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Why is all abortion law immoral? Why can't we draw a line somewhere before 28 weeks and say that if you want an abortion, you have to decide before 7 months ha

Why is all abortion law immoral? Why can't we draw a line somewhere before 28 weeks and say that if you want an abortion, you have to decide before 7 months have gone by? I can't imagine thinking that it should be legal to kill a full term fetus as it's being delivered solely because it hasn't been born yet.

kragen 4y ago
First, as to the abortion question, I'm interested to hear what you think about https://spot.colorado.edu/~heathwoo/Phil160,Fall02/thomson.htm https://spot.colorado.edu/~heathwoo/Phil160,Fall02/thomson.h... (exegesis in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Defense_of_Abortion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Defense_of_Abortion). As for "legal to kill a full term fetus as it's being delivered", of course that is not what is alleged to have happened in this case, and it is wrong, but most people who ever lived disagreed with me about this; as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infanticide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infanticide helpfully explains, "Most Stone Age human societies routinely practiced infanticide, and estimates of children killed by infanticide in the Mesolithic and Neolithic eras vary from 15 to 50 percent. Infanticide continued to be common in most societies after the historical era began, including ancient Greece, ancient Rome, the Phoenicians, ancient China, ancient Japan, Aboriginal Australia, Native Americans, and Native Alaskans." However, surely even if you and I disagree on which acts are real crimes, we can agree that pervasive surveillance by Facebook aids in the prosecutions of many real crimes. But that is not enough to show that it is desirable; it also enables unjust government persecution of people who are doing things that are illegal, but should not be, and this must also be weighed in the balance. From my point of view it is evident that this is such a case. Perhaps your example would be something different: Christians being persecuted for holding worship services in their homes, for example, or the Righteous Among the Nations secretly protecting Jews in their houses during the Holocaust. In short, totalitarianism is not transparently the best form of government, and for many of us this case illustrates the dangers to liberty from Facebook's pervasive surveillance.
- abigail95 4y ago
  You are taking this so far off the rails. We know what Nebraskans think about abortion - they made a 28 week abortion illegal. No mesothilic civilisation is relevant here. If you think a 39 week abortion is wrong, as you say - at what point between 28 and 39 does the abortion become wrong, using the facts of this case? You've already moved the goalposts away from all abortion law is immoral to agreeing with my example.
  - kragen 4y ago
    I am disappointed with the level of your response, and I would like to encourage you to engage with my comment on the rational level on which I wrote it instead of on a purely animal level.

kragen 4y ago

First, as to the abortion question, I'm interested to hear what you think about https://spot.colorado.edu/~heathwoo/Phil160,Fall02/thomson.htm https://spot.colorado.edu/~heathwoo/Phil160,Fall02/thomson.h... (exegesis in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Defense_of_Abortion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Defense_of_Abortion). As for "legal to kill a full term fetus as it's being delivered", of course that is not what is alleged to have happened in this case, and it is wrong, but most people who ever lived disagreed with me about this; as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infanticide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infanticide helpfully explains, "Most Stone Age human societies routinely practiced infanticide, and estimates of children killed by infanticide in the Mesolithic and Neolithic eras vary from 15 to 50 percent. Infanticide continued to be common in most societies after the historical era began, including ancient Greece, ancient Rome, the Phoenicians, ancient China, ancient Japan, Aboriginal Australia, Native Americans, and Native Alaskans." However, surely even if you and I disagree on which acts are real crimes, we can agree that pervasive surveillance by Facebook aids in the prosecutions of many real crimes. But that is not enough to show that it is desirable; it also enables unjust government persecution of people who are doing things that are illegal, but should not be, and this must also be weighed in the balance. From my point of view it is evident that this is such a case. Perhaps your example would be something different: Christians being persecuted for holding worship services in their homes, for example, or the Righteous Among the Nations secretly protecting Jews in their houses during the Holocaust. In short, totalitarianism is not transparently the best form of government, and for many of us this case illustrates the dangers to liberty from Facebook's pervasive surveillance.

abigail95 4y ago
You are taking this so far off the rails. We know what Nebraskans think about abortion - they made a 28 week abortion illegal. No mesothilic civilisation is relevant here. If you think a 39 week abortion is wrong, as you say - at what point between 28 and 39 does the abortion become wrong, using the facts of this case? You've already moved the goalposts away from all abortion law is immoral to agreeing with my example.
- kragen 4y ago
  I am disappointed with the level of your response, and I would like to encourage you to engage with my comment on the rational level on which I wrote it instead of on a purely animal level.