Different people will make different choices, and ethically we need to respect the right of families to make those decisions.
Yes we most definitely do need to respect people that make these heart-wrenching decisions, letting nature take its course in the face of sometimes ludicrous odds maybe the only option! However, once again you are attempting to state that because so many preemies apparently fail at holding onto life with even with the most exhaustive medical intervention somehow makes them....less human. This is simply your opinion, but holds no ground.
The only thing I am gathering from your posts is very much a leaning towards the preference for termination, rather than protection. Every argument you produce is more anti-life than pro-life, which speaks volumes about the kind of philosophy you have clearly bought into and how damaging it potentially can be. Those with your beliefs are very lucky they were born before abortions became so widespread, commonplace and accepted. As a fellow human being, I can honestly say that I am disgusted that anybody would be pro-abortion in the face of even the remote risk of taking an innocent human life.
So if women start telling women what they can do with their bodies (within reason), I'll not say another word.
Appealing to the feminism ego, rather than considering the life of the unborn PWCCA is a bad reflection. We are not talking about the woman's body, we are talking about another life here (an individual). women have rights — over their own bodies but not over other persons’ bodies. The law must respect a “right to privacy” but killing other persons is not a private but a public deed. Persons have a “right to life” but non-persons (e.g., cells, tissues, organs,) do not.
Take a look at any anti-abortion marches and check out how many women you will see marching against it. You would be surprised at how many "men" are all for it, particularly those of loose morals. It suits them just fine for the obvious reasons. If they had half as much balls as they had to make the baby in the first place, they would stand up for the consequences of their actions and protect and nuture the life they have been part of making. Plenty of women have been pressured into abortions by boyfriends.
