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I'm pro-choice, and one way I think about it is that I want to reduce suffering of children. I have children and I feel reasonably confident that they are capab

I'm pro-choice, and one way I think about it is that I want to reduce suffering of children. I have children and I feel reasonably confident that they are capable of extreme suffering. We have imperfect information and there is no bright line between fetus and child (it's just a continuous development), but I strongly suspect that a fetus at say, 5 weeks, is less capable of suffering than a child. So imagine a situation where a mother and father have a falling out. By week 6 the mother feels there is no future in the relationship and feels she can't offer the coming child a good childhood on her own. I feel if a child is unwanted by the parents, they are more likely to suffer. So in this sense, abortion can be a form of harm reduction. It does not reduce ALL harm, but reduces the net-harm across all parties.

shepherdjerred 2y ago
Here's a snippet from another reply I wrote: Should we encourage abortions for single mothers because their child might not have a happy life? Should we abort fetuses who have some disability? I'm sure that any of those individuals, once born, would prefer to live regardless of circumstance.
- richie_adler 2y ago
  > Should we encourage abortions for single mothers because their child might not have a happy life? Yes. > Should we abort fetuses who have some disability? If the parents are unwilling or unable to deal with it every day for the rest of their life, yes. > I'm sure that any of those individuals, once born, would prefer to live regardless of circumstance. That's too big an assumption. But, in any case, not being born, and not having a working brain capable of abstract thought and understanding of the situation, nor a way to express it, they don't get a vote.
sorryimgreen 2y ago
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