[CS-FSLUG] Consider this before you vote!!

[groundhog3000]

Aaron Patrick Lehmann wrote:

>On Sun, Oct 31, 2004 at 01:33:54PM -0400, Fred Miller wrote:
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>>A baby by 11 weeks old.
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>>Fertilization: a new and unique person.
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>True.
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>>Heart is beating (since 18-25 days).
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>Irrelevant, as people with pig's hearts are still people.
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>>At 40 days, brain waves have already been recorded.
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>Irrelevant, unless you believe that the plug should be pulled on those who have
>experienced brain death, but are kept alive by machine.
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>>The baby squints and swallows.
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>Irrelevant, as a person could be blind and fed by IV.
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>>The baby can kick and make a fist.
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>Irrelevant, unless quadruple amputees are less human.
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>>The baby has fingerprints.
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>Irrelevant, for the same reason as the above statement.
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>>The baby is sensitive to heat, touch, light and noise.
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>This is interesting.  If a person was completely unable to sense the outside
>world, would he still be worthy of human consideration?  Would the only sort of
>consideration possible be a mercy killing?  Would the person notice the
>difference?
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>>The baby suck his thumb.
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>How does this relate to the child's humanity?  Chimpanzees suck their thumbs as
>well (http://www.billybear4kids.com/Rozi/RoziPandu.html)
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>>All body systems are working.
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>Irrelevant, as we have developed a clever technology to deal with partially
>working or non-working body systems.  We call it medicine.
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>>The baby could fit comfortably in the palm of your hand.
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>Irrelevant.  Being small and cute does not give something a right to life
>anymore than being large and ugly does.
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>Now, before I incite a flame-war for my response, I'd like to explain myself a
>bit.  I am anti-abortion (I do not say pro-life, because i haven't yet made a
>decision as to my beliefs regarding capital punishment).  I believe that
>abortion is wrong, because it is a killing of a person for a reason
>unsanctioned by the Bible.  In order to show that I'm right, I'd have to show
>that both the fetus is a person, and that it is not among the classes of
>things the Bible says we can kill.
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>What makes a person?  I think that a person is a creature of a type that can be
>reasonably be expected to develop human-normal level intelligence, or has
>human-level intelligence already.  Thus, I am opposed to killing fetuses that
>do not pose an untoward danger to their lives, or the lives of others.  I will
>make an exception to this for fetuses that have committed murder, treason, or
>are soldiers of a country with which mine is at war, because these are the
>current Biblical sanctions our society uses (although I'm not sure about the
>treason one; is it Biblical?).  In the past, it would have been acceptable to
>abort a fetus for being a witch, and adulterer, a blasphemer, or a Canaanite,
>amongst others.  I am also opposed to killing retarded people, intelligent
>robots and animals, and ETs.  Of course, the aforementioned exception applies
>to these as well.
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>Basically, my point is that only the first reason in the list holds any water
>at all, and thus is the only one that should be used.
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>Aaron Lehmann
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