The Moment that Life Begins

[liveonearth]

I read today that Ron Paul said life begins at conception. If he really believes this then I have a bone to pick with him. Life is continuous. The egg is alive. The sperm is alive. It swims! Life is a flow from one being to another. Otherwise we would not be here. To abort a child at any stage is stopping a life. We stop lives all the time. I don't understand how the abortion issue is removed from the war issue. But I do see that sometimes the end of one life is beneficial to many other lives. I don't know about "right" and "wrong". We need to get past the whole question of abortion. Choosing to end a pregnancy is not "playing God", it is just what people do in order to manage families and civilizations. Certainly it is better to use a condom than to throw a live baby in a dumpster. Nobody would abort if they hadn't gotten pregnant in the first place. Let's focus on ways of managing our fertility rather than forcing people to raise unwanted children that they will then mistreat and turn into axe murderers. Please.

Comments

[owl-clan.livejournal.com]

I've written extensively on this topic. As a member of the Heathen Center Right, I am not "pro-choice" in the way most people mean when they say it. Any person of honor is bound by their duty as a human being to be "pro-life" in the real sense of the word, that is, being a protector and preserver of the life-cycle, the continuous flow and transition of the life-force. I firmly believe that we should never divert a life-cycle without a very, very good reason.

Abortion for convenience is not a good reason. If you don't know how to use birth control, you shouldn't be putting yourself in a situation where the sacredness of life can flow through you, following its destiny of personhood. If you are one of the .01% of people who used their birth control correctly and still conceived, I believe that Fate and the Gods are telling you to have a child, regardless of the financial issues involved. I know countless people who don't have jobs or any money to speak of, but who have 2-3 happy, healthy children. Self-sacrifice, Love and effort is what is needed; the way to finance your kids will handle itself.

I believe that abortion should be allowed to spare the mother's life in danger from the pregnancy, or in the rare cases where a rape results in pregnancy, but that's about it. If I had my ideal world, people wouldn't have elective abortions of convenience. However, I would never want laws passed making abortions illegal, because I know that there are problems with that, too.

What I really want is for people to REALLY believe that life and life-cycles are sacred, and to stop killing other people, whether those people are in the womb or out of it.

If you can admit that war is a bad idea, then you pretty much have to admit that elective abortion for convenience is a bad idea too. They both involve- as you pointed out- the destruction of life. If one is wrong, then so is the other. You defend abortion by saying that it's how people "manage families and civilizations". Well, I could defend war the same way. War is how the Romans managed their civilization, including many problematic populations.

As for the mistreated/unwanted child thing, again, I must firmly call you down on this- it is not fair- not your right, nor anyone's right- to arbitrarily decide that because a child may have a hard childhood, that its whole life should be thrown away. I had a VERY hard childhood, but I left home at 18, found love, have a family of my own, a career, and a very happy life. A person's life isn't the first 16-18 years. Many great people who have helped our world were born in less-than-ideal situations. The idea that all mistreated kids become "axe murderers" is ludicrous.

Adoption is a much better option, all the way around. We are not the creators of life; we are the caretakers of life, the channels through which life flows. How we treat that life that is put in our hands will have everything to do with our destiny in this life and our Fate after our lives are over, when we stand to make account of our lives in the Underworld.

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

I find that we are largely in agreement, and thank you for posting your thoughts. I also find that you assume my thinking is simpler than it is, and for this I can forgive you. My one-minute vent about the flow of life was not my entire thinking on the matter. Better than abortion, adoption, war or rough childhoods, is the option of managing our fertility such that we do not have pregnancies that are unwelcome. That was my point. By avoiding unwanted pregnancies we avoid the issue of abortion. Once life starts flowing, I agree that the proper path is to let it do what life does: live, grow, and perpetuate itself. There is nothing more sacred than this simple movement of life force.