Personhood requires at the very least the capacity for developing consciousness, which is not possible until the 24th week of gestation, at which point >99% of abortions have already occurred.
Conception cannot define personhood, since identical twins form from a single conception yet are distinct people, and chimeras form from multiple conceptions yet are a single person. Brains are what determine personhood, not genes, or conception, or even bodies (conjoined twins are different people sharing a single body from a single conception).
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@B9YZBG8Independent 4mos4MO
Abortion is not and should not be used as birth control. Life begins at conception. When someone murders a pregnant woman, it is 2 counts, regardless of whether she is 22 weeks or 39 weeks pregnant. By your argument someone in a coma is not a person even though they have the potential to wake up. I would also refute the personhood argument. Babies don't show signs of conscious thought until around 5 months of age. That is when independent personhood would begin to arise. So by your argument you can kill anyone up until that point.
@B9Y8RYHRepublican4mos4MO
@B9JNJVP5mos5MO
Once a baby has a heart beat, it is considered a human and has human rights. Abortion should only be allowed if rape, incest, or if the mother is in danger.
Informed Social Issues Informed Abortion
Of course it is human. It is human before it has a heartbeat. It is human before it's even conceived. That doesn't make it a person with rights. That doesn't make it wrong to kill it.
Human sperm are of the human species. Human eggs are of the human species. Human zygotes are of the human species. A diseased appendix is alive, and human, but none of these things are people. There is nothing morally wrong with removing a diseased appendix and letting it die, even though it is human life.
@historybuff9613 5mos5MO
It makes no sense to define the right to life based on whether someone is a person or not. The qualifying factor for right to life is a heartbeat, which occurs in the fetus at 21 days. It is idiotic to fight for cows and pigs to not be slaughtered because it is cruel while killing living humans, regardless of personhood. Regardless, fighting to keep abortion is an unnecessary debate when there is a population decline crisis in America. Not to mention the non-lethal forms of contraception such as condoms, birth control pills, IUDs, and reproductive organ removal. And of course, celibacy.
@B9JPZ345mos5MO
The life of a baby starts at conception. The moment the egg and the sperm create the DNA for the embryo, then a new human is forming.
Informed Social Issues Informed Abortion
The life of a baby starts at conception.
What about identical twins? They split from a single conception, up to two weeks after fertilization. Do you think that they are the same person, just because they share the same DNA?
What about chimeras? They join from two conceptions, up to 5 days later. If DNA determines personhood, then how do you deal with a body that has two sets of DNA?
@B9JS68S5mos5MO
While this may be scientifically true, we have all been taught since grade school that conception leads to a human baby being born. If brains are what determines personhood, would a human in a car accident that becomes braindead lying in a hospital because they no longer have the ability to use their brain, now not be a person.
Informed Social Issues Informed Abortion
we have all been taught since grade school that conception leads to a human baby being born.
No we haven't. That's not even true. Somewhere between 25% to 75% of conceptions fail to implant in the uterus and die. When they do implant and survive, they could become a baby, or they could split into two and become two babies (identical twins), or they could split into three babies (identical triplets), or they could fuse with another embryo and become a fraction of a baby (chimeras).
It is objectively false to say that every conception leads to a single human baby being born. Each conception could lead to 0, 1/2, 1, 2, 3, 4, ... babies being born.
@B9M4LYQ 5mos5MO
@B9JRFX9Peace and Freedom5mos5MO
I still believe all life is worthy of protection no matter how early on its growing stage is or where its located, it's still a human. therefore, has human rights.
Informed Social Issues Informed Abortion
all life is worthy of protection
Does this apply to cows and chickens? Corn? Bacteria? Is it murder to eat a carrot?
@B9N3XC45mos5MO
@B9KM6655mos5MO
If a pregnant woman is murdered, the murderer is tried with two counts of murder. One for the mother, and one for the UNBORN baby. The “embryo” is a human baby.
Informed Social Issues Informed Abortion
Those fetal personhood laws are incorrect and unscientific and should be repealed. Embryos are not people and killing them is not homicide. They have material value to the parents, so destroying them without consent is a crime, but it is not murder. They are not people yet and do not yet have moral value.
@B9ZWTTB4mos4MO
@B9NMGBS5mos5MO
@B9KNW8X5mos5MO
@B9QDQTC5mos5MO
@B9JRN45 5mos5MO
Life begins at conception, you should legally not be able to end the life of a child at any stage of development. Those who do should be charged with murder along with the doctors.
Informed Social Issues Informed Abortion
No, life does not begin at conception. Sperm are alive, eggs are alive, zygotes are alive. Life has been a continuous chain since it first appeared 4.5 billion years ago.
Anyway, "life" does not imply personhood. Carrots are alive, but they are not people, and killing them is not murder. The same applies to human embryos.
@B9KQGXR5mos5MO
@B9LV826Republican5mos5MO
why would one wait so long then? and why would someone try to kill something that is already not alive? what about equality? people are treating these unborn children selfishly. unborn babies have brains, they are just not developed. neither was yours, but you were given the precious gift of life and a chance to develop.
Informed Social Issues Informed Abortion
why would one wait so long then?
What do you mean?
and why would someone try to kill something that is already not alive?
It is alive, but that doesn't make it a person. If you scrape a clump of cells off your inner cheek, they are alive, and human, but they are not a person, and there's nothing wrong with killing them.
what about equality?
Equality with what?
people are treating these unborn children selfishly.
There is nothing selfish about it. They are making the morally good and responsible choice to not bring an unwanted child into the world.
unborn babies have brains… Read more
@B9JS22VWomen’s Equality5mos5MO
Anything that is formed inside a human being is a product of God. Therefore, it is considered living because it is relying on the human being to do basic human tasks for the embryo to survive. Destroying anything made by God is destroying what he has done for us as a whole, and is going against him all together.
Informed Social Issues Informed Abortion
Of course it is living. That doesn't make it a person with rights. If a baby is born with extra limbs (like Lakshmi Tatma), is it wrong to remove them? That would be destroying something that "God made".
@BB38W9B 4mos4MO
@B9JGR43Women’s Equality5mos5MO
A human embryo may not be considered a human since they are still not seemingly a human, but it doesn't make it any less important. Think of it like this: imagine your new goal for 2026 is to plant an entire garden. So, you happily plant all your seeds, go about your day, and a few weeks later you change your mind about planting a beautiful garden that will give you fresh fruit with an easier, and cheaper access. By week 2, or 3, you decide to get rid of all the seeds you planted, simply because you realized just how much hard work, investment, time, and effort it will take to take care… Read more
Informed Social Issues Informed Abortion
A human embryo may not be considered a human
Of course it's human. I literally said that in the post you're replying to.
But being human does not make them people. Something being human does not mean that killing it is murder.
@B9JV9WM5mos5MO
You are killing someone who has the potential of curing anything. If you did the deed you need to deal with the consequences. Be the better person and deal with it.
#1 Engaged Ethics Informed Social Issues Informed Abortion
No, you are not killing anyone. There is no person inside a human embryo. It is just living human tissue with the potential to develop into a person (under the right conditions).
And sure, it could develop into a person who cures cancer, but it could also develop into a person who commits murder, or a genocidal maniac. There's no way of knowing.
And the same could be said for any sperm or unfertilized egg. Any sperm or egg also has the potential to develop into a person who cures cancer. Is it morally wrong to kill a sperm cell?
@B9KDRM5 5mos5MO
I totally agree with this. Personhood isn’t just about having human DNA or being conceived. It’s about having the capacity for consciousness, which doesn’t happen until much later in pregnancy. The points about twins and chimeras really show how it’s more complicated than just “life begins at conception.” Talking about it this way makes the whole debate a lot more thoughtful.
@B9K5533Women’s Equality5mos5MO
I disagree with this comment because of religious reasons and my own personal beliefs. I think that a chance at life is in fact a life. However, I do place the responsibility of that life in the hands of the mother. In my heart of hearts I am against abortion, yet I know that every situation is unique and never quite simple. Especially when the health and well being of the mother and child is at stake.
Informed Social Issues Informed Abortion
Every human sperm is a "chance at life". Is it morally wrong to kill a sperm? Is it murder?
@BB3B8X24mos4MO
@B9JMWRBRepublican5mos5MO
@B9LTXWK5mos5MO
although a brain has not developed yet, it is a FACT that the brain and competency is in the near future. There is a human life on the way when you are in the embryo stage, and it is important to understand that that one person could affect so much.
Informed Social Issues Informed Abortion
although a brain has not developed yet, it is a FACT that the brain and competency is in the near future.
That's why you get an abortion; to prevent it from developing further and becoming a person.
There is a human life on the way when you are in the embryo stage
It is already human life at the embryo stage, but that doesn't make it a person. "Human life" is not special.
Every time you sneeze you are ejecting human life, but it's not murder to kill a booger.
and it is important to understand that that one person could affect so much.
Yes, by getting an abortion you could be preventing a genocidal dictator from being born, which would make it very morally good to get an abortion. Good point.
@B9K598C 5mos5MO
as soon as egg is fertilized it is a living baby and whether it has lung or a body is not a reasonable means to kill and it should be held as a murder and to woman who do not medically need mot they should be arrested and charged will murder
Informed Social Issues Informed Abortion
No, it is not a baby; it is a fertilized egg. It has the potential to become a baby, or to fail to implant in the uterus and die, or to split into multiple babies, or to join with another fertilized egg and produce part of a baby, etc. It is factually wrong to say that a fertilized egg is a baby. It is not murder to kill a single-celled organism.
@B9YZFPN 4mos4MO
I believe that these people are kinda stupid or whoever wrote that is kind of stupid and they don't realize that the babies that are in the mom's tummies or the girls tummies grow into be human beings and could be our future and they are our future generation and just cause they messed up or the girl messed up. That's her fault that she should grow up and be more mature.
@B9Y62JP4mos4MO
@BB2ZMYT4mos4MO
@BC8KWPQ3mos3MO
You do realize, that cells are living, right? Pure and simple. Living, check. **** Sapien Species, check. We are 2 for 2, looks as though it is a human so let it live, would you like someone to argue that its fine it kill you cuz you are a clump of cells, cuz you literally are, hate to break it to you honey, but you cant defend murder, you just cannot.
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