BitaTruble
Posts: 9779
Joined: 1/12/2006
From: Texas
Status: offline
|
~FR~
CALIFORNIA PENAL CODE
SECTION 187-199
187.
Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being, or a fetus, with malice aforethought.
This section shall not apply to any person who commits an act that results in the death of a fetus if any of the following apply:
- The act complied with the Therapeutic Abortion Act, Article 2 (commencing with Section 123400) of Chapter 2 of Part 2 of Division 106 of the Health and Safety Code.
- The act was committed by a holder of a physician's and surgeon's certificate, as defined in the Business and Professions Code, in a case where, to a medical certainty, the result of childbirth would be death of the mother of the fetus or where her death from childbirth, although not medically certain, would be substantially certain or more likely than not.
- The act was solicited, aided, abetted, or consented to by the mother of the fetus.
Subdivision (b) shall not be construed to prohibit the prosecution of any person under any other provision of law.1
I chose my home state of California to start this post. Abortion, in California, does not meet the legal definition of murder. Feel free to see if it meets the legal definition in your home state.
To me, the argument appears to come down to whether or not someone sees a fetus as a human regardless of whether or not the termination of such would result in an actual murder. I think that by any criteria, that's going to be subjective in nature rather than objective and factual. Simply put, some believe that life begins at conception, some that it begins at a certain point in pregnancy and some that life begins at birth. I'm in the middle of the road and believe that human life begins after (not at) conception but before birth. That said, I believe that human 'spirit' begins at conception and if there is trauma of some sort to the vessel, that spirit is then free. I can't prove that because it's simply a matter of faith.
I guess if I'm going to expand on what makes someone an actual human, it's best to start at the beginning. So, how did we all start? Take one gamete, which is basically a mature germ cell with a couple of chromosomes and infuse it with another gamete of the opposite gender and if they mesh, they form a zygote. So far, we've got two germ cells on a date. I can't call that human .. yet. Actually, we'd better start a bit further back than that. What's a germ cell? A small mass of living substance capable of developing into an organism. That's close enough for the purpose of this discussion. So, it's not an organism yet, but it has potential. Anyway, fast forward.. these two germs cells are mature, they get along pretty good and decide to try to make a go of it and start moving and grooving and shaking to the music and doing all the math that's required to divide and conquer the state of being a zygote, so they sit in the cooker for about 12 weeks and, 'lo and behold, they graduate zygote school and head on into fetus university. At this point, my brain goes.. wow, cool.. nature rocks.. that there is on it's way to becoming a mini me. In 'my' mind, that's now a baby and all that's happening from this point on is tweaking the fancy parts. I don't have compassion for mature germ cells but I can't deny that my emotions cloud my judgement once those cells reach the stage where they are human to me.
I am pro-choice for 1st trimester pregnancy and special circumstance. I think every woman has the right to choose if she wants to become pregnant. Rape, incest, faulty birth control all take those choices away and abortion, if made illegal, would further deny a woman the choice on what to do in those circumstances. The special circumstance consideration is that if in giving birth and to a higher degree of medical certainty, such would result in the death of the mother, then a woman should not be forced to choose her own death to bring new life into this world. Some women will chose their own death to save the life of their unborn child, some won't. It needs to remain their choice though, not one in which the state is allowed to mandate the death of an adult simply because they are pregnant.
That's my belief on abortion. My belief on whether or not 'men' should have a say in the choice is, I believe they should be allowed input, a voice, but ultimately, they are the not the gender giving birth so they should 'not' be allowed the final word. That word belongs to the woman unless she, through her consent to do otherwise, has given up the freedom of her choices and puts them into the hands of her Master. That's a whole different ball of wax.
Celeste
_____________________________
"Oh, so it's just like Rock, paper, scissors." He laughed. "You are the wisest woman I know."
|
RE: Abortion - 
Profile
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread