February 21, 2007: Youngest surviving premature baby

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by SeanAhern

Okay, I'm going to betray some of my political leanings here (and probably bring this forum into a quagmire), but I just have to ask...

After seeing this kind of evidence that people can survive after being in the womb for so short a time (and hearing anecdotal evidence of at least two more stories), how can people ever bring themselves to allow abortions on children in utero at that same (and later) stage of development?

Not my business, or yours, what a woman chooses to do with her body.

[SeanAhern]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

Not my business, or yours, what a woman chooses to do with her body.

Unfortunately, I have the beginnings of a migraine this evening, so I can't get into a longer discussion responding to tw, as I'd like. But I will point out that he's staying on the right track.

The issue has never really been about what a woman chooses to do with her own body. It's deciding whether she has the right to choose what to do with someone else's body. The issue is the "personhood" of the life within her. It's not her body we're discussing, really. It has to do with defining when society deems the life within her to have reached a state where it is deserving of the legal protections of people.

In lieu of having being able to have a longer discussion, I'm going to have to point to one of the more rational thinkers of the last few decades, Carl Sagan, who struck a middle ground in this debate. Much of his logic is sound, and provides a good basis to argue from: http://www.2think.org/abortion.shtml

[xoxoxoBruce]

It's not her body we're discussing, really.

The hell it isn't. As long as it's attached, it's as much a part of her as her head, hand or appendix. A turd is not part of her body, a fetus is. :p

[SeanAhern]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

The hell it isn't. As long as it's attached, it's as much a part of her as her head, hand or appendix. A turd is not part of her body, a fetus is. :p

And yet, each can survive when separated from the other. The same can be said for no other thing. Which is why I still stand by my statement that the question of the "personhood of the fetus" is the primary question.

[xoxoxoBruce]

If you cut off her hand and gave it the necessary nutrients, it to would survive.

[Kitsune]

What if we provided a turd with necessary nutrients?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Nope, the turd's already dead. :p

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by SeanAhern

And yet, each can survive when separated from the other. The same can be said for no other thing. Which is why I still stand by my statement that the question of the "personhood of the fetus" is the primary question.

I wonder how long it will be before a group of people try to tell me what I can do with my sperm.