Abortion and Euthanasia
- I think it's inevitable that rationality will win
- A fetus is alive
- A fetus' life is a human life if you define as "human" the life of a 2-day child, of a 4-year old child, etc. all the way to senile elderly people (there's a continuum of lives that we call "human" because one follows from the other in a way that a cat never becomes a human being)
- It is ok to kill a human life under some circumstances (governments do it all the time)
- It is ok to kill a fetus under some circumstances
- A woman should not have the right to make that decision alone: the father is also involved to some extent, and the whole of society is involved to a smaller extent (big difference of course if you got pregnant because you had sex or because you were raped, but, in the former case, you have a responsibility, not just a choice)
- Life is not a binary value. Society has decided that some lives are worth more than others. There are no rights for bacteria or cockroaches. There are "animal rights" for cats and dogs. In fact, in most societies cats and dogs have more rights than fetuses. What society can do to a living being depends on its perceived degree of "being alive".
- Just as it is acceptable to kill a fetus or someone who is about to blow up a bomb in a shopping mall, it will become ok to kill elderly or handicapped people who are a cost to society and for whom nobody is willing to pay. Would you be willing to pay $100 a month to keep me alive if i were a complete vegetable? How about if i were conscious but incapable of moving and reading, totally dependent on a nurse to clean myself: worth paying $100/month? $10? $1? And if you pay it for me, for how many other people would you be willing to?
- And, generally speaking, do old and sick people have a right to make everybody else poorer?
- So the final debate on abortion is a debate in general on who has a right to be alive.
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