Quote:
Originally Posted by spanktehbadwookie
The fact a fetus develops inside an individual woman until viability outside an individual woman is elaborate enough to inform the discussion.
I guess that's where I'm at on this issue as well. I have no idea if or when the kid becomes a living human being. If you're comfortable thinking of the fetus as just a bunch of cells, then there's really no problem. You should probably also be fine selling it for a profit like blood or semen, and apparently we can get good money for our feces these days too!
But if you think it's alive or are unsure, then it comes down to other practical issues like who is responsible for it and where that burden lies. I rationalize my pro-choice vote in much the same way I support legalization of drugs and assisted suicide. We shouldn't be allowed to legislate what a person can do with his/her own body. You simply cannot force a woman to carry a child to term and give birth. That's too much stress to force on a person, even if it means saving another person's life. We see what happens when abortion is made illegal: desperate women will find ways remove the fetus, sometimes in dangerous ways.
Compare this to after the kid is born. We do expect the parents to care for an infant, and if they were to abandon it to die we would charge them with murder. This is still putting stress on the parents to provide for the child, but a big difference is they have other practical options, and that changes the ethics. If they choose, instead of ending the child's life, they can give it up to adoption or to the care of the state. I believe if or when biotech advances to the point a fetus can be saved at any point of the pregnancy, either through fetal transplant or in an incubator, the practicality of the issue will change and abortion will no longer be considered ethical by most people.