Comments

  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    Allow her? I don't know why you're suggesting that I'm allowed to tell women what to do.

    Ok, in the future men can get pregnant. You have the choice between two single-celled organisms, a human and a fly? Which one do you choose to carry to term, nurse, and care for into early adulthood?
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    I wouldn't choose, it's got nothing to do with me.

    You’d allow her to attempt to carry a fly to term?
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    If a woman you knew wanted implant one of those single-celled organisms into her womb so as to incubate it, which one would you choose?
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    Humans are of the same moral worth as flies, ie. worthless. I mean, what can I say to that?
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    So what about a species determines whether or not it is wrong to kill its innocent members?

    Are you trying to get around to saying all single-cells organisms are of the same moral worth?
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    So you are saying that it is only wrong kill an organism if that organism is the same species as us? Are you saying that it wouldn't be wrong to kill an innocent intelligent alien? Are you saying that it wouldn't be wrong for an intelligent alien to kill an innocent human?

    It all depends on the species. Is the alien one that inserts eggs into the human abdomen, so that they rip out the chest as soon as they are old enough? Flies too can lay eggs in humans. So I kill them.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    Why does it matter what the single-celled organism develops into? Why is it acceptable to kill a single-celled organism that develops into an adult fly but not acceptable to kill a single-celled organism that develops into an adult human?

    It’s not the same species as us. Why do you think humans are as morally relevant as flies?
  • US Election 2024 (All general discussion)
    Trump capitalizes on Biden calling his supporters garbage.

  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)


    Yes, indeed. Watching them debase themselves beneath his mere presence is a persistent joy, but their behavior indicates the beginnings of a reactionary movement the likes of which we have never seen. Hurt and wounded, but always confident, Anti-Trumpism will not give up power so easily.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    We can, and do, kill non-human organisms, including single-celled organisms. You admit to killing flies. Is any of this wrong? If not, why are single-celled humans special? Physically they only differ from non-humans in their DNA and the manner in which they are created. So why is their DNA and manner of creation morally relevant?

    It’s the only single-celled organism that develops into children and adult human beings. You were one, for instance. Are human beings morally irrelevant?
  • US Election 2024 (All general discussion)
    Note: a joke about Puerto Rico’s massive garbage problem is racist because now every anti-Trumpist can’t help but associate its people with trash.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    That's not true of every single-celled organism because do not abort other single-celled organisms.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    And why is that morally relevant?

    That's who you're killing. That's the victim. How is it morally irrelevant?
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    You don’t believe in essentialism, yet insist that it is essentially just a single-celled organism, no different than any other single-celled organisms.

    But this single-celled organism came about different than other single-cells organisms. The act and the beings who created it also make it human. Its creation, its development, its biology, its surroundings, and yes its DNA, make it a certain kind of single-celled organism.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    All humans go through that phase in their development and are born of human parents. Is it not human? because you are forever trying to dismiss that term.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    One can act on his principles and experiences. I don’t kill flies because they are flies but because I am at eternal war with them.

    The abortion itself isn’t dehumanizing. Dehumanizing someone isn’t the act of killing, but of considering someone inhuman so as to make killing them easier. It’s a psychological and linguistic process. You strip away mentally as many human qualities as possible, question his humanity, so the homicide leaves a softer mark on the conscience. It’s why you cannot say what other species of life you are killing, despite questioning that he is human.

    I’m completely against prohibition or forced births, and always was. But fairly recent advances in embryology and genetics makes it clear we’re ending an innocent human life. “Personhood” isn’t a coherent ground to stand on either, and the notion comes off as more superstitious than the transmigration of souls. So personally I cannot be dismissive of the victim and pretend abortion is some moral good to be celebrated.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    My argument is that it is wrong to kill one’s offspring. My question about the psychology of humanization is about what it does to the one who behaves that way, how it hinders the conscience. because it has a clear psychological purpose. A fetus need not be aware of it.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    Being dehumanized can cause significant psychological harm. Zygotes, blastocysts, and fetuses often feel alienated, isolated, and humiliated, which can lead to anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem. Chronic dehumanization, like in cases of systemic discrimination, can contribute to long-term mental health issues.

    I think it works to negate the conscience.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    Dehumanization is the method. I’m curious what it does psychologically, as the behavior that commonly follows it is rarely moral.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    Humans are single-celled for a few days at best. But no need to reiterate the position.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    You’d just be repeating evasions anyways. They all contain reasons why you accept her choice, not whether the act itself is right or wrong.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    I get that you accept her choice. You don’t need to restate your opinion on that matter. But I do want to hear the reasoning behind why think it is right to kill a human zygote.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    I've already explained to you in past posts why it isn't wrong to kill a zygote or embryo or early stage foetus. I only interjected now to explain that you were misrepresenting @Banno. He is only saying that having an abortion is morally acceptable; he is not saying that women should have an abortion.

    If it isn’t wrong then is it right to kill human in his early stages?
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    Except there is a human being on one track and no one on the next.

    Right or wrong, moral or immoral, good or bad, correct or incorrect…these are the reasons informing why someone should or shouldn’t perform some behavior on another. The behavior in this instance is killing a living human, and the choice whether to do so or not lies with the moral agent.

    You lack any insight on whether she should or shouldn’t pull the lever, or you think it doesn’t matter. I’ll reframe the question. Why is it morally acceptable for a mother to kill her offspring?
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    Of course she can do whatever she wants. But she has to choose to do something or not do something. What should she choose?

    You can’t say, can you? Your ethics leave the building on this one question, whether it is right or wrong for a mother to abort her offspring.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    It’s a normative question. Of course it isn’t true or false.

    I’ll put it in a language you might understand. There’s a trolly coming down the track, about to split in different directions. A mother stands at the lever can can choose where the trolly can go. Down one track lies her offspring. On the other is nothing. Which way should she send the trolly?
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    I do understand, I’m just asking why you can’t answer the question when we all here have the capacity to discern whether or not someone else should perform some behavior or not perform some behavior. Ought she or ought she not abort her offspring?
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    It’s a simple question: should she kill her offspring? Should she abort or not? Why or why not? Why can’t you guys answer this?
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    But that's the thing. Categories are mental objects that can represent the world as it is only to a degree. Our categories tend to fall apart when we attempt to distinguish one thing from another with finer detail. Astronomers have the same problem in defining what it is to be a planet. This is why I am saying that there is a grey area. Your boundaries might not line up with others, and since there is no clear boundary, it is up to you, and you alone, to decide what you want to do with your boundaries. If you can't even clearly distinguish what it is to be a human in these grey areas, then your foundation for limiting what others can do in these grey areas is not as solid as you think.

    My concern isn’t so much the taxonomy but the flesh-and-blood entity that you are justifying killing. I don’t require categories to tell me when it is or isn’t appropriate to take a life, and I don’t need to dehumanize someone. Simple justice and dignity suffices to inform how it is appropriate to treat another living being.

    So if it isn’t human life what kind of life would you suggest it is?
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    And there we have it. Mother’s should kill their offspring when they are cysts. At least we’re out with it.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    No one here is, I think, arguing that abortion be made compulsory.

    Assuming that it is optional, the mother has every right, and no one would intervene, should she kill her offspring? Is it right or wrong to do so? Is it just? The answers to these questions ought to inform one’s position.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?
    Even if a mother has greater value than her offspring, and all the “qualities” observers prefer, it doesn’t follow that she should kill them, as if both of their lives are at stake. In most cases only one life is on the chopping block.

    As yet the question of whether she should or should not end the life is unresolved. But only evil would weigh the value of an innocent life to justify his killing. This is the game being played here.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    I insist that an adult pregnant woman, for example, is a person. I think we all agree there.

    There was a time when they were not considered persons. It was the same with slaves. It’s the same instinct and language at work in this discussion, where a mere designation is used to justify all sorts of ill behaviors.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    Show me where I stated it isn't. Also, show me a person who has eaten all types of meat and/or wants to eat all types of meat.

    Fine, you don’t consider meat as food. I’m only stating that every dictionary does.

    a miscarriage(abortion), is the act of killing the organism, which is wrong.

    Why is absolute morality only absolute sometimes and relative some other times?

    We’re speaking about the medical procedure some people choose to terminate a viable pregnancy. You’re equating this with the natural and spontaneous death of a fetus.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    My issue is the identity of indiscernibles. She’s some other being one minute then a human being the next, while anyone watching this supposed change can see that one organism isn’t replaced by another.

    Rather, it is a kind of being or animal or organism whose life begins at this time and ends that time, after which it decomposes. “Viability” is too squishy of a continuity principle for me. I want to be able to point at something and say “that’s a so-and-so” without having to check its vitals. There needs to be a taxonomical term for this being and “human” or “man” suffices.

    But I’m still interested to read what other non-human being precedes us.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)


    It would be but Biden possessed stolen documents for decades and nothing happened. If you watch the appeals to the New York civil case the appeals judges noted it was the first time this has ever happened, and it’s not looking good for the prosecution. Bragg’s case was a completely novel legal theory, with a judge whose daughter works for the Biden/Harris campaign. And they’re on record campaigning to get Trump. So where is the outrage?
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)


    They politicized the justice system. Biden’s DOJ went after him. Attorney Generals campaigned on going after him and they cooked up frivolous cases. They locked up at least two of his advisors.
  • Donald Trump (All General Trump Conversations Here)


    That says more about us than it does about him honestly. Fact is, even if Trump loses (an apparent coin flip at this point) it'll only be a matter of time before the next lunatic comes in that people will find reasons to support. It's happened before in Germany, it's happening now, and it will happen in the future.

    Trump’s enemies have set the blueprint. The crying wolf and the hoaxes are one thing, but Trump’s enemies have also used the state to go after him. Now we have a discredited media, a two-tiered justice system, a political intelligence community, and a swath of activists ready to head the call. The lunatics are already here.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    Not everyone consider meat as food, nor does everyone who eat meat as food consider every kind of meat as food.

    Show me any definition that states otherwise.

    Did the mother kill all the zygotes/embryos/fetuses that were miscarriage? Was the mother wrong for having miscarriages since, by your definition, it's the act of killing all those organisms?

    Miscarriages are not the intentional killing of a human life, so no.