Defending the Truth

Studies suggest inherent risk of poor pregnancy outcomes for teenagers | Family Planning Perspectives | Find Articles at BNET.com
Well, there you go, folks, the mighty FX has spoken.

Young teenagers had the highest incidence of poor outcomes: They were the most likely to have had a low-birth-weight baby (7%), a premature delivery (10%) or an undersized infant (14%). Women aged 20-24, on the other hand, were the least likely to have experienced these outcomes (4%, 5% and 10%, respectively). In each age-group, the frequency of these outcomes was highest among women who were unmarried, whose educational level was not age-appropriate and, particularly, who had received inadequate prenatal care: Those who had had inadequate care were at least twice as likely as those who had gotten adequate care to bear a low-birth-weight or premature infant.

I'm sorry, those numbers don't appear to justify the "young mothers shouldn't have children because they aren't physically mature enough". 3-5% difference of an already low number? That's hardly significant. In fact it looks like we might ought to keep unmarried, uneducated women from procreating.
And at the end, they clearly indicate they haven't yet pinpointed age as the critical variable. It's just a bunch of "may"'s.

You betta reconize.

Thanks for sharing....

there is no accepted criteria for the beginning of life. there are opinions that life begins at conception, at birth and at every stage in between. but they are no more than opinions.

and always use contraception that is guaranteed 100% effective.

and never have a foetus with any lethal congenital abnormality.

and never have any complications of early pregnancy

and never get raped

Not really. Biology textbooks are pretty much in agreement that when the egg and sperm meet is the beginning of mammalian life. Otherwise known as conception.

It's when people start wanting to get technical that they have to rationalize some other BS to make themselves feel better. All of our lives started at conception. That's the first thing that happened making us individuals.

false.

this is the religious argument, not the biological one.

Developmental Biology 8e Online: When Does Human Life Begin?

a lot of this aticle discusses theological, philosophical and social definitions, but there is a section in the middle about the current scientific views of the beginning of life (note the use of the plural "views")

certainly a fertilized egg is alive, technically. but an unfertilized egg and a free living sperm are also alive.

a large number of fertilized eggs never develop past a few cells, never implant into the uterine lining, and are expelled from the body having never become anything resembling human. further, they were never capable of developing into anything remotely human. of those that do implant, a huge number spontaneously abort after a few weeks because of abnormalities that are lethal to further development. they also were never capable of becoming human.

we can extend this argument to the other end of the spectrum. when a person dies, it is actually quite difficult to define the moment. and after they have died, there are numerous physiological processes that continue for some time, whole organs can survive, allowing transplantation. most of the person is still composed of living cells, but they are defined as dead. by some criteria.

life is complicated and the more you know the more complicated it becomes.