Reply #46: fine [View All]

Now, how are you going to guarantee the exercise of all the rights that attach to the status of human being, before the "human being" in question ceases to be part of "another" human being's body?

Here's one small example for you.

Human beings, by common consensus, have a right to life. As a result, for instance, a child may not be denied life-saving medical treatment by its parents. (Let's leave aside any silliness about religious scruples that may be permitted to interfere in a child's exercise of the right to life in less civilized societies; yer average person, in yer average United States or Canada or Europe, may not deny his/her child life-saving medical treatment.)

So how 'bout those fetuses? There are many conditions in fetuses that will result in the fetus not surviving to birth or long after birth; consider severe neural tube defects. These can now be corrected by surgery in utero.

A woman could not deny her two-year-old life-saving surgery. Obviously, a fetus being a human being and all, a woman could not deny her fetus life-saving surgery.

Am I right? If so, any idea what my next question will be?


just a footnote on edit:

I asked whether you were going to make the statement "fetuses are human beings".

What you then chose to say, while at the same time stating that you accepted my challenge, was actually "a living human being has begun".

If you want to say "fetuses are human beings", could you not come out and say it? And if you don't want to say that, can you explain what you are doing?