This is a response to Wheylous who had asked me how i changed from being kind of unopinionated on the abortion issue before my introduction to libertarianism/AE to being pro-life. when he was introduced to this forum he ended up becoming solidly pro-choice. Personally i believe this huge issue on freedom/liberty and i dont think in the theory of freedom we should be in disaggreement. So i wonder what yalls opinion on the subject is. If you are pro-choice/pro-life please state circumstances to better understand your posistion.
*side note on a previous post i had said i was 100% pro-life so i begin with a little back pedalling to clarify my position.
wheylous - now im not some wacko as in ‘condoms kill babies’ im all for birth control to prevent conception. now that im thinking about it i shouldnt of said 100%. I forget there are some crazy people out there. Some people even believe jerking off is murder.
if they find out that the child is going to kill the mother if carried to term then surgery should be allowed, but i think everything should be done to save the child. Doctors should keep the baby in the womb until they determine it is imminent danger to the mother to carry it any longer. Before any prochoice ppl ask, i can justify it. If a mental retard has a machine gun and is shooting at me, but literally has no mental ability to know what he is doing (like he thinks its a game or something) then i have a right to defend myself and shoot him in self defense. A baby also isnt trying to kill its mother, but sometimes it does. So that type of abortion would be considered self defense. I also dont like giving an opinion on abortion in cases of rape. That is just a tragic situation though i think a lot can be done to prevent a pregnancy after rape and should be done in rape cases. I’m interested in opinions, and i know this is a pretty big contradiction, but what can i say im human and i think rape is dispicable. If i was forced to make a decision that i have to live with then im pro-life even in rape cases.
Virtually everything else im prolife after conception.
I feel that if you believe in liberty we have to protect the liberties of people who are too weak to protect themselves. That means standing up for an unborn child. Its a difficult subject and i dont really assert my belief on other people unless asked. After conception its not like the baby can turn into a plant or a typewriter. It will be human and there is no changing that. A fetus is inherently human using this as evidence. It should have the same protections as all humans.
Let me ask you this. I normally ask this question to pro-choice people (at least with those people who are being rational and truly want to understand the other side of the argument). A woman goes into labor and she decides right then that she wants an abortion. Can you justify that? Do you really believe she should have that right? Or if labor is too late to decide what about 5 minutes before labor? A week before? two weeks? Everytime i ask that question they will say ‘no!’ and really be disgusted that i would even suggest such a thing. If that is so disgusting how can we morally define when it becomes a child if it IS a child a day before labor? Whats different about a baby that has been in the belly for 9 month than 8 months? 8 and 7? 7 and 6? Some people suggest abortions before a child gets a nervous system, but do nerve endings make you human? Sure it can be considered more ‘humane’ to abort a baby before it can feel, but if i put someone unconscious then killed him/her is that any less of a murder? Maybe suggest abortions before they develope brain function? but is it the mind that makes us human? are vegetables in a coma any less human than you and me? Maybe abortions before the fetus starts looking human? ive seen some ugly people in this world that look more like rodents or horses with stange skin conditions can we morally kill them?! Do we all not cry when Shredder almost kills Master Splinter? I refuse that any one person can prove when that fetus becomes a human. Lets assume if the definition that a fetus becomes human when it gets a nervous system then you mean to tell me that 10 seconds after nerve ending development that child has all rights of a human that 11 seconds prior they werent human? *apply this to any definition
this country we still have 3rd trimester abortions. With todays medicine (im not a doctor and im just guessing) most of those babies can survive outside the womb with medical treatment. Some babies can survive even with out doctors help. They dump the moving and living aborted baby in trashbags. How can we say that a woman has a RIGHT to chose to do that? If a doctor can save a child before or after an abortion how is that not murder if they kill it?
All pro-‘choice’ people should really be honest with themselves and decide what they believe, and not just ‘well i believe in freedom and that means freedom to choose!’ Give it deep thought. 40 something million babies are aborted and killed every single year. Thats not a medical practice, its genocide. They deserve to have a voice. If the Mises Institution is going to be a mecca for liberty migration i dont think this is a subject that we can disagree on (as our philosophy as a whole obviously as individuals we will always disagree on things). I know I sound like my mind is made up on pro-life, but I’m always open to opinions on why you think a woman has a right to abortion. You’ll just have to have some definitive proof or a very abstract way of looking at it that i havent thought of to convince me. If you think that a woman can abort during labor or the day before labor then dont bother because that discussion will go no where fast. Hopefully you dont believe that, and if you dont then we can have a discussion and i would really like to know.
****I am by no means an expert in this subject. There is a TOOOONN of propaganda out there that are outright lies. So if you believe anything im suggesting as facts are wrong i would also like to know.