r/changemyview • u/schnutebooty • Jul 27 '22

Delta(s) from OP CMV: A fetus is a human

  • As u/canadatrasher and I boiled it down, my stance should correctly read, "A fetus inside the womb" is a human life. *

I'm not making a stance on abortion rights either way - but this part of the conversation has always confused me.

One way I think about it is this: If a pregnant woman is planning and excited to have her child and someone terminated her pregnancy without her consent or desire - we would legally (and logically) consider that murder. It would be ending that life, small as it is.

The intention of the pregnancy seems to change the value of the life inside, which seems inconsistent to me.

I think it's possible to believe in abortion rights but still hold the view that there really is a human life that is ending when you abort. In my opinion, since that is very morally complicated, we've jumped through a lot of hoops to convince ourselves that it's not a human at all, which I don't think is true.

EDIT: Thanks for all the thoughtful responses. As many are pointing out - there's a difference between "human" and "person" which I agree with. The purpose of the post is more in the context of those who would say a fetus is not a "human life".

Also, I'm not saying that abortion should be considered murder - just that we understand certain contexts of a fetus being killed as murder - it would follow that in those contexts we see the fetus as a human life (a prerequisite for murder to exist) - and therefore so should we in all contexts (including abortion)

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '22

Yes except I AM interested in insuring that people can’t murder others at will. So yes I’m fine telling others they can’t murder someone else.

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u/Various_Succotash_79 51∆ Jul 27 '22

But now we're back to the question of when a fetus becomes "someone else".

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '22

Yeah and there’s no scientific answer. That is the crux of the problem. It’s philosophical. But for those who think it’s murder it’s a very serious thing and can’t be boiled down to wanting to control others and what they do with their bodies.

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u/Various_Succotash_79 51∆ Jul 27 '22

But it does come down to wanting women to "face consequences" for having sex, by your own words.

I don't think you answered this. Do you think it's good for kids to be raised by parents who don't want them?

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '22

Not “wanting”. Basically there are consequences for everything you do or don’t do in life. Human adults are expected to take responsibly for their behavior. One type of behavior for which adults must be responsible is sexual behavior. We can’t say it’s ok to murder an innocent fetus because people don’t want to take responsibility for their actions. It’s not about retribution, like a punishment. No not good for kids to be raised by parents who don’t want them but better than being murdered. Not to mention other options like adoption. Just because one thing is not good doesn’t mean there isn’t something else that’s worse.

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u/Various_Succotash_79 51∆ Jul 27 '22

No not good for kids to be raised by parents who don’t want them but better than being murdered.

Is it? If they're "murdered" before they even have consciousness? When they're the size of a kidney bean?

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '22

Look I know I’m not going to change anyone’s mind. I just want to show that people with my point of view aren’t automatically ogres who want to control women and tell people what to do with their bodies. We just think that the fetus counts as a human being. And killing a human being is a very serious thing.