[Vision2020] Half-Cocked on Abortion

[nickgier at adelphia.net]

Hi Tony,

I'm sorry to hear that you were only half a man at 18, but I believe you have misunderstood this phrase, which comes from guns not sex, although I guess there are some Freudian connnections.  

I've never owned a gun with a manual cocking mechanism, but I believe that with such a devise you can put it at "half cock," so that you can more easily fire if you need to.  And if you pull the trigger from the "half cocked" position, you will end up misfiring, hence the phrase.  Some gun expert should be able to correct me if I'm wrong.

My full abortion article answers all the issues you raise, so I'm afraid you have pulled the trigger at half cock and and misfired.

You are correct on two points: 1) one should not bring religious views into the debate; and 2) one should determine the status of the fetus before claiming that a woman has a right to choose to abort.  If the fetus is a person, then abortion would indeed be murder.

The historical record is clear that our religious, moral, and legal tradition has declared that a fetus is not a person until late in pregnancy.  (See my article for full details.)  That tradition has identified significant mental life as the key to personhood.  The science of fetal development (see slides of fetal brain in my article) verifies the truth of this tradition.  Therefore, the Supreme Court of 1973 was correct in ruling that the fetus does not have constitutional protections as a person until the third trimester, or as I have clarified my own position on this list, after 25 weeks, when explosive brain development begins.

You are on the right track when you talk about consciousness as key, but then to switch to something very different.  Once the egg is fertilized there is a possibility of twinning for 16 days.  If genetic identity is personal identity, then that means that twins would be the same person, which of course would be absurd.  It gets even more absurd when we think that any somatic cell from our bodies could be cloned to make thousands of beings genetically identical to us but not legally and morally identical. Furthermore, all higher mammals have unique genetic identities, so should they be counted as persons?  As a vegetarian, that's OK with me, but probably not OK for most people.

So, Tony, uncock your gun and start all over again.  And thanks for being civil.  See, it's quite easy to be nice on this list.  And please told blame others for your initial nastiness.