BSA blog carnival

[qwazse 4368]

"But Mr. Stosh, I don't know migh knots, I was taught once-and-done using edge!"

 

Interesting how folks have brought up the ambiguities of war and criminal execution, but nobody mentioned abortion. Causing a woman to terminate a pregnancy is punishable in the Torah, but there is some debate if "the penalty" is the same that for causing both mother and child to die. Also, the desire of the mother to have the child is assumed. (Exodus 21:22)

 

Our problem is that science has revealed how unique a fetus is from even the embryonic stage, and reckoning with that knowledge is the source of our mourn tumult over the issue.

 

[Stosh 3452]

quazse, you can tick off the homosexuals, racial minorities, and "other" not-for-real Christians, but once you tick off the entire female segment of society, you'll be eating supper cold forever. There's no political future in discussing abortion in the same dialog as murder, war, capital punishment and self-defense.

 

I'm no Hebrew scholar but I have been told that a literal translation of the commandment is "Thou shall not be a murderer." That kinda takes capital punishment, self-defense and war off the table. Abortion? Jury is still out on that one and I for one ain't gonna touch it even with a long stick.

 

Stosh

[CalicoPenn 729]

"Our problem is that science has revealed how unique a fetus is from even the embryonic stage"

 

Unique inwhat aspect? Sorry, Qwazse, science has revealed how remarkably non-unique a human fetus is in comparison to other mammals in the early stages. There are science and natural history museums that have exhibits showing a side by side comparison of various mammalian fetuses at early stages.

[Stosh 3452]

Science goes a long way to explain a lot of things. Yes the fetus of mammals at a very early age are all remarkably similar. So are 5' 6", blonde, blue-eyed, 120# women, unless one of them happens to be your daughter. Scientific empirical similarities carry a certain amount of weight, but so does subjective psychology (also scientific). It's what makes us human.

 

I think the key to abortion is not really a scientific data debate, but more of a subjective debate of what one does with that data. Couple that with the propaganda that surrounds the whole issue and one ends up with nothing more than a can of worms.

 

We are not judged as a society, only as individuals within that society. We all have a choice to make and for some they find it acceptable to promote their choice on others. And even with that all said, the jury's still out on what is really right/wrong, moral/immoral about the issue. I used to think it terrible that other societies throughout history found it quite easy to abandon newborns to die because of acceptable societal norms. They didn't have the luxury of knowing prior to birth the sex of the child. In certain societies of today the sex of the child is quite important on a number of different levels and abortion becomes a useful tool to make sure these societal issues are addressed. What's right/wrong there is quite different than what's right/wrong in other places of the world.

 

After all, one sleeps better at night having satisfied one's own issues than those of someone else. That someone else might be me or it might be a fetus. In the long run, it's not my or the fetus' concern that matters for these people. Convincing them otherwise is a useless effort.