The Abortion Issue
As many people in the greater atheist community know, Angie the Anti-Theist has just gotten an abortion. She has been blogging and tweeting her experiences during the process.
When I was younger, there was a short period of time in which I considered myself pro-life. But during my early college days I had more than one friend who faced the choice first hand. One of them really respected my opinion and asked me to for advice. At the time it really felt like I was making the choice for my friend and so I felt the weight of that choice. For the record, I was not part of the tango leading to any of these dilemmas. Nevertheless, I am very happy that at this time in America women still have a choice and can make these decisions for themselves.
The thing is that we value life, but we often forget that life carries responsibility. Some people are not ready or do not want that responsibility. In these cases, we have to decide what is best for everyone involved. We have to weigh the potential quality of life vs. the potential quantity of life. There are many choices available and people ought to be free to make those choices for themselves depending on their particular situation.
One philosophical question dealing with this topic has always been the question of when exactly does life begin. Now, I don’t want to state the obvious, but I have always thought that life begins at birth. No one says that a baby is minus 2 years old. That would just be silly. But we can say that a fetus is a potential human life in that it is not yet a baby.
When fundamentalist Christians talk about being pro-life they don’t seem to understand the difference between actual human life and potential human life. To these particular Christians God created all life before it was born. They view potential life as actual life in God’s mind. What they forget is that if everything is part of their God’s divine plan, then the choices that people make concerning life and death must also be part of God’s plan.
Of course their God isn’t real, so that doesn’t really make any difference. However the idea that these people are some how preserving life is just silly. Human life does not begin at conception. Every sperm and every egg are not sacred. The closer a fetus comes to being actually born the more rights society gives to the fetus. But until it is born, it is not yet a human life.
When we measure our age, we don’t tack on 9 months for the time we lived inside the womb. We measure our age and our life by the time spent… alive. Still, I think it is better for fetus to have the chance to actualize their potential in many circumstances. But decisions like this have to be made on a case by case basis and so that is why abortion must be kept legal and the decision must be made by the people involved.
Filed under: abortion, culture war, family values, Parenting, responsibility, sex
