A New Twist on the Abortion Debate
While reading Richard Beattie's article Stems Put Dems on Political Hot Seat, I found myself reminded of the old abortion debate. Our preoccupation with war and security must be subsiding, and know we can go back to the other bread and butter debates.In the comments section, Richard Beattie said "an embryo is living." And he said this almost as if it were a widely proven fact.
Well it isn't, but that's not my beef. Right to lifers tend to insist that an embryo is living. Those who prefer a woman's freedom of choice tend to argue life begins at birth. It's all BS really. One side wants to restrict people from aborting, while the other wants to allow them. The "When does life begin?" debate is really just a proxy that these two sides use to justify their belief on abortion. Apparently beliefs manifested on something objective are more valid than pure beliefs.
Anyways, I don't want to get bogged down into the details of when life beings with respect to abortion. Frankly I don't care when life begins because it seems irrelevant anyways. Most people just oppose or support abortion.
But I did enjoy thinking, if life does begin at conception, what implications would this have?
First, if life began at conception, I'd be 9 months older than I am. I'm 24, but that would make me close to 26! Oh no! I'm young, so I don't mind, but people older than me might not like to have their age increase a year. Well sorry, life begins at conceptions.
Those kids who are 15 years and 3 months old...well now they're old enough to drive. Since life begins at conception, they've been alive for 16 years now. The same goes for people who are 17 years and 3 months old; they're old enough to vote. What's that? Your'e 20 years and 3 months old? Well drink up, you're legal now!
Life beginning at conception would be disastrous for our social security system. Think of all the people who are 64 years old and 3 months or older, but are not 65. That's a lot of people to add to the list. Now Social Security is going to run out of money even sooner. The same goes for Medicare benefits.
- Drinking age is 21?
- Social Security at 65?
- Driving at age 16?
Comments
Interesting. I'm going to say that my life started when I was 10. Making me only 18 years old!
Susan - Wow I had no idea! Do you know which cultures count the pre-birth months? I'm glad you enjoyed. Thanks for the comment.
Some cultures *do* count those 'pre-birth' months. Interesting perspectives you've offered. Made me think. Thanks, :)
Here it is!:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/132896/new_perspective_on_the_abortion_and.html
Coming soon, keep your eyes open for a tie-in article that brings the death penalty debate into this issue.
Heather - I'm glad you enjoyed. I was hoping this would be thought provoking instead of just restating the same old biased rhetoric. Richard - Your questions are good, and you've caught me dodging the issue. I haven't taken a stand on when life begins, and I don't plan to. Like I said, I think people only define when life begins so they feel their opinion is based on a fact, but to me it is still an opinion. I don't care much when life begins, nor do I care about people's opinion on when life begins. I do care whether people oppose abortion and want to prevent others from aborting, or if they want to leave the decision to the parents. I prefer not to force my views onto others, so I chose to let the parents decide. That's my opinion regardless of when life begins.
Very interesting observations Scott. So what of it? Is an embryo alive? So when does life begin? Then when does it actually achieve personhood? Was that life created to become a person? If not why was it created? The measurement of age is a fun concept- I feel older already!
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