You're a person when you're born? I thought we weren't attaching special magic meaning to something's simple biology (a blastocyst isn't a person). But now we're attaching special magic meaning to the fact that something took the ride down the birth canal? Round and round we go.
And how is it justified again? How is "it's a person after it's special magic ride down the birth canal" a more legitimate understanding of personhood than "it's a person after the sperm enters the egg?"
The availability of alternatives to abortion (like adoption) has nothing to do with the initial question of what makes something a person, and thus morally protected.
The point I'm getting at with these questions (and take a last word if you like, I'll stop tying up Michael's LJ) is that personhood is determined by one's worldview. There is not one answer we can all agree on. People hold incompatible and often incommensurable worldviews. But rather than fight it to the death, we duke it out in a political system. And Roe v. Wade prevented us from doing that. By now it's been around so long, I personally think it should stay (a cop out). But pro-lifers aren't all crazy religious nuts who bomb clinics or misogynists who want to tell women what to do with their bodies, but reasonable people who disagree with pro-lifers about what a person is, and are legitimately upset not just about a perceived moral wrong but about the fact that they never got to have their say about it--which makes them feel helpless. So they rage against Roe. And pro-choicers rage back.
And how is it justified again? How is "it's a person after it's special magic ride down the birth canal" a more legitimate understanding of personhood than "it's a person after the sperm enters the egg?"
The availability of alternatives to abortion (like adoption) has nothing to do with the initial question of what makes something a person, and thus morally protected.
The point I'm getting at with these questions (and take a last word if you like, I'll stop tying up Michael's LJ) is that personhood is determined by one's worldview. There is not one answer we can all agree on. People hold incompatible and often incommensurable worldviews. But rather than fight it to the death, we duke it out in a political system. And Roe v. Wade prevented us from doing that. By now it's been around so long, I personally think it should stay (a cop out). But pro-lifers aren't all crazy religious nuts who bomb clinics or misogynists who want to tell women what to do with their bodies, but reasonable people who disagree with pro-lifers about what a person is, and are legitimately upset not just about a perceived moral wrong but about the fact that they never got to have their say about it--which makes them feel helpless. So they rage against Roe. And pro-choicers rage back.
Reply
Leave a comment