On personhood
Okay, here we go.
If you want to make it such that a fertilised ovum is a person, and doing anything to cause that person to not exist is murder, then what you have done is made it so that the person in whose body that other person exists--and for a significant period of time cannot exist without it--is now a slave to the other. Whether she wants that pregnancy or not, she is forced to give the resources of her body to it, and has no recourse.
If we're going to conscript women to servitude, then, we have to provide some sort of recompense. Even the army pays its conscripts.
I hereby propose that whatever man impregnates a woman (since she doesn't get that way herself) must pay restitution to her, in lieu of her being a slave to the condition that he caused. A sperm donor gets paid about $35/specimen. We'll call that an hour's worth of work, including paperwork, time to travel to and from the clinic, and jacking off into a specimen cup.
So if the going rate for reproductive contributions is $35, then the man has $35 worth of input, and the woman has $235,200 ($35/hour * 24 hours * 7 days * 40 weeks), starting immediately after the man's contribution (give or take 2-3 days). That should be sufficient to cover any lost wages from being ill, most medical bills, and pain and suffering caused by the condition of pregnancy itself. If this sum isn't paid in full prior to the child's being born, the man is put into a debtor's prison until such a time as he can pay it off. (Hey, it'll keep the sperminators off the streets!) None of that gives the woman back the year of her life that she is forced to spend in producing this new person, and of course the father will still have to pay ongoing child support. What, you thought that $235k would be child support? That's just your tort payment to the woman, for forcing her enslavement!
Or, you know, we could just make birth control products that have been scientifically proven to be safe and effective available to all women of childbearing age, provide evidence-based, scientifically correct education on reproductive health and contraception, and make safe, legal medical and surgical abortion available.
If you want to make it such that a fertilised ovum is a person, and doing anything to cause that person to not exist is murder, then what you have done is made it so that the person in whose body that other person exists--and for a significant period of time cannot exist without it--is now a slave to the other. Whether she wants that pregnancy or not, she is forced to give the resources of her body to it, and has no recourse.
If we're going to conscript women to servitude, then, we have to provide some sort of recompense. Even the army pays its conscripts.
I hereby propose that whatever man impregnates a woman (since she doesn't get that way herself) must pay restitution to her, in lieu of her being a slave to the condition that he caused. A sperm donor gets paid about $35/specimen. We'll call that an hour's worth of work, including paperwork, time to travel to and from the clinic, and jacking off into a specimen cup.
So if the going rate for reproductive contributions is $35, then the man has $35 worth of input, and the woman has $235,200 ($35/hour * 24 hours * 7 days * 40 weeks), starting immediately after the man's contribution (give or take 2-3 days). That should be sufficient to cover any lost wages from being ill, most medical bills, and pain and suffering caused by the condition of pregnancy itself. If this sum isn't paid in full prior to the child's being born, the man is put into a debtor's prison until such a time as he can pay it off. (Hey, it'll keep the sperminators off the streets!) None of that gives the woman back the year of her life that she is forced to spend in producing this new person, and of course the father will still have to pay ongoing child support. What, you thought that $235k would be child support? That's just your tort payment to the woman, for forcing her enslavement!
Or, you know, we could just make birth control products that have been scientifically proven to be safe and effective available to all women of childbearing age, provide evidence-based, scientifically correct education on reproductive health and contraception, and make safe, legal medical and surgical abortion available.