StrangerThan
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Joined: 4/25/2008
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quote:
ORIGINAL: tazzygirl
quote:
Explain what you mean by targets.
Look, I am catholic, my view is strictly from that perspective.
When invirtro is used, many eggs are fertilized... that is the time of conception. Eggs are implanted, and, typically, some are frozen for future use. They only keep them so long before thawing them out then incinerating them, unless the donors continue to pay for storage. But that isnt the point of this.
What would your religion call this if not murder based upon your definition?
I wanted to ask the same thing in terms of what targets meant, because herein lies the answer for me in this issue as it does so many other issues in life. Abortion is an intensely personal decision. I know that by uttering that statement someone can probably dig up a jersey girl wannabe who proudly claims she's on her 43rd abortion. I also know that neither side will let you talk in generic terms long before they offer up their showcased exceptions designed to break hearts and crack piggy banks for support.
In any case, for most, at least that I know, it has been an intensely personal decision, one that sometimes carried sadness, sometimes carried guilt well into later years, sometimes carried a sense of relief more than anything else. But those weren't my decisions, nor related to me. I don't find it an affront to my God that I live in a society that has deemed abortion to be a legal process. I'm not responsible for society, nor for each individual within it. Whatever fallout occurs in spiritual, emotional, or legal terms is something the individual is responsible for dealing with in their own lives.
If there is an affront, it is when die hard abortion folk insist there is no life when it can live outside their body. In terms of the acorn and tree analogy you posted, this seed has sprouted. The only reason to insist life does not exist at that point is to make it easier to swallow the fact that you are ending the life of another person. For me that is the point where in the discussion of rights, the right of the child supersedes any right to destroy it.
Again, you can bat this back and forth all day, but if there has to be a point that makes sense in terms of rights, viability to me should be the point where it is no longer a choice. I don't get on the manslaughter boat either. It's murder at that point, as the choice is pre-meditated.
This question is difficult in a lot of ways. Answering it isn't a flippant thing for me. I became a father at 16. I know exactly how hard it is to be a parent when you're still a child. I know how difficult the road ahead is. I know women who 30 years after the fact, still feel remorse. I know others who act as if they've never thought twice about it. I don't think badly of either set and don't see why anything deserves the status of "Target". If there's going to be a bulls eye for me, it is the question of when. I'm not an activist. I'm not going to don bloody clothes and stand outside an abortion center, nor stand on the opposite side and tote my choice sign. What I'm going to do is choose the thing that makes sense to me, and that is the point where life can exist outside the womb. That is the point where I will give support in terms of how I vote, who I give money to, and who I will argue for.
For me, abortion is the taking of life. My personal opinions reflect how I judge myself, not others. In terms of society I think there is a point where the heated exchanges need to stop in favor of a rational discourse, and I think viability is rational. I think it makes sense. I don't feel alone in that stance either. National polls indicate support for abortion as a right, but that support drops dramatically as time passes. I think for most, there's a point where life undeniably exists.
And I think that for many, listening to the diehards on either side carries the feel of standing in a room with wild-haired extremists, with whom rational discussion is impossible and who carry enough hatred in their hearts for the other to never be able to reach a compromise.
_____________________________
--'Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform' - Mark Twain
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RE: Does life begin at a single point? - 
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