I Eventually Had to Write About This...

Now I know this is going to be a hotbutton issue. It's probably not even possible to bring up the topic of abortion without angering people. I know that not only religious people but non-religious people object to abortion. What I am going to attempt to do, in as non-inflammatory way as possible, is state my beliefs on the subject (because I was asked where I stand). I realize that you may not agree, and I am not insisting that my view is the only view. These thoughts are my own, and I can offer no evidence for them, and therefore you will now see me use a word I use very reservedly and with extreme precision: these are 'beliefs' of mine.

Those who are against abortion use the phrase "right to life", and this idea forms a part of their premise. We need to start by asking "What are rights?" Is there a such a thing as a 'right to life', and what makes you think so?

A right can be described as a fundamental freedom or entitlement; it's something that we are entitled to. Where do rights come from? Here, right at the start, is where I am going to differ strongly from most anti-abortionists. Rights come from human beings. We give ourselves rights. Non-religionists may say that rights come from nature; they do not. Nature does not confer upon any creature a right to life. In the system of nature, you are alive-- until something else kills you, or you die of starvation. Life is a condition, not an entitlement. Religionists will say that rights come from God. I deny this outright. I do not believe such an entity exists.

First, in order to establish that rights come from God, you must establish that God exists. This has never been done, and there are many obstacles to doing so. There is not a general agreement on this question. Since there is no consensus among the citizens on this question, laws should not be passed that are based upon the assertion that there is a god. Why should I be bound by a law based on the mythological proclamations of a god I don't believe in?

Second, even if you could establish the existence of God, you would then have to establish which god it is. How could you prove it is not Zeus, for example, or something of which you have no conception? Again, rather difficult.

Thirdly, even if you could establish that it is the God of the Christian Bible who does in fact exist, you would have to establish that He actually has stated that humans have a "right to life". The bible furnishes no proof of this. In fact, it supplies a vast quantity of material that suggests the opposite. There has never been a more flagrant and prolific destroyer of human life than God. In the bible story, He provides a Commandment against killing people-- but this only a directive that requires obedience, and it does not establish a person's inherent and self-evident right to be alive. There are dozens of instances in which God orders his followers to slaughter innocent people by the thousands. He killed a man who whose only crime was to touch the Ark of the Covenant to prevent it from falling into the dirt. He Himself even killed everyone on the planet at one point. The bible establishes that humans don't have the right to anything... only the obligation to obey God or suffer the consequences.

So where to rights come from? People, collectively, grant rights. We decided (because we value being alive) that we have a right-- an entitlement-- to life.

Someone stated to me that the mother does not have more rights than the fetus. Let's think about that. The mother is sentient. Sentience means being able to perceive, or to have a subjective experience. We humans grant rights to other sentient beings (animal rights); we collectively agree that we should not abuse animals. We do not grant rights to non-sentient beings, however. An embryo in its early stages is a collection of cells without sentience. Also, the mother is autonomous; that is, she is physically self contained and does not rely on another human being for the biological processes of her own body. A fetus, for most of the time inside the womb, is not sentient, nor is it autonomous. It is an organism that lives inside a host organism, from the body of which it obtains nutriment. Undeniably, a fetus has a parasitic existence; it is inexorably connected to the woman for sustenance. So, why shouldn't the woman have more rights than a fetus?

Certainly there is a point at which the fetus is both sentient and autonomous while still within the womb. At this point, when the fetus no longer needs the body of its mother, killing it would be killing a autonomous, sentient human being, and as such would be immoral. In fact, late term abortions are banned, and rightly so.

Nowhere in the bible does it say that a woman shall not end her own pregnancy. According to the bible, a fetus is not equivalent to a human life. "If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she has a miscarriage, yet there is no further injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman's husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide. But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth." Ex. 21:22-25 [From the New American Standard Bible {NASB}, considered by scholars to be the most accurate]. This is one of the Laws of Moses, given to him by God. This law says that if a fetus dies and is expelled from a woman's body as the result of being struck by a man, then the man who struck her is fined a sum of money that he must pay to the husband. But, and here is the important part, if the woman dies, then the man who struck her shall be put to death (life for life). Therefore, according to the bible, a fetus is not a human life, clear and unarguable. Indeed, Jewish Law states that life begins at birth. Where did "Jewish Law" come from? From Moses. Where did Moses get his law? From God. What was Jesus' position on the laws given by Moses? Jesus said: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished." Matthew 5:17-18. Jesus says that the laws of Moses shall not be excused or ignored while the earth exists.