Both religion and women's rights have no place in the abortion debate. The only question worth answering is when the fetus is a life.

The recent GA bill defines a fetus as a person because that's about the point where the heartbeat is detectable and the... entity, we'll say, is no longer an embryo. That at least makes sense and has a scientific basis. But if that's not the appropriate point to say "this entity is a human life," then at what point should it be?

First of all, thanks for carrying on this discussion with me. I really do think it's important we have it even if we end up disagreeing at the end of it.

Why is a heartbeat the set point where a fetus is considered a person, and not its liver or its skin or its lungs? Is it because a fetus with a heartbeat is considered viable? Because a heartbeat doesn't signify a fully developed heart, the fetus still won't be able to survive outside of the womb. So it isn't viable, what now? If I receive a liver transplant from you it doesn't mean that I'm now you, because your personhood isn't contained in your internal organs. What if you and I had an operation to switch hearts? I think most people realize personhood is an expression of your brain. If you have enough of a nervous system, you can feel pain, and if you can feel pain, that's when you become a person.

I'm not sure why you are talking about animals, but we already have laws in place which protect primates and dolphins. That's not really what this conversation is about. In a surprise move, you've brought up a red herring.

Do we? Because highly intelligent animals like apes are killed in animal testing and dolphins aren't protected by law in places like Japan from being killed for food. If all murder is wrong, why is it seemingly fine to kill and cage non-human animals? Do they not have a right to life and liberty?

And then you go on to list legal ways life is terminated due to reasons far beyond the scope of this conversation. But to answer your question, none of the things you listed are murder.

Another blanket statement. Why aren't these cases murder if we're ending someone's life? Isn't that murder?

/r/unpopularopinion Thread Parent