Regulating Abortion Thoughts in 2x17

[eektruffle]

So while watching “The Captain’s Hand” again last night, K and I got into a very heated debate about the issue of abortion in terms of what wins out, individual rights or the needs of the whole. So I decided to enumerate some of the arguments instead of studying of a medical school test I have this week. I’m sure there are more that I haven’t

Comments

[eektruffle]

Granted that losing a carrier like the Olympia is a crushing blow to the population and while casualities of war/battles are unavoidable (Lee and Kara responded to this in Scar) but I do believe that the mundane (old age, accidents, murder) death rate far outstrips the current birth rate. At least that's kind of how my mind sees it especially considering gestation is 10 months and it is far easier for a person to die than to give birth in terms of time, effort so that's why I do agree with Dr. Baltar's current model (which I think is only current for that instant of time and may not be true throughout the 18 years if things change). It is important to have children during this time. I believe with 12 people, you can repopulate the human race. There will most likely be some genetic abnormalities and see some type of founder effect due to that but it isn't just about repopulating the human race. It's also about resupplying the military ships of personel. Yes it will take years for those children to grow but if children begin to study at an early age then a 16 or 18 year old young adult could very well fly a viper, it's all in terms of training and how long they have been training.

I do believe extra babies do increase the chance the fleet survives. Not everyone born will go into the military but if you increase the number of children with the same % of children going into the military then by definition you increase the # of people going into the military and thus increase it's military might and therefore increase it's chances of survival since currently the military is the only thing standing between the cylons and deaths door.

I agree that abortion should have been a non-issue at this point. It should have been more in the context of when people believe life begins rather than legislating it to try to increase a number that could have been increased through other means. I think the context that they placed abortion was just wrong.

Anyhow, I thoroughly enjoyed the episode overall. It was interesting that they brought up the abortion issue but I thought it was put out of context and it could have been handled a lot smarter in terms of politically if this was real but it was probably just used as a way to further the plot with Baltar's platform for individual rights. Which I can totally see happening in todays politics so it's not too far from current political issues in that respect.