Abortion?

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Re: Abortion?
Reply #270 - July 03, 2009, 09:25 PM

Quote from: J4m3z on July 03, 2009, 08:12 PM
So 24 weeks is the magical line is it? As soon as he/she gets to 24 weeks he/she is capable of living outside of the womb, not a second later nor earlier?

The old "well if it's ok at that point what about 1.57 nanoseconds before then, huh?" The fact is that laws are required to make practical definitions and you know this.

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Re: Abortion?
Reply #271 - July 03, 2009, 10:13 PM

For practical purposes, yes, but if we are really interested in the morality behind abortion then we should inspect further as to why exactly it is only morally okay to have an abortion before 24 weeks, and not, say, a nanosecond later.

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Re: Abortion?
Reply #272 - July 03, 2009, 10:15 PM

Quote from: Meredith on July 03, 2009, 08:14 PM

The 24 week will change as medicine and science progresses, the limit will get lowered slowly from 24 to perhaps 22/20 in a matter of years.

Interesting.. what makes you say that?

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Re: Abortion?
Reply #273 - July 03, 2009, 10:19 PM

Yes. James. Ok, let's take the moral question of harvesting organs from brain dead people before turning off life support. Now, if they have one functioning brain cell is this ok or not? What about two functioning brain cells? Are we to conclude that life support should never be turned off regardless of the circumstances. Knock yourself out, sunshine.

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Re: Abortion?
Reply #274 - July 03, 2009, 11:16 PM

Osmanthus, your trying to take the piss out of something that some faculty in some university is probably thinking very deeply about. You didn't understand when I said that I acknowledge there ought to be a practical course of action for just about every forseeable circumstance but that doesn't mean there is no need to further the barriers of knowledge in ethics. We should pursue what is idealistic, not necessarily to aide our practical course of action, but simply in pursuit of ultimate truth and reality. However, pursuit of the idealistic does shape our practical course of action as a side consequence.

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Re: Abortion?
Reply #275 - July 04, 2009, 11:40 AM

Quote from: J4m3z on July 03, 2009, 08:12 PM
So 24 weeks is the magical line is it? As soon as he/she gets to 24 weeks he/she is capable of living outside of the womb, not a second later nor earlier?

Yeah, kind of. I understand your objection to magical lines, but we humans need to measure and categorise things. Such "magical lines" predominate our way of thinking. Why do you think people are considered as adults (legally and otherwise) when they celebrate their 18th birthday? Why not 17th? Why not 19th? How do we distinguish between petty theft and major theft? Why does judge X sentence criminal Y to Z years in prison? Why not Z years plus one? Minus two?

This is a universal problem. If we are going to eschew magical lines, we may as well tear human civilisation down with our own hands. The "magical line" argument cannot be evoked to outlaw abortion.

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Re: Abortion?
Reply #276 - July 04, 2009, 11:54 AM

Quote from: J4m3z on July 03, 2009, 10:15 PM
Interesting.. what makes you say that?

If the viability of a foetus changes and because of medical advances, the probability of a foetus surviving by 24 weeks increases this will spark another debate on the Abortion law and a review of the limit (This has happened already in UK before when the Abortion limit was lowered in 1990 the 1967 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act was amended and the limit was lowered from 28 weeks to the current 24 weeks) and rightly so.
The state should protect a foetus, when it is viable and can survive out of the womb

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Re: Abortion?
Reply #277 - July 04, 2009, 01:53 PM

Quote from: Zaephon on July 04, 2009, 11:40 AM
Yeah, kind of. I understand your objection to magical lines, but we humans need to measure and categorise things. Such "magical lines" predominate our way of thinking. Why do you think people are considered as adults (legally and otherwise) when they celebrate their 18th birthday? Why not 17th? Why not 19th? How do we distinguish between petty theft and major theft? Why does judge X sentence criminal Y to Z years in prison? Why not Z years plus one? Minus two?

This is a universal problem. If we are going to eschew magical lines, we may as well tear human civilisation down with our own hands. The "magical line" argument cannot be evoked to outlaw abortion.

Yes I understand the need for a practical course of action for everything but those practical courses of action were never created except through the initial pursuit of the idealistic. Read my reply to Osmanthus in post 174.

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