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3/14/2013 7:27:31 PM
25
Richard Dawkins on Abortion
[url=https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins]From his personal twitter account:[/url]
[quote]With respect to those meanings of "human" that are relevant to the morality of abortion, any fetus is less human than an adult pig[/quote]
[quote]"Human" features relevant to the morality of abortion include ability to feel pain, fear etc & to be mourned by others[/quote]
[quote]"I dare you to say that to a broken hearted woman who has miscarried." She would not have an abortion anyway, so irrelevant.[/quote]
[quote]Yes, anything can be mourned. If you are going to mourn your fetus, you are free to not have an abortion[/quote]
[quote]Of course potential to be human is among fetus' qualities. But my pig comparison was careful to specify "relevant to morality of abortion."[/quote]
[quote]"Genetically a fetus is more human." Yes. Another reason my pig comparison was careful to specify "relevant to morality of abortion."[/quote]
[quote]My criterion for "relevant to morality of abortion" is standard consequentialist morality. Opponents follow absolutist morality. Simple.[/quote]
[quote]"Parent might mourn daughter's fetus, even if she herself doesn't — relevant to the morality?" Yes, but daughter paramount. It's her body.[/quote]
[quote]"Right but that doesnt mean fetus gets zero weight." I never said it did. I said less weight than a pig. I hope that is not zero?[/quote]
[quote]The most important moral question in abortion debate is "Can it feel pain?" Late abortuses may, but you don't have to be human to feel pain[/quote]
[quote]Unlike many pro-choice friends, I think fetal pain could outweigh woman's right to control her own body. But pig pain matters too.[/quote]
[quote]Everything I've said in this argument assumes consequentialist moral philosophy. If you're an absolutist you obviously won't agree. Simple.[/quote]
[quote]"I know several broken-hearted (pro-choice) women following abortion." I sympathise. They balanced all, brought all to mind. And chose.[/quote]
[quote]Woman's rights over her own body are extremely important. So is pain. At what age can fetus feel pain? Can pig feel more?[/quote]
[quote]Pig doesn't have human DNA, human potential or human IQ. It probably does have human capacity to feel pain. Aborted fetus probably doesn't[/quote]
[quote]My hair and fingernails are human but don't feel pain when I cut them. Embryo before brain develops doesn't feel pain. Late fetus? Pig?[/quote]
tl;dr He's pro-choice
Thoughts on his tweets? Spot on or completely immoral?
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1 ReplyEdited by A 3 Legged Goat: 3/15/2013 9:03:29 PMI never really had an opinion to say on abortion mostly because I felt it wasn't my place as a dude. But I've known several women who've gone through with it, and it began to upset me seeing as how all but one of them were just irresponsibly getting laid. The comment "I hate condoms, but I'm sick of getting abortions" is when I realized what the problem was. The way I see it, if you intentionally choose to screw around without some form of contraceptives and you get pregnant, you shouldn't be permitted to abort. The whole reason preventative measures are there is to ensure you don't have a kid. So we get these girls with this attitude of "Oh who cares I'll just get rid of it and continue screwing." On the one hand, you wouldn't want one of those women to be your mother. But that's still a person living consequence-free and essentially getting away with a degree of murder. You can attempt to justify it by "Oh it wasn't alive yet" or "It wouldn't know the difference", but either way it would have been born at some point. Unearthing a seed is only slightly different from chopping down a tree. Obviously r.ape and life threatening conditions are exempt from this though. At the end of the day, it's not my problem what somebody else does to their body. But I can't help but be bothered by it when those are the kind of wives/mothers in this generation, and when society says it's okay.
