Of course, there were people in the 1800s who thought the same thing would happen if you gave freedom to the slaves.
Quickly, because I have to go:
Persons have equal rights (it doesn't matter what color they are what language they speak. They can be 6 feet tall--or they cv=can be two inches). THey are also entitled to equal treatment under the law (regardless of their color, etc.). All violations against persons are supposed to be punished with a degree of similitude (whether you kill, abuse, or neglect a big person, a little person, a poor person or a rich one).
Now, we can uphold those principles of equality when it comes to color issues, etc. But the neither the comparison nor the ability exists when we say that an embryo is a person and therefore has equal rights, etc. etc. etc.
Now the same number of embryos will be aborted as before--or vwery nearly the same, but if we are to maitain the basis of our rule by law, then obviously we cannot violate the principles of equal rights, equal treatment, commensurate punishment on which our western society is based.
My statement was not a silly one. If you wish to pretend that society can grant personhood to an embryo without it leading into criminal and cibvil charges on a daily basis, and without destroying the ethical framework that our social mores and our legal case law upholds and advances, then you are only pretending.
If embryos were truly persons then society (as well as the mother) would have an inviolate obligation to protect them from abuse, injury, and death--and to punish any and all persons who contributed or counselled any violation of the person's rights to LIFE, LIBERTY, and the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. You don't legally give person status to someone or something merely for the fun of it. It has consequences. Now the status of slaves, women, etc. as persons should never have been denied. And the status of a 1 inch clump of cells as a person should never be considered. And trust me, on the day it ever is, this country will be at war. And it will be YOU (Christopher Hodkins) at the forefront and speaking out for the rights to life , liberty, and the pursuit of happiness--and you WON'T be thinking about embryos... |
