One thing that has always bothered me about the abortion debate is the idea that there is some black and white line before which it is ok to do whatever you want to with your unborn child and after which harming them in any way becomes immoral. Unless you are drawing that line at conception then you will end up with an organism that has at least some human-ness on the before side of the line.
The most popular place for pro-choice proponents to draw the line is viability. Before the fetus can survive independent from the mother, they argue, it is morally ok to abort that fetus. At the moment the child becomes viable then abortion becomes immoral. Most pro-choice arguments I have read do not argue that abortion before conception is immoral yet also a right that should be protected. Such arguments would require an acknowledgment that there is actually something there before viability and that that something might actually have value.
The problem is that there is a separate organism there before viability and that organism at least has a human quality to it. It seems as though that this organism with a human quality should be protected.
So to sailor and IAM, I disagree that it comes down solely to when personhood begins. I think ABC's post points to where the real debate should be. Before viability there is clearly something of value that has a human quality to it and it ought to be protected. However, it is tied directly to the mother in a way it is not after viability and that mother has rights which ought to be protected. The biggest right is actually not the right to privacy but the right to choose. The right to choose whether to have children and the right to choose what one does with one's own body (which abortion aside is not a right fully granted by the U.S).
The best solution, and the one which should ultimately become policy, is the one which respects the rights of the mother yet also recognizes the value of the pre-viability fetus.
To me that point should be far enough after conception to allow a woman sufficient time to decide if she wants a child yet before the fetus begins to take on human like qualities (formation of organs, a heartbeat, etc.). A brief google search tells me that this is probably somewhere between three and four weeks after conception. After the first four weeks any reason other than a true risk to the mother's life does not seem compelling.
Just one man's opinion
