Reply #10: Rights of the fetus is a different issue. [View All]

[JDPriestly]

But, viability and the beginning of life are related. A fetus is truly viable when it can breathe separately from the woman's metabolism. Within the peach analogy, a viable fetus is like a ripe peach.

If you sincerely ask "when does an independent life begin?," you will find that the peach tree analogy works quite well. A peach is alive, but it does not become a peach tree until it develops a stem that breaks ground and can develop into a tree trunk. Likewise, a fetus is alive, but it does not become a baby, a separate life, until it is born, until it leaves its mother's womb and breathes on its own. Until that time it is a fetus. Of course, that time is possible at viability because, by definition, a baby that is viable is one that can survive by breathing on its own without its mother.

Abortion is a different issue, one that I think should be left to a mother and her doctor.

I agree, killing a newborn is morally disgusting. I happen to know, however, that there are rare situations in which not aborting a baby means death to both the baby and the mother. That is, in my view, even more morally disgusting than killing a newborn, because two lives are lost rather than one.