Some thoughts on the abortion debate

[gemfyre]

Someone on abortiondebate asked a question to the effect of what was the difference between abortion and infanticide.

My reply was that I really didn't see much of a fundamental difference.  It was just a better option to get it done as early as possible and because it was not socially acceptable to kill a born child (heck, people still do it anyway).

I've been thinking further on the subject since and came up with a few things.

Most abortions are carried out because the mother cannot properly raise the child/does not want the child (therefore cannot properly raise it, it's kinda hard to be loving to something you never wanted)/cannot go through pregnancy (for whatever reason).

The world does not need more unwanted children.  Yes, there are SOOO MANY childless couples out there why on earth are you aborting??!!!1one  The truth?  There are also thousands of children out there waiting to be adopted.  Maybe we should take care of them first before we insist on people who don't want to be pregnant on having a child and giving it up.

Anyways, that isn't my point.  Why is abortion more okay than infanticide?  My thoughts.

When a born person is killed, it affects everyone around them.  Friends, accquaintances, loved ones.  They all feel the loss.  This person had a life, knowledge, memories that have been snuffed out.

When an embryo or foetus is aborted, only the mother and maybe the father feel the loss (and possibly other family members, but if a child is going to be aborted, the mother generally doesn't go telling everyone she's pregnant).  The unborn didn't possess any knowledge to divulge, didn't have deeds to finish, it was just a blank slate.

So that's it.  It's preferable to terminate the life before while it's still a blank.  And pregnancy is one of the things many women who abort want to avoid.

Comments

[stawberi.livejournal.com]

Well... according to the criminal code, abortion is terminating a pregnancy, it's only lawful if performed by a medical practitioner.

Killing unborn child is another offence, where a baby about to be delivered is stopped from being born alive by an act/or omission without which it would have been born alive.

A pregnancy becomes a person when all of it is out of the mother, whether or not it has taken its first breath, has independant circulation, or is still connected by the umbilical cord.

Now, and interesting this is, that legally, infanticide is when a girl or woman causes the death of their baby due to their suffering some sort of post-natal depression. It has consequences less severe than murder.

Just some definitions which might be helpful. In my opinion, abortion is different, because you can't give a pregnancy up for adoption like you could a baby, and it's not something you should have to go through against your will.

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

I'm not a fan of law so I usuaully don't bring it into the argument.

I just see things as they are, not as what's technically legal and what's not.

I have many gripes with law. This is why you're studying it and not me. :)

[stawberi.livejournal.com]

Heh. I'm not too fond of all the legal stuff either, one of the first things we're told is that law makes no sense and we'd better just get used to it.

But I was looking at infanticide in one of the lectures today, so it was already in my mind.