Quote:
Originally Posted by aephi alum
The question is where do you draw the line? When is it a termination of pregnancy and when is it murder?
At one end, the Catholic Church draws the line at conception - ANY abortion is murder, and even most forms of birth control are considered sinful. Others draw the line at viability - abortion in the first two trimesters is ok, but abortion in the third trimester (when the fetus is potentially viable) is not.
My opinion? I'm pro-choice. What any woman does with her own body is her own choice. But if you're six months along and you haven't figured out whether to give birth or not, just have the kid, and keep it or give it up for adoption - as an abortion at that stage would cause about as much physical trauma as giving birth. That is what I would do.
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I don't think there's a line you can set where it is murder as long as the child requires the mother to survive, honestly. Particularly when, as I said before, most late term abortions are due to serious genetic or other problems that often would result in an infant who would die fairly quickly. If you ban late term abortions, women who are desperate will go to quacks like this. I think we need to have even late term abortions be legal, yet try to make them rare through education and access to health care. And as long as you have a limit, such as 24 weeks or 22 weeks, then unscrupulous individuals will either delay women from seeking legal, safe abortions prior to the cut-off, or prey on those desperate enough to go to this sort of horror.
And I'm rather thrilled the Catholic Church doesn't make laws, enough said on that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by honeychile
I know two couples who had a child at 5 months. Both are alive and doing well, but a third couple's child has some challenges. Just sayin'.
While I would be considered pro-life, I think the point that you'd have to kill a child (as opposed to giving normal suctioning the lungs etc) would be the point of viability. What I see as the norm is that, if a pregnancy's wanted, any and all medical care would be given to the baby. If the pregnancy's unwanted, the baby gets no care at all.
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Super premies surviving is still the exception rather than the rule. 22 weeks is now being considered 'viable' when the fetus isn't even fully formed, the organs aren't all developed. Now you're talking about a LOT of NICU care for essentially orphans. It is easy to say it should be done for any individual infant, but a lot harder to advocate it as a policy. Ideally the child would be born, much later, and be taken care of. But if a mother does not want that, I don't believe you can force her to give birth to a baby that would only live if it were on life support.
I'm confused about what you're saying about killing a child here though, are you talking about a live birth where a child is then killed (which is murder) or something else?
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