A man is accused of killing both his girlfriend and her unborn child – he apparently wanted her to have an abortion and she’d refused. He will be charged with double murder. If the mother had decided to abort the baby (even at 8 months), the child’s life would not count.
What a sorry mess.
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It can’t be repeated too often: murder (usually at the hands of the woman’s partner) is the leading cause of death among pregnant women.
http://www.now.org/issues/violence/043003pregnant.html
So of course, I have to wonder: if this many women are actually murderedon account of their pregnancies, how many are pressured/coerced/forced into abortions they don’t want?
I agree, the law is crazy. The main reason for these laws that allow the death of a fetus to be prosecuted as murder is the hope of establishing a legal precident which can be used to criminalise abortion. That’s their entire justification, so I see no reason for them. They are nothing more than a political manouver. A skilled one, I will admit, but still just politics.
No, the main reason for these laws is to establish justice for every human being regardless of his or her stage of natural development.
Same thing, really, just stated from different sides of the issue.
What, exactly, is your “side” of the issue? That some humans are worth more than others? That only some humans deserve moral respect, and others do not? Come on, spell it out.
You’re asking me? I decry that the same human life is worth more or less depending on who decides to end it.
Dan, I’ve explained it in previous posts. But in short: Yes. I don’t believe that merely having some human DNA makes an organism worthy of being recognised as worthy of human rights. I need to see something more than that, and I don’t see it in any embryo or fetus. I barely see it in a newborn, but at least in them there is no biological conflict with the rights of an adult.
No, you haven’t explained it. Your previous explanation was shown to be untenable. Please try again.
Why, exactly, are human beings worthy of moral respect? Evidently, you believe that it is not because of the *kind* of entity that they are. A human embryo is an entity of exactly the same kind as you or me, albeit at an earlier stage of his or her natural development.