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Originally Posted by Thunderball
Honestly, my libertarian streak says perhaps.
With mentally handicapped, it gets murkier, but if someone was to abort a child after finding through amniocentesis or other testing that it has severe mental/physical disabilities, is that wrong? Don't be so quick to say yes. That child will not have a full life, it may only live for a short painful time, that child will be totally dependent on its parents (until they die) and then society. That is a tremendous undertaking that a lot of people are simply not capable of. That doesn't make them evil people either.
As for chronically/terminally ill people, who are we to say they must stay alive until even the most modern technologies can no longer sustain them. Some American states are starting to recognize this.
When it comes to abortion, I'm somewhere in the middle, but I lean towards pro-choice. Abortion is rather ugly, but so is the consequence of bearing an unloved child, or a child of rape, or a child to unfit and unready parents. Women have a right to control their bodies... however, to me, once the baby gets to the point where it can sustain itself, the right to abort ends. Until it can sustain itself, it is not independent, it is part of the host.
Really, who are we to decide personal private acts like that. Unless the question is "Should Public dollars be used to pay for abortions?", or something like that, the public has no place in the disussion. SSM is a different societal debate because it asks for public recognition and to be attached to a preexisting social institution. The right to be homosexual is untouchable to me, they have every right to exist and thrive, largely because this is a personal private act.
Abortion is not public domain.
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Dude, your libertarian streak should be screaming bloody murder. Life is important, no matter who it is. People with Down Syndrome or Autism are just as much a part of the human experience as people without these disorders.
As for the SSM vs Abortion debate, I don't think they are part of the same suite of issues. I have no problem with homosexuality and I have no problem with homosexual couples who wish to have the same taxation and legal rights extended to them. That is a private and individual right.
Abortion to me is different. I really hesitate at calling it a private issue. While some women may say, "it's my body" and somehow insinuate that the fetus is an appendage or growth of their body, it's the same to me as the slaveowner saying "that man is my property." Some decisions aren't ours to make.
Now of course, abortion does boil down to a choice that women will make. We should be careful to present a full range of options to pregnant women that include a lot of other things besides an abortion. We have a choice to do everything, doesn't mean we should do them.