4 ms·
Kind of moderate. Seems like a thornier moral issue to me than the kind of animal experimentation at issue. I can see how people can maintain hardline stances
by ss108 4y ago
Kind of moderate. Seems like a thornier moral issue to me than the kind of animal experimentation at issue.
I can see how people can maintain hardline stances on abortion. That's their prerogative. I don't think there would necessarily be anything categorically impermissible about an abortion ban; I would just disagree with such a ban substantively. It's not where I would draw the line. But I don't think it's out of the question or harmful that someone would want to draw the line there.
I think this position is generally consistent with the tack I take above, though open to being wrong--in which case, I would sooner adjust my views on abortion than on animal experimentation haha
- civilized 4y agoIt's hard to moralize in someone else's shoes, but I tend to think that consistency would mean taking a hard line on both. A fetus past the first trimester seems like it may well be about as sentient as most non-human animals, and definitely by the end of the second trimester. And I'm not persuaded by that old "violinist" argument. In fact I find it morally repulsive. If you cause another sentient being to come into existence, even unintentionally, you can't just deny responsibility and feel free to terminate their life, as if a random person were strapped to you against your will. It's not a remotely comparable situation. Personally I am OK with abortion and animal experimentation, but I think they stand and fall together, based on how far you extend out your circle of concern to fellow sentient beings.