{"id":416,"date":"2009-11-10T18:48:29","date_gmt":"2009-11-10T18:48:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2009\/11\/anti-choice-anti-life.html"},"modified":"2009-11-10T18:48:29","modified_gmt":"2009-11-10T18:48:29","slug":"anti-choice-anti-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/11\/anti-choice-anti-life.html","title":{"rendered":"Anti-Choice, Anti-Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

The anti-choice folks have struck again, holding over 60% of
\nthe country hostage to their irrational beliefs as a price for health care
\nreform.  <\/span>No health care reform unless abortion is made even more difficult than it already is.  If thousands die from lack of insurance, well, as Lenin said, you cannot make an omelet without breaking eggs. Their lives are not as important as a zygote’s. But abortion is MURDER these [eople whine. 
\n<\/span>Let’s examine that example, based on logic rather than carefully chosen
\nBiblical texts that ignore other longer and more detailed texts<\/a>.
 <\/p>\n


\nThere are two critical questions  at stake here – when does a sperm and an
\negg become a human being – and what do we mean by an entity being a human being
\nin terms of morality?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Anti-choice zealots take a ‘light switch’ approach to the
\nfirst question – first there isn’t a person, then suddenly, there is.  <\/span>First there is 0% human, then there is
\na 100% human in every morally relevant sense of the word.  <\/span>It’s a breathtakingly materialistic
\nargument, but not good science or much of anything else.<\/p>\n

In my view there are very few genuine ‘light switch’
\nphenomena in the world.  <\/span>Even death
\nis progressive unless imposed from the outside, which is why people can be
\nresuscitated. There is no evidence that coming into physical existence is any
\ndifferent.<\/p>\n

The zygote is a potential human being, a life form on its
\nway to being human in all the senses that is possible.  <\/span>But initially all it has that is human
\nis its genetic code.  <\/span>It is a
\npotential abode\/manifestation of a human being, and as a potential is not a
\nmoral nullity, but neither does it have the claim on us that a complete human
\nhas.<\/p>\n

Something is ‘human’ in different senses.  <\/span>What matters in this issue is the moral
\nsense, not the biological sense. 
\n<\/span>If a being from another planet visits us, and demonstrates it can love,
\nthink, plan for the future, and so on, and then some fanatic kills it, has that
\nperson committed murder?  <\/span>I would
\nsay “Yes” in the moral sense, whatever the law might say. Certainly
\nit would be absurd to claim that killing our extraterrestrial visitor has the
\nmoral significance of squashing a bug. 
\n<\/span>But the entity murdered presumably shares less genetic information with
\nus and than does a bug, and in that sense will never resemble a human.<\/p>\n

So in the MORAL sense, humanness and the genetic code are
\nnot necessarily linked.<\/p>\n

For people concerned with rationality and genuine morality,
\nwhat matters regarding abortion is: what is ‘human’ in the most morally
\nrelevant sense?  <\/span>I answer, a human
\nis a being existing in self-awareness, able to form plans, care, and be aware
\nof when its plans are dashed, its cares rejected or thwarted, and able to treat
\nother humans as Thous.  <\/span>We error on
\nthe side of caution with those in comas and we should error on the side of
\ncaution in other cases, because e are not sure just where a dividing line is
\ncrossed.  <\/span>But the word “error” is
\nas important as the word “caution.”<\/p>\n

My favorite ecological writer, Aldo Leopold, got a central
\npiece of it right when he observed that if passenger pigeons still lived, and
\nthe last human died, no pigeon would care.  <\/span>But when the last passenger pigeon died, a great many humans
\ncared. THIS, Leopold observed, was what human beings brought to the world that
\nwas new- the ability to care about beings of no practical use to them.<\/p>\n

Plenty of animals care about even species if they have a
\npersonal connection – like mothers of one species raising babies of another, or
\nour cats and dogs and we ourselves. 
\n<\/span>In my opinion this gives them more moral weight than we give to an
\nanimal that as far as we can tell, lacks that capacity.  <\/span>But they are not morally equivalent to
\nhumans.  <\/span>What seems to cross the
\nline in MORAL terms, is the ability to care for beings who have no practical
\nvalue.<\/p>\n

The capacity to be responsible for our actions goes with
\nthis human ability.  <\/span>I suspect they
\nare connected.  <\/span>If I have the
\npotential to care on such a wide basis, I have some responsibility in where I
\ndraw the line.<\/p>\n

There is absolutely no evidence a zygote meets these
\ncriteria.  <\/span>There is absolutely no
\ndoubt that the mother does.  <\/span>So we
\nhave here a potential human and a human. <\/span><\/p>\n

At some point between zygote and new born baby the organism
\ncrosses that thresh hold. The thresh hold is mental, not physical (beating
\nheart) and not genetic.  <\/span>Because we
\nare ignorant and cannot measure consciousness, let alone its quality, I am for
\nerring on the side of caution. <\/span><\/p>\n

When we decide where to draw the line, we must also take
\ninto consideration that sex is NOT simply about reproduction, and today only
\nthe most ignorant, self-centered, and\/or thoughtless people could say that it
\nis.  <\/span>Sex serves a great many
\npurposes.  <\/span>Consequently given our
\ncapacity, a genuine and reasonable means must exist so that no one gets
\npregnant accidentally, and any unwanted pregnancies can be terminated very
\nearly, when no reasonable doubt can exist that a tiny mass of cells is not
\nmorally a human being. <\/span><\/p>\n

My choice is clear, and it is different from anti-choice
\npeople whom I see as using scientific data chosen very selectively, data which
\nhave no moral weight without reference to other factors that seem to me
\nseparate from it. <\/span><\/p>\n

At best, they make a logical error.<\/p>\n

Why do I keep returning to abortion?  For several reasons.  First, when they dominate the discussion, the anti-choice folks’ irrational way of framing the discussion can lull the unwary into making the same errors.  Secondly, to provide a space where I and similarly minded people can help spread rational arguments.  Third, to give the anti-choice people access to reasoned discussions discussions they most certainly do not get at their houses of worship.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The anti-choice folks have struck again, holding over 60% of the country hostage to their irrational beliefs as a price for health care reform.  No health care reform unless abortion is made even more difficult than it already is.  If thousands die from lack of insurance, well, as Lenin said, you cannot make an omelet…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events"],"yoast_head":"\nAnti-Choice, Anti-Life - A Pagan's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/11\/anti-choice-anti-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Anti-Choice, Anti-Life - 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