When does "human" life begin?

[IndependentinWis]

Those who appose abortion say at the moment of conception, but conception often happens too late for the egg to stick to the uterine wall and the egg just passes out of the woman. Some who appose abortion feel that all eggs and sperm are "possible" humans and thus appose all contraception methods and masturbation. Some who are for "choice" feel that a woman at any time during the pregnancy have the right to end it. Some who are for choice feel that once the baby is viable outside the mother a abortion is killing a child. I have read, but don't know if it is correct, that the Bible and those who follow the Jewish religion don't consider you a human until you take a breath outside the mother. Some people feel that this is a moral decision and that only the mother can make a choice about when an abortion can take place. Abortion is a constitutional right according to SCOTUS. I guess I have not real answer to when a fetus becomes a human, do you?

 

[fairsheet]

Those who appose abortion say at the moment of conception, but conception often happens too late for the egg to stick to the uterine wall and the egg just passes out of the woman. Some who appose abortion feel that all eggs and sperm are "possible" humans and thus appose all contraception methods and masturbation. Some who are for "choice" feel that a woman at any time during the pregnancy have the right to end it. Some who are for choice feel that once the baby is viable outside the mother a abortion is killing a child. I have read, but don't know if it is correct, that the Bible and those who follow the Jewish religion don't consider you a human until you take a breath outside the mother. Some people feel that this is a moral decision and that only the mother can make a choice about when an abortion can take place. Abortion is a constitutional right according to SCOTUS. I guess I have not real answer to when a fetus becomes a human, do you?

Human life begins whenever we decide that it does.

 

[Minotaur]

Life begins at inception is/was always a scientific description based on biology having less to do with a human baby and more to do with a characteristic of organisms as we non-scientists guess life with applications of another meaning - a baby. That wording was intentionally or unintentionally misunderstood and bastardized. Now we find ourselves having to pretend the life from non-descript goo's stages is a viable baby all the way until the day it is born and each stage of biology along that path. I leave it to women as the choice is hers alone to decide whether a future potentially viable baby is what she wishes to wait for.

For a mom that wants a baby the first sign she is pregnant makes that biological mix a baby and she must wait 9 months to find out if nature cooperates. Nature often interferes with what we want.

 

[zzigzzag]

We become human when we start crying and complaining.

 

[Craig]

Those who appose abortion say at the moment of conception, but conception often happens too late for the egg to stick to the uterine wall and the egg just passes out of the woman. Some who appose abortion feel that all eggs and sperm are "possible" humans and thus appose all contraception methods and masturbation. Some who are for "choice" feel that a woman at any time during the pregnancy have the right to end it. Some who are for choice feel that once the baby is viable outside the mother a abortion is killing a child. I have read, but don't know if it is correct, that the Bible and those who follow the Jewish religion don't consider you a human until you take a breath outside the mother. Some people feel that this is a moral decision and that only the mother can make a choice about when an abortion can take place. Abortion is a constitutional right according to SCOTUS. I guess I have not real answer to when a fetus becomes a human, do you?

I'm a first breath proponent.

 

[Drumcollie]

Human life begins whenever we decide that it does.

Wow! That argument could be made of a lot of things...like being gay...it begins when you choose or decide? So if being gay is not a choice then neither is life...since you didnt have choice in how you were going to be in this world...gay, Democratic, ect....maybe you dont have a choice on when your life begins.

Needless to say the argument for or against abortion is what this comes down to and when can the Democratic abort and I say anytime they want....it is estimated by one right to life group that 54,000,000 plus future Democrats have been aborted since Roe v Wade. I am not opposed to abortion...I would suggest abstinence as a better alternative and more govt budget friendly.

On the other hand if what you say is correct...it could explain why I am still waiting for lefty to become human.

 

[zzigzzag]

Wow! That argument could be made of a lot of things...like being gay...it begins when you choose or decide? So if being gay is not a choice then neither is life...since you didnt have choice in how you were going to be in this world...gay, Democratic, ect....maybe you dont have a choice on when your life begins.

Needless to say the argument for or against abortion is what this comes down to and when can the Democratic abort and I say anytime they want....it is estimated by one right to life group that 54,000,000 plus future Democrats have been aborted since Roe v Wade. I am not opposed to abortion...I would suggest abstinence as a better alternative and more govt budget friendly.

On the other hand if what you say is correct...it could explain why I am still waiting for lefty to become human.

I would suggest abstinence as a better alternative

Then get really fat, bitch a lot and don't bathe too much. It comes easy to some.

 

[Jen]

Those who appose abortion say at the moment of conception, but conception often happens too late for the egg to stick to the uterine wall and the egg just passes out of the woman. Some who appose abortion feel that all eggs and sperm are "possible" humans and thus appose all contraception methods and masturbation. Some who are for "choice" feel that a woman at any time during the pregnancy have the right to end it. Some who are for choice feel that once the baby is viable outside the mother a abortion is killing a child. I have read, but don't know if it is correct, that the Bible and those who follow the Jewish religion don't consider you a human until you take a breath outside the mother. Some people feel that this is a moral decision and that only the mother can make a choice about when an abortion can take place. Abortion is a constitutional right according to SCOTUS. I guess I have not real answer to when a fetus becomes a human, do you?

I strongly believe that if a child is able to take a breath on its own once born, it is a human being and if it has reached that point then "abortion" becomes "infanticide" and if abortion takes place at or after that time, it is the killing of a child. Up until that point it is a choice of a mother and her doctor and whatever they decide should be legal. But as soon as that baby is able to take a breath outside the mother, it has legal rights just as the mother has and no one has the right to just kill it. So at some point in the second trimester a fetus gets its own rights as a person.

Abortion should be legal up to that point I described and contraception, the morning after pill........ should remain legal. If a woman wants an abortion she should have the sense to do it before that baby can breathe on its own.

I am a proponent not of just "first breath" but the ability to take that first breath.

 

[zzigzzag]

I strongly believe that if a child is able to take a breath on its own once born, it is a human being and if it has reached that point then "abortion" becomes "infanticide" and if abortion takes place at or after that time, it is the killing of a child. Up until that point it is a choice of a mother and her doctor and whatever they decide should be legal. But as soon as that baby is able to take a breath outside the mother, it has legal rights just as the mother has and no one has the right to just kill it. So at some point in the second trimester a fetus gets its own rights as a person.

Abortion should be legal up to that point I described and contraception, the morning after pill........ should remain legal. If a woman wants an abortion she should have the sense to do it before that baby can breathe on its own.

I am a proponent not of just "first breath" but the ability to take that first breath.

Covered all the bases to arrive at ambiguity again, I see. Exactly what day of the pregnancy does the "ability to take a breath" arrive?

How about this? If you don't want the baby after the first trimester has passed, you will be forced to carry to term and pay child support until it is eighteen.

 

[Jen]

Covered all the bases to arrive at ambiguity again, I see. Exactly what day of the pregnancy does the "ability to take a breath" arrive?

How about this? If you don't want the baby after the first trimester has passed, you will be forced to carry to term and pay child support until it is eighteen.

I have said before that I believe that abortion should be legal only up to the 20th week. That is beyond the first trimester. Twenty weeks should be plenty of time to decide whether or not you want responsibility for another human life. After that, yes -- the commitment has been made to either give the child up for adoption or support it until it is 18.

 

[zzigzzag]

I have said before that I believe that abortion should be legal only up to the 20th week. That is beyond the first trimester. Twenty weeks should be plenty of time to decide whether or not you want responsibility for another human life. After that, yes -- the commitment has been made to either give the child up for adoption or support it until it is 18.

You'd give them more time to decide than I would. My liberal heart does not bleed for women who can't decide in three months whether or not they could muster total devotion to a child. Dithering that long means "no" to me. Both sides are nuts and defend extreme positions on this one, IMO.

 

[Jen]

You'd give them more time to decide than I would. My liberal heart does not bleed for women who can't decide in three months whether or not they could muster total devotion to a child. Dithering that long means "no" to me. Both sides are nuts and defend extreme positions on this one, IMO.

Nor does my heart bleed for anyone who is dithering about something so important. It's just the outer limit compromise I am willing to make. Personally, I don't believe in abortion at all (unless the life of the mother is actually and acutely at stake), but I do believe in contraception all the way to the morning after pill. And that's where it stops.

I don't feel it would be appropriate to demand that my personal beliefs be reflected in law.

 

[zzigzzag]

I never want to see back alley abortions again. That's why I concede early term abortions. The stark reality of making it completely illegal.

People who want to outlaw or obstruct obtaining contraception for any women who have reached child bearing age are a third world whose self righteousness has eclipsed their common sense. That would serve the purpose of neither side in the larger debate.

 

[fairsheet]

Over the last several years, several maroon states have floated initiatives to legally codify the answer to this question as, "life begins at conception". In both cases, those efforts were rebuffed 2 to 1. Why is that...considering the dark red nature of these states?

I imagine it goes to the fact that once they got to thinking about it, they figured out that its way easier and WAY cheaper, to simply shout that that's when human life begins, than it is to make it law.

For my part, I'd have no problem with a state legislating that life begins when "boy meets girl", as long as the state was willing to back it up, with real laws AND resources.

 

[JuliefromOhio]

Over the last several years, several maroon states have floated initiatives to legally codify the answer to this question as, "life begins at conception". In both cases, those efforts were rebuffed 2 to 1. Why is that...considering the dark red nature of these states?

I imagine it goes to the fact that once they got to thinking about it, they figured out that its way easier and WAY cheaper, to simply shout that that's when human life begins, than it is to make it law.

For my part, I'd have no problem with a state legislating that life begins when "boy meets girl", as long as the state was willing to back it up, with real laws AND resources.

you're thinking of the "Personhood Amendment" which would establish life as beginning at conception, outlaw abortion and outlaw most forms of birth control.

I suspect twas the Christianists themselves who stopped this proposed law in its tracks because it would make in vitro fertilization illegal.

 

[JuliefromOhio]

I have said before that I believe that abortion should be legal only up to the 20th week. That is beyond the first trimester. Twenty weeks should be plenty of time to decide whether or not you want responsibility for another human life. After that, yes -- the commitment has been made to either give the child up for adoption or support it until it is 18.

there are cases where women learn late in the pregnancy that they're carrying an anencephalic or Rosemary's baby or the baby is dead. abortion should be available to them.

 

[Jen]

there are cases where women learn late in the pregnancy that they're carrying an anencephalic or Rosemary's baby or the baby is dead. abortion should be available to them.

Yes. Abortion should be available when that happens. When the baby cannot take a breath outside the womb or has no brain.......... it is not the killing of an infant when an abortion is performed. There is no human life there to be protected.

I don't know what you meant by Rosemary's baby. I read the book but am not certain exactly what you mean there.

I had a friend whose baby was anencephalic and she chose to keep it to term. Another had a baby that she knew a month in advance would be born dead and she kept it until it was born naturally. I don't know if there was a medical reason to do so - so I won't judge their choice there - but I see no reason for a mother to have to go through that.

 

[JackDallas]

Life begins at inception is/was always a scientific description based on biology having less to do with a human baby and more to do with a characteristic of organisms as we non-scientists guess life with applications of another meaning - a baby. That wording was intentionally or unintentionally misunderstood and bastardized. Now we find ourselves having to pretend the life from non-descript goo's stages is a viable baby all the way until the day it is born and each stage of biology along that path. I leave it to women as the choice is hers alone to decide whether a future potentially viable baby is what she wishes to wait for.

For a mom that wants a baby the first sign she is pregnant makes that biological mix a baby and she must wait 9 months to find out if nature cooperates. Nature often interferes with what we want.

I tend to support the Inception theorem if I understand this correctly. My daughter explained to me that the morning after pill can be taken within 48 hours of the dirty deed and will prevent the sperm from reaching the egg and causing fertilization/Inception. It takes 72 hours for the squirmies to reach ground zero.

If this process is interrupted before the egg is fertilized and turns into a zygote then I am okay with it. This takes away the moral imperitive to protect the life of the child once it actually begins.

 

[RedCloud]

I tend to support the Inception theorem if I understand this correctly. My daughter explained to me that the morning after pill can be taken within 48 hours of the dirty deed and will prevent the sperm from reaching the egg and causing fertilization/Inception. It takes 72 hours for the squirmies to reach ground zero.

If this process is interrupted before the egg is fertilized and turns into a zygote then I am okay with it. This takes away the moral imperitive to protect the life of the child once it actually begins.

"It takes 72 hours for the squirmies to reach ground zero." Jack, you must be basing this on your own anatomy. The nearer sperm is ejaculated to the egg, the less time it takes to get there. I think mine took 31/2 seconds.

 

[JackDallas]

"It takes 72 hours for the squirmies to reach ground zero." Jack, you must be basing this on your own anatomy. The nearer sperm is ejaculated to the egg, the less time it takes to get there. I think mine took 31/2 seconds.

Just because your ancestors f**ked buffaloes doesn't mean that Indians have big peckers.