[extropy-chat] Famous author self destructs in public!Filmateleven.

[Samantha Atkins]

On second thought I will briefly wade into the swamp.

On Jun 5, 2005, at 9:32 AM, Mike Lorrey wrote:
> I would put it that someone who believed a 56 day old fetus was a  
> clump
> of cells with no rights to exist is someone that should be under
> scrutiny for sociopathic tendencies.
>

Judgmental and prejudicial of discussion as ever I see.   Why do you  
belief that just because the 56 day old fetus has a bit more rounded  
head and recognizable 10 fingers and ten toes that it is now fully  
endowed with all rights of the actually born and has all the rights  
at least of the woman carrying it?  Your demarcation seems  
arbitrary.  It certainly doesn't seem objective enough to call those  
who don't see it as you do sociopaths or insane.

Deciding some point in pregnancy that the pregnancy should only be  
terminated for more extreme reason makes sense to me on multiple  
levels.   Part of what I said about a foetus not being a child until  
the parents say so is also a recognition that after the point of  
thinking of the foetus as child accidental loss or abortion becomes  
much more painful emotionally and psychologically.    Contrasted with  
the difficult to define purported rights of the unborn are the  
obviously present rights of the woman carrying it to self- 
determination.   Many are the hormonal and psychological pressures to  
carry to term.  But pregnancy is no cakewalk physically or  
psychologically.  Saying a woman must carry to term just because she  
is pregnant is an abrogation of her rights and involuntary servitude.  
It is a placing of the purported right of the unborn above the rights  
of the woman.  This is obviously problematic.  In practice a balance  
will be struck.  In my personal view I would tend to place the line  
before which abortion is an at will decision roughly at the end of  
the first trimester.   Abortion after some point in pregnancy should  
in my opinion only be for very substantial reasons.

>
>>
>> But I haven't met anyone in real life that actually does. At 56 days
>> there is a lot of tissue there and something that looks quite a lot
>> more like a child then like just a clump of cells.
>>
>
> I'd like to hear Samantha's view on this. 56 days isn't even two  
> months
> yet, well within the first trimester that most women tend to  
> believe is
> their rightful period to execute an abortion without guilt or remorse.

There is almost always a lot of psychologically difficult stuff  
around deciding to abort after the hormones are flowing especially.    
It is not an easy decision and you do women a disservice by painting  
them as uncaring if they abort.   But it is the woman's decision to  
make.

How do you feel about the morning after pill, Mike?   About a week  
after pill?  A month?   Where do you draw your line?   And where do  
you get off calling those who disagree insane or sociopaths?


- samantha
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