Does life begin at...

Conception or Birth?

Conception and even before then. A child has a heart beat in the mothers womb I believe after either three weeks or months not to sure though. That's what I believe and I am pretty sure a lot of others believe also.

I agree with Britt and I haven't heard about that story. That's sad what human society is coming to now a days.

That would be a good reason why I wouldn't know. I would only be like 10. :P

We had a case here in Oregon where a person was sent to jail for 30 days for animal abuse...for aborting puppies. Granted it wasn't a nice way (gave the dog something specific to eat to lose the puppies). Yet you can go into a clinic and had a BABY with a HEARTBEAT sucked out with a vacuum, and that is okay? Jailtime for aborting puppies - praise for not having a child."

Dogs don't have rights, while humans do... A woman can go to a clinic because she chose to go there... Animals apparently don't have the same... which is why its punishable if you abort puppies against the mother's will...

Mothers have all the rights over their babies in terms of abortion, and anyone who says otherwise is a bleeding heart liberal who has clearly never been in a situation where abortion really is the best choice for everyone concerned.

Noir, don't put animal and human abortion in the same thread.

Abortion is a total no brainer to me, I just don't get why there is even any debate. Womens body...womens baby....work out who has the right.

Abortion is never a good option. I've not been involved with one thankfully, but I have friends who have and it was emotionally harsh for all concerned. However, they believe and I believe they made the right choice, not only for themselves but for the baby.

It's a last resort, and never an ideal situation, but do I believe women have the right for whatever reasons they might have to get an abortion? Absolutely.

End of the day, it's their bodies and their lives and I feel this overules the rights of their unborn baby.

As Britt said only in cases of rape or something in that circumstance do I think the baby should be aborted but other than that I believe that you should at least have the baby. Put it up for adoption if nothing else. There are families who can't have children and are willing to adopt all the time. If your going to have a baby then why not have it. Abortion is murder and nothing less. There's is no reason to abort a baby. One of most amazing things in life is birth. Why would you end someones life. Notice also that all these people aborting babies are already born. Why can't the baby have the same choice.

I giggled a little bit at "life begins before conception." Hee hee.... Though I guess you could make a philosophical case for it. Maybe we're all little clumps of the same matter that are distinguishable only conceptually, and in that case being born or dying are really only categorizations of language and understanding, and not true descriptions of the phenomena.

I don't know when "life" begins - at what point the entity ceases to be an amalgamation of cells and becomes an actual person. My current feeling is that life and consciousness are processes that are continually "becoming." A batch of mould and a human are both alive, but most of us would consider a human to be more worthwhile, because it is more conscious.. maybe "more alive." In this sense I would consider a full-term baby as "more alive" than a week-old embryo. Becoming conscious doesn't stop at birth, though. For myself I'd say I'm "more of a person" now than I was at age two. Personhood seems to be something that's developed continually. The main reason we don't want to go around killing babies is not so much because they are currently developed people, but more because they contain that chance or capacity for becoming. We have a sense that most humans deserve to live, because they have the chance of becoming "real" people.

In the best of all possible worlds (just assuming that Leibniz was wrong and this isn't it), abortion would never be an issue. Unfortunately, this world is pretty messed up and complicated. Jury's out on this one, for me.

There is nothing more phenomenal to me than two blobs fusing to form another blob, a completely specialised, unique individual that has simply never existed before and never will again. Out of nowhere, unexplained, it is granted the toolbox of Life. It is truly divine.

Do we protect and treasure these miracles? No. We generally don't even notice them. It's quite natural. We are apparently evolved, intelligent creatures that desire pleasure, challenge and convenience. We eat animals and plants, we conduct tests on them, we chop trees, we choke and pollute, we manipulate life. Only if life is HUMAN, do we prize it more. An embryo, depending on its developmental stage, is most likely not perceived as "human" despite its contents and magical life force, and therefore more easily discarded by the likes of us.

As for me, I have always promised myself I will never abort any child of mine. It would disgust me, and I am lucky to afford this decision. Yet being against abortion, though highly noble, cannot be justified. Not only is it hypocritical and stepping on critical civic rights issues, it is effectively warring against IVF, medical research, and scientific progress and understanding. It is allowing scores of women to put themselves at risk, or have grim prospects for themselves, their children, and society. It is too idealistic, backward and dishonourable.

Miracles receive disproportionate attention when it comes to human life.

Of course, if we really care so much about this issue, we should simply enforce a drug that removes the pleasure received from sex and find more evolved and asexual things to waken our sensual desires.
Can't see that happening anytime soon, suckers.