Hopwin wrote:
You misunderstand me, I am against your idea and abortions. This is not an either/or.
Oh, I gathered that.
I believe my suggestion is fair, and ethically and legally consistent, and ultimately better for society and even the unwanted children... better they are not born at all, rather than born to a family that does not want them and is going to experience extreme hardship by having them.
While I understand your position, I don't believe it can be logically justified through secular means. Without invoking religion, there's no logic by which a non-viable fetus should be legally protected, and religion is inadmissable in the legal system of a free country.
I can logically justify protecting a fetus as young as 20-21 weeks and granting it all the rights of a person already born. If the fetus were born prematurely, as young as 20 weeks, it has a small chance of survival. If you walked into the incubation ward of a hospital and shot a 20 week old premie, you'd be guilty of murder. What's the difference if it's in the incubation ward or the womb? Birth can happen at arbitrary times, long before or after the child is premature, so it's a poor place to put the legal protections. Viability, for me, works. It's just logical.
Before that, it's increasingly hard to justify. There's currently no scenario in which a fetus younger than that can survive removal from the womb. Since the child has no inherent right to the woman's womb and is, in effect, trespassing, if she does not want it there, she's perfectly within her rights to have the squatter removed. But i'm not good with her removing the trespasser Texas-style. If it can survive, let it.