David: Abortion
For whatever reason this topic keeps finding me over the past few days. I ignore the desire to comment on Facebook or reddit posts as I know it won't lead anywhere constructive. I've got to hit the release valve though, and where else but here would I lay out a few thoughts?
I struggle with my feelings on abortion, and I find that they vary based upon the situation presented. Whenever I see people discussing the issue, however, I seem to have two choices; hate women enough to strip them of their reproductive rights or completely disregard my belief that a developing fetus is a living proto-human. There isn't a gray area allowed. You're either pro-choice or pro-life, but never pro-letstakethesituationintocontext.
The problem I face is that I believe there are valid reasons for terminating a pregnancy, but I also believe that it is a sanctioned homicide. From a secular viewpoint there's a moral logic hurdle to overcome.
My opinions on some of the common situations I see bandied about: Should a rape victim be forced to carry a resultant pregnancy to term? No. Should a 13 year old girl be forced to upend her entire potential future because she made the poor choice to become impregnated at such an early age? No. Is it fair that the 13 year old boy's future hinges on her decision? No. Should she be back getting another abortion when she's 15. No. Should the woman carrying a baby with defects that will give it little to no quality of life be forced to bring it into the world? No. Should abortion be a form of birth-control. No.
I'm a bit of a strange one if I start thinking about things too hard. I run little thought experiments in my head to try and make myself believe the other side of things. I'm going to list two of those experiments and then bug out before this becomes an essay.
Experiment 1. I don't like you, and I want you dead. Problem is, killing you is illegal. I've invented a time machine, however, and I'm going to use it to travel back to a time when you were in your mother's womb. I'm then going to talk her into having an abortion, as I can be rather persuasive. When I get back to my own time, it will be as if you never existed. Please ignore any paradoxes and focus the morality. Have I or your mother done anything wrong?
Experiment 2. A family has six kids and the wife is pregnant with a seventh. They are struggling financially, and the quality of life is already very low with the current number of children who are malnourished. So the father makes a difficult decision and kills one of the children in their sleep saving them from their horrible living conditions. How does the morality of his act compare with the morality of his wife deciding to have the fetus aborted?
![[Valid RSS]](themes/vent_classic/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed")