Originally Posted by DrHax
Oracle I'm challenging your point of view not because I disagree with your stance, because we both believe a fetus isn't life, but because I think your initial definition of life is in my opinion not strong and can be deconstructed quickly.
You said "if it can't live outside the womb without medical assistance, it isn't life". You went on to think "Okay well if a human is in a vegetative state, that's not really life either" in a way to support that definition. But what about someone who simply cannot breath on their own for the moment, so they are put on a ventilator? They can't survive outside the womb without medical assistance, but they're obviously functioning human beings with complex thoughts, feelings, etc. Let's go even more absurd- what about someone who has been shot. If they don't have surgery to stop the bleeding and remove the bullet, they die. Certainly that person isn't at that point able to maintain homeostasis, he or she will die without medical assistance, he or she is outside the womb, but they also could be walking, talking, thinking, feeling pain, etc. Unless you're arguing that someone who's been shot isn't living they just have the potential for life once the patient nurses off the doctor's work like a baby fetus acts off the womb.
My point is I think we need to do better on our definition than what's been previously stated by you. Hopefully I didn't misrepresent your post though.
No, it's a reasonable counter to my initial statement. However, there's a difference between a fetus that needs medical assistance to stay alive and a 5 year old that needs medical assistance to stay alive. First, the fetus has yet to experience living, while the 5 year old has lived. The mere fact that it has been alive before means that it has rights that are still guaranteed upon it. Somebody dying is still alive and with rights. Those rights end when, beyond reasonable doubt, the individual is unable to return to a stable, living, state. A person who is in a medical coma is still alive because there's a reasonable expectation that they will regain consciousness. A person who is brain dead is not alive since there is no chance at regaining consciousness. Similarly, a fetus has no expectation to survive outside of the womb, even when treated, while a 5 year old with meningitis has a reasonable expectation to survive if treated.
It's like if you dissect a frog and, an hour after death, you artificially stimulate the heart to beat using electricity. It has a pulse, but it's still dead. It will not regain consciousness. It would be foolish to call this corpse of a frog alive. But if you stop the heart of a frog, then resume it's heart within a minute, there's reasonable expectation that the frog will recover and resume normal frog life. The frog, in that minute of no heartbeat, is dying, but it is not yet dead.
If you need a spelling out of my stance, I believe abortion should be legal and readily accessible through to the third trimester, exceptions being instances of rape, incest, and risk to the mother's health. If you carry it to third trimester when abortion is easily accessible, I have less sympathy for your case.
nyan :3
Youtube Channel i sometimes post videos of other games
Youtube Channel i sometimes post videos of other games
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