What are your Views On abortion(topic is moreso for women)

[totosli_08]

should women be able to have an abortion or should it be illigal. because some people say that it is killing of an unborn child..honestly ..im confused about this topic ..so i take know side of it .because i think women should have the right to there own body ,,but at the same time...its a child... so i dont know what do you think

[liljp617]

My personal stance:  A woman should have the right to an abortion at any point, though I would discourage it except in the events of rape/incest/etc.  I would also stray away from this stance if the mother's life is in danger, in which case, the mother's rights supersede the fetus's.  I think it should remain legal, but I would encourage people to take responsibility unless it is certain the child's life would be ridiculously horrible.


As for the guaranteed future replies: 

1.  An embryo/fetus is not a child, nor is it a baby.  It is neither of those by any legal or biological definition.  It is an embryo/fetus.

2.  You are not arguing for the rights of a person, you are arguing for the rights of a potential person.  The potential person argument is illogical and raises many contradictory questions.

3.  All life is not equal.  If you tell me it is, I'll be calling the police on you for being a mass murderer.

4.  Do not say "murder is murder."  As correct as it may be, it doesn't apply here.  An embryo/fetus is not a person.

[totosli_08]

but like i thought like making a baby starts at conception and thats when the baby begains to form

[bub2631]

This is definitely a topic for women.  but since I am a man I am going to snipe a bit.  Just because its legal doesn't mean that it is mandatory.  A woman's body, a woman's choice.  Of course I never had a child aborted, so it's hard to say if I would be for or against her doing it.  That's why it's a good reason it's legal. Too many details to go through.  DONE

[liljp617]

but like i thought like making a baby starts at conception and thats when the baby begains to form

The term "baby" refers to the period from birth to one year old.  An embryo/fetus is not a baby.  You cannot have a baby until birth.  There is no logical basis for referring to an embryo/fetus as a baby.

As for conception (also known as fertilization), many pro-life individuals say "life begins at conception."  I agree.  Frankly, life began before conception, as both the sperm and egg are alive prior to fertilization.  Many pro-lifers who support this stance will then go on to say that the soul enters upon conception and from this point on it is wrong to kill the development.

What they often fail to realize is that conception is not a point occurrence.  Conception/Fertilization is a process that can take anywhere from 12 to 24 hours.  So when, in that process, does the soul enter?

This brings up even more questions.  If the soul enters upon fertilization, what happens in the event of twinning or a chimera?

For example, twinning would occur after the soul has entered.  Does the soul split in two?  Are there two souls input during fertilization?  Does the soul even enter at conception/fertilization?

Or with a chimera, two fertilized eggs join together to form a single embryo.  If the soul enters upon fertilization, then each of those fertilized eggs had a soul and when the two eggs joined something had to occur.  Did the two souls combine?  Did one of them get destroyed?  Does the soul even enter upon conception/fertilization?


*Of course, all this is based on the assumption that "souls" even exist, which is a fairly baseless assumption at the time*

[dreamyxo]

I believe in a woman's right to decide what's right for her and her own body. 

Can an 8 week old fetus live independently outside of the womb?  No. 

[jnjmolly]

I think it is considered to be a child no matter what stage you are up to.  I think it should only be done under certain situations.  I also think it should be mandatory to go for counseling (if there is enough time) to make sure it is the best choice for you.  A friend of mine had an abortion, and she eventually wanted to have a child with the same partner (she tried to conceive for 3 years), when she went to the doctor, they told her she could not have children.  I think women should think of everything before they make a bad choice, that they may find themselves regretting in the future.

[liljp617]

I think it is considered to be a child no matter what stage you are up to.

On what logical basis and using what definition?  Again, a child is not a zygote/embryo/fetus.  A child is a child, an embryo is an embryo, a fetus is a fetus.  The terminology in the debate over abortion is extremely important to the discussion; it serves no purpose to muddle the terminology.

[newbiestatic]

This is definitely a topic for women.  but since I am a man I am going to snipe a bit.  Just because its legal doesn't mean that it is mandatory.  A woman's body, a woman's choice.  Of course I never had a child aborted, so it's hard to say if I would be for or against her doing it.  That's why it's a good reason it's legal. Too many details to go through.  DONE

I too am a man and would just like to say.....A baby is a human being. Even if the baby is not fully formed, it is still a human being or at least one soon too be. By getting an abortion you destroy that human's goals and dreams they would ever get, stop them from finding love in the world or making someone else happy, and finally just killing off a poor innocent baby!

My View on this is instead of having an abortion although it may be tough to carry the pregnancy just give the baby up for adoption so it has a wonderful caring family and life of its own. You are basically playing G-d with this choice so well yeah I think you get it.

Sorry if that upset anyone but it's what I think.

[liljp617]

I too am a man and would just like to say.....A baby is a human being. Even if the baby is not fully formed, it is still a human being or at least one soon too be.

A baby is the label given to an individual from birth to one year of age.

A baby is a human being.  An embryo/fetus IS NOT -- say it with me, IS NOT -- a baby by any legal or biological definition.  It really is that simple.  You simply cannot have a "baby" prior to birth, there is no getting around this.  You cannot have a baby that isn't "fully formed;" it remains an embryo/fetus if it is not "fully formed."  Stop muddling up the terminology to fit your view on the subject, it's dishonest.

The very last thing you said hits the heart of the potential person argument, which says that a fetus is potentially a person, so it should be given the same rights as a person like you and I.  This is plain irrational. 

You don't base your treatment of things on what they could potentially become.  You and I are both potential corpses (might I add, much more so than a fetus is potentially an individual person).  Should we walk around treating each other like we're dead?  No, that doesn't make any sense.  Your house could potentially burn down in the future.  Should you treat it like so in the present?  No, again it makes no sense.

Furthermore, where does the potential person argument end?  That fetus could be carried to term, be born, and grow up to be a serial rapist.  Should we treat it like a serial rapist from the second it's born?  No, again that makes no sense.  That fetus could be carried to term, be born, and grow up to be the next Ghandi.  Should we treat it like it's the next Ghandi from the second it's born?  No, not at all.

Going even further in questioning how far the potential person argument extends, are you aware of what happens every month if a woman isn't pregnant?  Are you aware of what happens when a male masturbates?  Why aren't people who are pro-life up in a roar over this?  Hey, that sperm and egg that go "unused" are also a potential person.  Shouldn't they be treated like that?  But wait, what happens if a male doesn't *bleep*?  Oh right, the sperm are reabsorbed by the body (aka they're killed).  Is every man and every woman responsible for the killing of people?  I assume you'll answer no.  Why not, it's a potential person after all, correct?

The point is this:  You treat things for what they are, not what they could potentially be.  Treating things for what they could potentially become is illogical, contradicts itself at almost every turn, and pretty much makes every person in the world who has working sex organs a propagator of genocide.

By getting an abortion you destroy that human's goals and dreams they would ever get, stop them from finding love in the world or making someone else happy, and finally just killing off a poor innocent baby!

Show me that a fetus has goals and dreams and I will immediately begin to rethink my position in this debate.

Again, it's not a baby.  There is no logical basis for labeling it a baby.  Label it what it is -- an embryo or fetus.

My View on this is instead of having an abortion although it may be tough to carry the pregnancy just give the baby up for adoption so it has a wonderful caring family and life of its own. You are basically playing G-d with this choice so well yeah I think you get it.

As of 2008, there were 510,000 individuals in foster care.  No where close to that amount get adopted.  Only a fraction of kids in foster care get adopted. Please don't pretend it is some great solution to stick a kid into a foster home.

[totosli_08]

SO BASICLY ..THE REAL QUISTION THAT CONFUSES EVERYBODY IS AT  WHAT WEEK OR STAGE DOES THE EMBRYO OR FETUS BECOME KNOWN AS A BABY ..IF SO SHOULD THERE BE A AGE LIMIT FOR THE BABY TO BE ABORTED BECAUSE I HEARD OF WOMEN THAT WERE PREGNAT AND MURDERED AND THEY CHARGED THE MURDER WITH TWO COUNTS OF MURDER

[BambooPanda13]

Now, many people might call be a hipocrite because I am against the death penalty, but for abortion.  Now, there are specific reasons why.  1. Death penalty is not giving a person a right to their own body and killing them.  They should be punished by having to live with the guilt (hopefully they feel guilt) and other horrible feelings of what they have done.  Then they will die and if there's a god or whatever being they believe in they will be judged accordingly.  2. Taking away a person's right to their body (as in abortion) is wrong.  Unless someone is going to take the embryo from the woman and put it in a surrogate (which to my knowledge can't be done) then no one should be forcing someone to have a baby, even if they will put it up for adoption.  3.  Yes, it is terrible that a tiny life gets snuffed out before it can begin, but that is where another  point comes in. I am tired of hearing about children being neglected, beaten, thrown in trashes, drowned, shaken to death, etc.  Because someone couldn't handle being a parent or couldn't ask for help and their children suffered because of it.  Do you think it is better to let someone who does not want a baby be responsible for having one and then have that child end up in the trash, drowned, etc. dead?!  I don't know when our souls (if you believe in souls) come into bodies, but I can't remember what it was like when I was in the womb so I am going to assume there was not too much to know about.  So I am not saying any life is worth more than another, but  forcing someone who isn't fit to be a parent or not ready to handle parenthood have a child and end up hurting them or killing them is worse for the child who has to suffer through the experience than just being aborted a month or so after conception. 

It sucks, but think about it, I don't want to hear that a 14 year old girl threw her baby away.  I don't want to hear about parents who kept their children in cages, or a mother who drowned all of her children.  If they are too embarrassed or think people will look down on them for getting aborted that they don't get one, then something horrible happens to the children, then that is more horrible than an abortion (to me).  Plus, if they were forced to have the child and then decided to give it up for adoption, well there would be a ton more children who need to be adopted and right now there are already too many who need homes that aren't getting them.  And on top of that there will always be back alley abortion clinics and desperate women trying to take things into their own hands and those options can be deadly and dirty and scarring for life.

So, those are just my views and my opinions.  There will always be a debate about this, it isn't something that is going to go away, and it is hard to say there is a clear cut wrong and right answer, but I try to weigh the positive and negatives of each, and for me not having orphanages or whatever overrun with more children, and babies in trash cans, or babies shaken or drowned, is a good thing and that is what could happen if abortion were illegal.  Some may argue that stuff like this didn't used to happen so often many many years ago, but times have changed.  There weren't people always shooting up schools or public places either, and now for some reason people think it is okay for them to be cowardly and hurt others then kill themselves, but I digress.

Thanks for asking a good debatable question!

[mlbevins]

I do not believe in abortion, but to each their own.  No one can every convence me that at the beginning of the preganacy that the baby is not a baby.  I watch my little boy when I was 10 weeks preganent and at the beginning of the ultrasound he was asleep and sucking his thumb.  After that he woke up he spread out his arms and legs and you could see all of the his fingers and toes.  It was absolutely amazing.  I do not understand how anyone could kill an innocent child, granted there are some situations that you need to question weather an abortion would be okay, but I do not feel that is right for someone to just get rid of it because they don't want the responsibility, there are couples everyday that would love to adopt a child.

[liljp617]

I do not believe in abortion, but to each their own.  No one can every convence me that at the beginning of the preganacy that the baby is not a baby.  I watch my little boy when I was 10 weeks preganent and at the beginning of the ultrasound he was asleep and sucking his thumb.  After that he woke up he spread out his arms and legs and you could see all of the his fingers and toes.  It was absolutely amazing.  I do not understand how anyone could kill an innocent child, granted there are some situations that you need to question weather an abortion would be okay, but I do not feel that is right for someone to just get rid of it because they don't want the responsibility, there are couples everyday that would love to adopt a child.

It is an embryo/fetus.  You can call it a baby as much as you want, but it's like calling a toad a frog.  A toad simply is not a frog, as an embryo/fetus just simply is not a baby.  They're two different words with different meanings and it serves no purpose to use them interchangeably.  All it does is cause confusion in the debate.

Again there were over 500,000 children up for adoption in 2008 in the US alone and, on average, a little over 100,000 get adopted yearly.  If people want to adopt, there are certainly ample number of kids available.

The baby's heartbeat starts at 4 weeks pregnant and the brain is developed at 3 weeks - So think about it.

I'm not really following how this makes a fetus a person.  Could you explain?


As a side note, the brain is certainly not fully developed at 3 weeks.  At 3 weeks, it has just started to develop.  I don't know if that's what you meant or not.

[mlbevins]

I do not believe in abortion, but to each their own.  No one can every convence me that at the beginning of the preganacy that the baby is not a baby.  I watch my little boy when I was 10 weeks preganent and at the beginning of the ultrasound he was asleep and sucking his thumb.  After that he woke up he spread out his arms and legs and you could see all of the his fingers and toes.  It was absolutely amazing.  I do not understand how anyone could kill an innocent child, granted there are some situations that you need to question weather an abortion would be okay, but I do not feel that is right for someone to just get rid of it because they don't want the responsibility, there are couples everyday that would love to adopt a child.

It is an embryo/fetus.  You can call it a baby as much as you want, but it's like calling a toad a frog.  A toad simply is not a frog, as an embryo/fetus just simply is not a baby.  They're two different words with different meanings and it serves no purpose to use them interchangeably.  All it does is cause confusion in the debate.

Again there were over 500,000 children up for adoption in 2008 in the US alone and, on average, a little over 100,000 get adopted yearly.  If people want to adopt, there are certainly ample number of kids available.

The baby's heartbeat starts at 4 weeks pregnant and the brain is developed at 3 weeks - So think about it.

I'm not really following how this makes a fetus a person.  Could you explain?


As a side note, the brain is certainly not fully developed at 3 weeks.  At 3 weeks, it has just started to develop.  I don't know if that's what you meant or not.

I have learned to disregard anything you say.  Half of your comments make no sense and I believe you pull it out the air.