Converation thread

Life begins when there is conscious thought. People are pronounced dead when the brain stops working so life should begin when the brain starts working. People can be dead with a beating heart therefore baby's are not alive if there is no brain function even with a beating heart.

Using intelligence as a metric for determining who is and isn't a human being creates horrible implications for the living. If we draw the line for abortion with the level of intelligence of the baby, what does that mean for those among us with autism, Down syndrome, and all manner of horrible mental afflictions? Do these unhappy men then not have the inherent value the rest of us do? And shall we draw the line with the ability of the baby to feel pain? What then does that mean for those who are in the hospital, on morphine, laughing gas, or some other numbing substance? Is it justified…  Read more to kill someone who is using one of these? Shall we draw the line with a heartbeat? What does that mean for those who require heart transplants or pacemakers? Are their lives invalid, can someone justly murder them? Or consider drawing the line with the baby's chances of surviving were it to be outside the Womb, and babies may be murdered who are not yet to that point. Does that then mean that those who are in hospitable beds, or on life support, may be stabbed to death in all justice, a fate admirably no less graphic than late-term abortion procedures such as this viewpoint would prescribe? The only logical conclusion to draw, without discounting the lives of countless human beings, adults as well as children, is that life begins at the point of conception. Arbitrarily drawing the line anywhere else creates severe moral and scientific not to mention logical issues that are irresolvable. We must value every human life and fight to protect every human life, no exceptions.

This is one of the best defenses of pre-born life I've read. Very few pro-choice advocates really consider what kind of doors are being opened when you define human life using any other metric than...well, life.

I'll add to that to answer the common "we unplug life support patients" argument. A brain dead patient on life support is still protected under law despite having no conscious thought and being "non-viable" on their own, and the only person permitted to pull the plug on them is someone who that patient previously gave express consent to do that (medical…  Read more power of attorney). Since a baby has never given consent to have the plug pulled on them, there is no justifiable way to say a baby can be killed simply by virtue of being non-viable. Viability has never been a determination of human life unless express consent was given beforehand.