skullaria wrote:
Pro-choice activists, if there are any left, ought be concerned about the wording on this decision.

"The government has "an interest in promoting respect for human life at all stages in the pregnancy," [That is clearly saying that they consider a fetus human life, isn't it?] said Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, speaking for the court. "The law need not give abortion doctors unfettered choice in the course of their medical practice."

It doesn't say that clearly at all. The only definite human life is the woman, the fetus is questionable. It specifically does not say fetus, it clearly says "human life."

I've known one woman to have one of these. She was very anti-choice. The baby that she so wanted was found at just under 7 months to have severe hydrocephalus and spinal bifida. She was told there was no question the child would be profoundly mentally retarded and would need life long institutional care. After a few weeks of prayer, her and her husband decided to have the procedure.

I think this is exactly the sort of realistic and difficult scenario that comes up with optional late term abortions and often isn't frankly discussed. People talk about rape, incest, and the health of the mother. There is another scenario: The baby may be broken, severely. Is it murder to abort such a pregnancy? This is going to become a vital question very soon now, and I think that searching for theological explanations is as useful here as it is in explaining the age of the planet. This is a deep moral, philosophical problem that absolutely requires an analysis of the alternatives on their impact and merit. I don't really know if anyone deeply addresses this, and I think popping out with a strict interpretation of some scriptural verse is a cop out that avoids taking this issue head-on and does not properly prepare people to handle this situation.

Well, lol, if they'd meant the mother, they'd have said 'respect for the mother.' HA!

Decius wrote:

I've known one woman to have one of these. She was very anti-choice. The baby that she so wanted was found at just under 7 months to have severe hydrocephalus and spinal bifida. She was told there was no question the child would be profoundly mentally retarded and would need life long institutional care. After a few weeks of prayer, her and her husband decided to have the procedure.

I think this is exactly the sort of realistic and difficult scenario that comes up with optional late term abortions and often isn't frankly discussed. People talk about rape, incest, and the health of the mother. There is another scenario: The baby may be broken, severely. Is it murder to abort such a pregnancy? This is going to become a vital question very soon now, and I think that searching for theological explanations is as useful here as it is in explaining the age of the planet. This is a deep moral, philosophical problem that absolutely requires an analysis of the alternatives on their impact and merit. I don't really know if anyone deeply addresses this, and I think popping out with a strict interpretation of some scriptural verse is a cop out that avoids taking this issue head-on and does not properly prepare people to handle this situation.

If you invited someone over to your house for a drink... and they refused to leave, sat on your sofa for months and months, ate a significant portion of your food, attempted to make you moody all day long, made you nauseous, forced you to see the doctor, made you pay their doctor bills, at what point do you get to legally shoot them? Granted... an adult should be able to survive outside of your house so you should be able to kick the asshole out... but it doesn't work this way with a fetus. Even if you put an ad in the paper... no one wants an unborn fetus, only living babies. Therefore a fetus that can't survive on it's own has no rights to live. You're status before you're hatched isn't good enough to warrant protection. You go from being a parasite, to having rights. Maybe, if science advances, Women may be able to have a Postponement wherein the fetus is removed and frozen until such date as they wish to carry the thing to term. I think these would be popular. Think of the ebay possibilities as unused fetuses from deceased celebrities become hot properties.