Abortion and Capital Punishment.

[aeroguy]

If you'd actually bother to read my posts properly, you'd see that I mean that consciousness doesn't simply "turn on" by the 24th week. It's a gradual process.

 

And again, the 24th week is not MY choice of limit, it's just what the law says.

 

I don't like abortions! Don't get me wrong there. But as long as we have a society where people are reckless, there has to be a way to correct the mistakes.

You could lower the legal limit to, say, the 12th week, but the lower you go, the greater the risk that the mother doesn't even know she's pregnant.

Especially if she's young and doesn't have fully regular menstrual cycles yet.

And especially not if her only sexual education came from her teenage girl friends or from some teen magazine.

With the weight problems many girls have today, a growing stomach wouldn't necessarily be noticed until quite late.

 

I'd advocate the pills you take the day after. I think we can safely say that a day-old embryo isn't conscious.

[Aardvark]

Aeroguy, i'm not saying that you like abortions or that you are claiming that consciousness 'turns on' at 24 weeks. I did read your post quite carefully.

 

But you did state that the foetus is not really a fully conscious human being at 24 weeks. I'm simply querying that statement as some babies have been born before 24 weeks and survived which seems to raise a moral problem here.

 

I agree that a 1 day old embryo isn't conscious and that the 'morning after' pill and better education are helpful in reducing unwanted pregnancies and abortions.

 

What i'm concerned about is the point at which we start recognising an embyro as a human, you did state that at 24 weeks the embryo is not really a conscious human being, if your opinion is based on respect for the law then fine, but you didnt initially make that clear.