Poll: Abortion

[Aethix 129]

Abortion is a very important issue to many people, and I'm wondering what the opinions of the people on this board are. I personally belive that life begins at conception and that abortion is murder, unless the mother's life is endangered by the pregnancy.

[Aatch 0]

How does one define life? Using "MRS GREN" you can say that almost everything that is biological and moves is alive, with the notable exception of virii.

This means that the sperm is alive, and the egg is alive, so technically, life was not created at conception, but before conception. Am I committing murder right now because my body is absorbing three-day-old sperm that is about to die? No of course not.

With out a solid definition of life, or at least a solid definition of human life, trying to rationalise being against abortion is pointless, especially considering the arguments for it.

First take a look at the conditions under which abortion is considered: Rape and unplanned.

Rape is the major one here, as 95%* of the abortions considered are because a rape victim did not get the morning-after pill in time (should also be considered illegal under your terms as it prevents a fertilised egg from embedding itself in the placenta, and would "die"). Imagine the horror of having to give birth and raise the child of your rapist. Imagine looking at your child, which you are expected to love and care for, and being reminded of the most horrific moment in oyur life. Post-natal depression is a real issue as it is in society, a "rape-baby" would never recieve the same amount of love and care as a "regular" baby.

And unplanned baby is more of a sticking point. But I can atleast draw on personal experience here. I was in a sexually-active relationship. As such me and my girlfriend accepted the risks and did the best we could to prevent any unwanted outcomes. However, she did, once, miss her period, we both accepted that pregnancy was a possibility and she took a pregnancy test. However, in the few days before she could take a pregancy test, we drew up plans for what we would do if she was pregnant. All of them required one or both of us to leave school, either immediately or at the end of the year. No plan could be seen where our current plans could be kept. At 16, being a father did not appeal to me.

Now these plans were drawn up because she did not want an abortion, because of her own personal decision. I respected this. She was not however preganant, and all things returned to normal.

Had she wanted an abortion, I would have respected that choice as well. Since teenage pregnancies have such a big blow on the parents lives, abortion is an option to make it go away. Making abortions illegal would force that decision for many people.

My final point is that shouldn't a woman have say over her own body? There are already rules about abortion in place, most doctors will only perform abortions while the child is still an embryo, a simple blob of cells. The emotional attachment a woman feels for her unborn child is enough to make this more than a lifestyle decision.

I believe that, given the overall populus, the rules should stay the same. A few weeks window while abortion is still an option, otherwise the child has to be born. Forcing personal and religious opinion on an entire country goes against the entire idea of democracy and commitee.

[The Count 0]

I think it should be legal, but only under very very very strict conditions. It's still like killing someone. So I'm not really for it, but there are certain situations where it might be done.

[True Gamer 19]

Unless a girl is having the baby of a rapist, then I'm completely against abortion. If she's not ready to have a baby, then don't have unprotected sex...or even sex for that matter. That's just a consequence two people will have to face if they risk it for sex. They can't murder the child just because the mom and dad messed up.

[True Gamer 19]

Who are you to decide what is and what is not murder? And sure you can.

I am not deciding what murder is. Murder is against the law, yet it's ok to kill a baby that has not come out of a woman's womb yet?

[Chameleon 0]

Abortion is a very important issue to many people, and I'm wondering what the opinions of the people on this board are. I personally belive that life begins at conception and that abortion is murder, unless the mother's life is endangered by the pregnancy.

That's where the whole anti-abortion thing runs weak.

[Ganny 285]

How does one define life? Using "MRS GREN" you can say that almost everything that is biological and moves is alive, with the notable exception of virii.

This means that the sperm is alive, and the egg is alive, so technically, life was not created at conception, but before conception. Am I committing murder right now because my body is absorbing three-day-old sperm that is about to die? No of course not.

With out a solid definition of life, or at least a solid definition of human life, trying to rationalise being against abortion is pointless, especially considering the arguments for it.

First take a look at the conditions under which abortion is considered: Rape and unplanned.

Rape is the major one here, as 95%* of the abortions considered are because a rape victim did not get the morning-after pill in time (should also be considered illegal under your terms as it prevents a fertilised egg from embedding itself in the placenta, and would "die"). Imagine the horror of having to give birth and raise the child of your rapist. Imagine looking at your child, which you are expected to love and care for, and being reminded of the most horrific moment in oyur life. Post-natal depression is a real issue as it is in society, a "rape-baby" would never recieve the same amount of love and care as a "regular" baby.

There are already rules about abortion in place, most doctors will only perform abortions while the child is still an embryo, a simple blob of cells.

A human blob of cells. You're being indefinite here; we're all blobs of cells. How many cells does it take to make us a complex blob of cells? You can't put a proper definition on that. At the moment the male and female gametes fuse, that is a human in its earliest form.

Also, under any circumstance, whether rape-induced or unwanted, a baby can be put up for adoption. There are many couples who would love to have a child to care for, but they can't, for various reasons. If we picture the baby as a gift: when someone receives a gift, whether it be for a birthday or Christmas or what have you, and this person doesn't want it, he or she doesn't just throw it away. No, they regift it and give it to someone else. It would make this person happy. When you throw it away, you're not really making anyone happy. Also, rape is a trauma. Abortion isn't a therapy.

It's not the baby's fault, either. By aborting, you're depriving this human being of growing up, falling in love, getting married, having children of his or her own. This baby could grow up to be an artist, a surgeon, a musician, an engineer, an author, or anything in between. This baby will grow up to be an individual with his or her own likes, dislikes, and sense of humor. When an abortion takes place, an entire personality is destroyed: one that can never exist again as it would have. Maybe the aborted zygote would be the president to fix the big economic and political problems that are facing us. Maybe he or she would have written a book that you would have read. And maybe you would've thought, "That was a good book. I wonder if they've written more."

Furthermore, according to Web MD and the pro-abortion Alan Guttmacher Institute, pregnancies due to rape or incest make up less than 1% of annual U.S. abortions.

64,080 of sexual assault victims are victims of completed rape. A fraction of these actually result in pregnancy. There are 1.3 million abortions in the United States every year. So your 95% is a bit off. Just a bit.

[Aethix 129]

How does one define life? Using "MRS GREN" you can say that almost everything that is biological and moves is alive, with the notable exception of virii.

This means that the sperm is alive, and the egg is alive, so technically, life was not created at conception, but before conception. Am I committing murder right now because my body is absorbing three-day-old sperm that is about to die? No of course not.

With out a solid definition of life, or at least a solid definition of human life, trying to rationalise being against abortion is pointless, especially considering the arguments for it.

First take a look at the conditions under which abortion is considered: Rape and unplanned.

Rape is the major one here, as 95%* of the abortions considered are because a rape victim did not get the morning-after pill in time (should also be considered illegal under your terms as it prevents a fertilised egg from embedding itself in the placenta, and would "die"). Imagine the horror of having to give birth and raise the child of your rapist. Imagine looking at your child, which you are expected to love and care for, and being reminded of the most horrific moment in oyur life. Post-natal depression is a real issue as it is in society, a "rape-baby" would never recieve the same amount of love and care as a "regular" baby.

And unplanned baby is more of a sticking point. But I can atleast draw on personal experience here. I was in a sexually-active relationship. As such me and my girlfriend accepted the risks and did the best we could to prevent any unwanted outcomes. However, she did, once, miss her period, we both accepted that pregnancy was a possibility and she took a pregnancy test. However, in the few days before she could take a pregancy test, we drew up plans for what we would do if she was pregnant. All of them required one or both of us to leave school, either immediately or at the end of the year. No plan could be seen where our current plans could be kept. At 16, being a father did not appeal to me.

Now these plans were drawn up because she did not want an abortion, because of her own personal decision. I respected this. She was not however preganant, and all things returned to normal.

Had she wanted an abortion, I would have respected that choice as well. Since teenage pregnancies have such a big blow on the parents lives, abortion is an option to make it go away. Making abortions illegal would force that decision for many people.

My final point is that shouldn't a woman have say over her own body? There are already rules about abortion in place, most doctors will only perform abortions while the child is still an embryo, a simple blob of cells. The emotional attachment a woman feels for her unborn child is enough to make this more than a lifestyle decision.

I believe that, given the overall populus, the rules should stay the same. A few weeks window while abortion is still an option, otherwise the child has to be born. Forcing personal and religious opinion on an entire country goes against the entire idea of democracy and commitee.

Have you heard of this little process known as adoption?

[Shadowknight 54]

I was going to say something, but G333 said it first.

I do have to say that an unplanned pregnancy shouldn't be a reason for abortion. Depriving a child of it's life because it isn't convenient for you? Not good enough.

Rape is understandable, but rather than kill the child you should put it up for adoption. Give it an opportunity to be better than its rapist parent.

Teenagers shouldn't be having sex anyway, so the whole "I'm not ready to be a parent" argument shouldn't apply either. If you aren't ready to be a parent you aren't ready for sex. That's the purpose of the act, right?

The whole problem could be avoided if people just waited until marriage.

[Ganny 285]

First of all: oh my gosh. Figurehead is fripping hilarious.

Now that that's out of the way: it is not a human until the male and female gametes meet and join. The gametes themselves are alive beforehand, but they exist as normal body cells, I believe. "Alive" and "human" are not synonymous

[Teto 2609]

It's a matter of choice. If your not ready, or you know that the child will be born with a horrible, horrible disease, you should be able to have an abortion.

[Shadowknight 54]

If you aren't ready then you shouldn't be having sex.

[Chameleon 0]

If you aren't ready then you shouldn't be having sex.

No, you shouldn't be having unprotected sex.

[Shadowknight 54]

If you are married, you and your spouse can depend on each other. With two sources of income you could support a family. By this point you probably know that I'm against sex outside of marriage, and that is for multiple reasons.

1) Religion. I'm a Christian, and I use the Bible as my set of rules. It says to wait untill marriage, so that's how I think it should be.

2) The baby. A baby that is raised by a parent that wasn't married is going to have a tougher life than a baby with married parents. Teenage mothers especially.

Quite frankly, if you can't handle the responsibilities that come with a baby, you really can't be ready for sex. To be ready for one you must be ready for both.

[Cindy 1]

This is still confusing for me because I am not that religious anymore.

Yes, there is life in the womb. But, only when it is starting to develop. Like, when it gets it's shape. (looks like something)

And I think that abortion should be legal because there are so many different cases for pregnancy, and all of them should be observed by having it legal. And like I said, it is still confusing for me.