Those who support the right to abortion are actually PRO-LIFE, as they put the rights of human persons ahead of the second hand claims of the human embryo. It is one of the sinister and regrettable ironies, that those who seek to compromise and meter out human rights have fooled the uneducated and the general public into accepting their claims to be “pro life”.
There is no right to live inside the body of another--not even for human persons! Our bodies are not owned by the State. They are our property. It is a simple matter for anyone to claim that so and so requires to be attached to my body in order to have (as a random example) my kidneys filter their blood so they may live. Now keep in mind that there is no dispute that this human with an independent existence outside of the womb is indeed a human person! But what Christian would acquiesce to the imposition of the forced use of his body by the State?
The embryo does not occupy the womb by right, but by permission. One can only imagine the absurdity of granting personhood on a fertilized egg. Let us say that egg then twins? And the one twin takes more nourishment in the struggle for survival and one of them dies. Do we wait until birth before charging it with murder?!
I am, of course, being facetious in order to highlight how ludicrous is the attempt to grant gratuitous rights to a life which has no independent existence and no capacity for either interest or responsibility and which lives in the body of a human person who has all those qualities. Indeed, after conception that zygote is potentially several people should twinning occur.
Studies show that abortions remain relatively constant regardless of whether they are made illegal or not. Because one cannot legislate away the ownership of ones own body--ones own property. The only thing that dramatically affects the incidence of abortion is access to the legal and socially encouraged use of contraceptives. Trying to legislate against abortion is stupid, ineffective, impractical, and immoral. If we use the body of another for our own nourishment or survival we require their permission. Even human persons cannot use the lungs or the kidneys or the bladder or the heart of another…merely because they have a need. Their need or claim is not the Right to the body of another person. It does not work that way. Women are not breeding sows for the State. They are mothers and they give birth to our children and our future. Male gods go not give birth. Those tales are for fools who understand nothing about biology!!
Abortion should Never be a political issue. It is a contrived controversy created by religions whose goal is to control the rights of others and suborn human rights to the whims of the Church and the State. These are the ugly facts of the matter. The history of the church is there for all to see.
It is natural for a woman to permit her potential human child to occupy her womb. When she must remove that permission because of incest, rape, failed contraception or any other reason valid to her mind, then it is a decision she must make. It is her body and her business. Millions of spontaneous abortions occur every year--many of which the woman may well have given permission for the zygotes to remain in their wombs. But life is life. Certainly society could lock up these potential mothers. Of course we could. We could confine them to stalls like sows and connect them to machinery and give them nutrients and hormones to maximise the survival of the millions of fertilized eggs dropped every year. This would pretty much be mandatory if the fertilized egg was equally a human person as the alive and independent woman permitting it to be in her womb? After all, you do not mistreat another person. A person has rights. Society would be able to dictate the activities and behaviours of all pregnant women to ensure the duty of care.
Again, I am being facetious in order to point out the contradictions involved in the obsequious piety of those selfish and controlling individuals who pretend they have a right to the womb of a woman. What arrogance! What pig-like thoughts!
Human rights is not a game. Rights can be enjoyed only by independent human persons separate from the bodies and the independent will of another. Nobody can have a right to the body of another. Nobody has an obligation to permit the State or a rakish drunk to deposit sperm or to implant a fertilized egg without permission. If human life (a fertilized egg in a Petri dish) met all the requirements for human personhood and (therefore) FULL human rights, then the question becomes: does it not then have a right to a womb? Because, of course if any person has the right (rather than the permission) to the body of another person, then people do not have rights--PERIOD. And that is why we do not grant citizenship nor personhood to zygotes. Because if some persons have the right to a woman’s body, then equal rights of all people would dictate that ALL people have a right to the body of another. And that is an ugly thought.
The rational alternative is simple: zygotes are not persons. Human entities independent of the physical body of a recognised person are persons and furthermore have the rights of a person. Abortion is a natural act that cannot be legislated against for any social gain. Legislating against abortion reduces society to the status of brute animals where all property rights are rescinded. If one has no right to their most precious and essential property--their body…then they have no rights to anything. NADA.
Prevent unwanted pregnancies through contraceptives, education--and harsh penalties for rapists. Try to make every pregnancy a wanted pregnancy. There will still be millions of spontaneous abortions each year but these are not the abortions that generally risk the physical or emotional well being of the mother. Yes, those spontaneous abortions (Yahweh's abortions) are indeed human life. But they are not human seniors and not human children and not human persons. They are DNA. Human DNA that got one step further than the millions of human DNA that perish in sperm and menstrual discharge every second. With a bit of nourishment every egg is a potential human with rights. It simply needs a bit more human DNA than the human DNA it already has. Humankind cannot control life at those levels. We are not gods. We need to protect and defend the sanctity of human rights and freedoms. Because human persons are what we are. And we have an independent body and mind and existence. And we have an interest in consequences. And we need to respect human rights and stop insulting half of our species. An embryo is in a woman's womb by permission. It is not our permission. Because it is NOT our body. |
