Quote:
Originally Posted by drgoodtrips
It demonstrated that (in this target audience) no one thinks that abortion is always unacceptable. If you were to ask people whether or not murder is ever acceptable, I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone to say yes. Ergo, rhetoric notwithstanding, few if anyone actually believe that abortion is murder.
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I see where you're coming from, but I find your phrasing overly-simplistic:
Few, if anyone, actually believe that abortion is
always murder.
And nor should they, since abortion is a physical process and murder implies both process
and legality or (for those discussing what they think
should be "murder") moral judgment.
Is blowing off someone's head with a shotgun murder? Well, that depends on the circumstances. I think just about everyone would agree that there are concievable circumstances in which it should be legal (and may even be moral) to blow off someone's head with a shotgun. But, having acknowledged that, it would be a trifle deceptive for me to then declare "few, if anyone, actually believe that blowing off someone's head is murder."
Quote:
Originally Posted by drgoodtrips
I then extrapolated using the reasons cited by supporters of a ban to conclude that the circumstances of conception (rape versus consensual, incest versus non-icky sex) are paramount and not the fetus itself. No one, it seems, would support a unilateral ban on abortion - exceptions must be made and those exceptions have nothing to do with the fetus itself.
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I haven't really evaluated the number who think the origins of the pregnancy are of paramount importance (somehow, in all this polling, that option never came up). But I'd caution one against broad generalities.
Personally, I'm inclined to think that the method of pregnancy (rape, incest, consensual, accidental, whatever) is of little relevance and that the decisive factor centers on the developmental state of the child/fetus.