Re: Any anti-abortion atheists?

Gregory A Greenman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> On Mon, 1 Dec 2003 18:31:26 -0500, Osprey 
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] said...
> > 
> > "Gregory A Greenman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> > news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > > On 29 Nov 2003 22:42:05 -0800, Steve Dufour
> > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] said...
> > > > I've been wondering about this for the last few days.  Are there any
> > > > well known people around who are both atheists and are against
> > > > abortion?  Thanks.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > I probably don't qualify as well known, but I am a pro-life
> > > atheist.
> > 
> > Question:
> > 
> > I am pro-life as well; however, I am not atheist.
> > 
> > I was wondering, why are you pro-life?  How do you view abortion?
> 
> 
> 
> I believe that if it's alive and it's a human, it should be 
> illegal to kill it, (with certain exceptions).
> 
> I don't see that there's anything magical that happens at 
> birth that changes one from not alive to alive or not human 
> to human. So, I don't see a reason to make a distinction 
> between an 8 month fetus and a one month old baby.

I wish you hadn't said this 8 month business. This is exactly what
makes me lose all respect for anti-abortion people. Please, *who* is
advocating elective abortions at 8 months? Do you, on the other hand,
see the difference between a 3-month fetus and a one month old baby?
*This* is the relevant comparison, since this is the stage of
gestation at which people are generally not too bothered by the idea
of elective abortion. If you push it to the limit, maybe you'll find
many who are OK with 5 months, few (if any) who are OK with 6 months,
and I imagine practically no one for 7 months or beyond. Given this,
is it not *enormously* dishonest for anti-abortion people to
immediately bring up an eight month abortion? Is not the whole purpose
of this to distort and mislead? Sigh...

(Of course, abortions in case of medical emergency are a different
issue. It then becomes a triage situation, with a completely different
set of ethical considerations. That's why I assume when *reasonable"
people announce that they don't like the idea of abortion, they are
referring specifically to elective abortion)

> OTOH, at 
> conception, there is a significant change. A sperm and an egg 
> join together and create a new human. Neither the sperm nor 
> the egg by themselves are ~a~ human. They are part of a 
> human.