When people invent reasons to explain why it's perfectly fine to give certain rights to non-sentient human life while disregarding the existing rights of sentient human life, you know you are looking at a form of slavery square in the face.

It seems to me that the whole debate comes down to is the fetus 'human' or not.

Science cannot define when a person becomes sensient, and different religions have different opinions.

As the mother of 5, having been pregnant and given birth, I think the one person who knows most when that child becomes real is the woman, herself.

My last child, I discovered I was pregnant at 40. Yes, I admit I was tempted to not have him, as I was not looking forward to raising a baby that late in life. There was also the worry of Down's Syndrome, and the drain on my health (I was diabetic and hypertensive).

My decision, and only mine, was to keep the baby. But no one should be allowed to make that kind of decision for me.

Period.

I don't think that anyone would question the fact that an embryo or fetus is human. As I said in another post, a fingernail clipping is human as well.

The question becomes if an embryo or fetus is a PERSON or not. It sounds like a game of semantics, but it really isn't. It is a question of sentience. Some veiw a blastocyst as being sentient and others veiw it as a simple cluster of cells.

I think that it is wonderful that you chose to have your baby, and I agree with you that YOU should have been the one to make the decision whether or not to do so.

knot-e-lady - you - and ONLY you are the one who should have made the decision you made.

I'm also extremely glad that my son's mother chose to have him and not abort - but I would certainly never have presumed to tell her what to do with her own body.

What about your son's body?

Are you going to tell your son this piece of crap for reasoning? "Yeah, Son, if your mother had decided to abort you, I wouldn't have interfered."

"Gee, thanks, Dad. Now I know how much you really care for me!"

I wouldn't have to do that.
My son is an intelligent and well-educated adult - who supports a woman's right to choose.

Should women have the right to choose to kill an unborn baby? IS that a right?

What about the unborn baby's rights?

Why don't you care about them?

What came first, religion...or God?

First of all, I want to commend you for carrying your son to full term in spite of the worries you had concerning your health. But I imagine that your pregnancy, though a possible risk, wasn't as bad as you thought it might be. Even if it was, it is over now and I have no doubt that you are so glad now that you allowed the pregnancy to continue.

But, I disagree that it should be your decision and yours alone. And here's why:

Psalms 139:13 For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb.
14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.
17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You.

King David said, "Before I was born, You knew me." What if David's mother had decided a baby would complicate her life? We'd never known about King David.

The point I'm making is that it is not our choice. Our only choice is before conception.