Quote Originally Posted by Iris lily View Post
I am as pro abortion as anyone, and as supportive on the far end continuum scale of life as anyone here, but I agree with you that there is an odd lack of balance on this website. It's IS ludicrous that no one speaks of the other lifeform, for lack of a better term, that looses in the abortion deal. There is a baby/zygote/mass of human cells/a life or whatever term you want to use, that is wiped out.
I am pretty much against abortion as a routine matter of course.

Also, I believe in considering the interests of all parties involved in a moral decision. In this case, both the mother and "fetus".

I'm also perfectly happy calling the "fetus" a "human" or "child" from the very instant of conception, for the sake of argument. And equally considering its interests in any analysis of its fate.

However, I think the mother's interests clearly outweigh those of the child until pretty darned far along in the gestation process, so I'm OK with the mother deciding that abortion is the way to proceed if she wishes. I'm fine with calling it killing, of a human being. It is regrettable IMHO, but not necessarily wrong. And in most cases, I wouldn't presume to decide when exactly it is wrong, or right, that's a decision best left up to the mother.

(Furthermore, I don't see a moral difference that allows me to treat a child's fate differently depending on the circumstances of its conception: rape, incest, birth control failure, unprotected sex, ... Its interests do not hinge on those circumstances, and I think they have no place in the analysis except as a distraction or excuse or rationalization.)