To: PROLIFE who wrote (17925 ) 5/2/2000 9:28:00 AM From: Neocon Read Replies (3) | Respond to
Bottom line: 1.) It is generally wrong to take human life, and always lamentable, and the bar is set very high before justification is accepted; 2.)The embryo is undoubtedly a human life, nothing else, and is the same organism from conception to birth; 3.) Therefore, it is wrong to abort at any stage, with the possible exception of saving the mother's life. However, the culpability may be mitigated by a variety of factors, and thus we may make a compassionate exception for rape and incest, and refuse to prosecute those abortions. Furthermore, we may treat early abortion more leniently, although still not wholly legitimizing it. Finally, in order to attempt a grand compromise, we might have to consider yielding on the morning after pill, and focus on surgical procedures, the more obvious assault on the fundamental principle. However, sentience, or "personhood", is neither here nor there. We do not have a right to kill the comatose, and only the brain- dead can be taken off of life support. The embryo is not even comatose, but is merely awaiting fuller development.
