Your body, your choice?
Posted by BrianControversial thought of the day:
One of the common arguments that pro choicers use is that a woman should be able to control her own body. I wonder, though, how many of those people would take umbrage at the notion of allowing people to elect to sell off one of their kidneys? It is their body after all.
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February 17th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Well I’m pro-choice and pro-selling-your-kidney. Now if the organ centers (or whatever they’re called) don’t want to pay for an organ for their own ethical reasoning, then I’m pro-that too.
February 17th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
You (and I) are a rare breed. I don’t put on airs as being simply pro choice or pro life, both of which are terms that aren’t fully descriptive. For me the issue is far too complex to say I’m pro one or the other.
I’m not going to deny the societal benefits of preventing unwanted pregnancies or the rights of individuals to do whatever they so desire with their own bodies. But I’m torn as to when an embryo/fetus/baby should be considered a viable life (i.e. it has a constitutionally protected right to life). It is hard for me to believe that it should hinge on whether or not the life is wanted. I personally don’t have a problem letting courts make that determination, though, and abiding by their decision.
In the end, I would personally err on the side of letting people do what they will, but that is subject to change as I frequently debate the idea in my head.
February 18th, 2007 at 1:31 am
That’s really the big question — when is the fetus as separate life. It’s hard. Certainly there is a time where it’s just a cluster of cells. And almost to the end of the pregancy, it is incapable of survival without the mother. So when does it stop being a biological bundle in the mother’s body and start becoming an individual with it’s own rights of survival. I don’t know, and neither does anyone else. I’m like you — I say let the individual decide. But it’s not a very easy position to have sometimes.
As far as legal standing, however, an unborn child is not a US citizen. You have to be “born” to be a citizen. Now, that doesn’t mean you don’t have God-given rights (if you believe in God), but God doesn’t seem to be passing those out the unborn either. Old Testament law dictated that the punishment for causing a miscarriage is a fine, while the punishment for murder is death.
I find that very interesting. It makes a clear distinction between causing a miscarriage and “further injury.” It then says that the penalty for life is life, but the penalty for violently causing a miscarriage is monetary compensation. There is, however, some debate over the Hebrew word that is translated “miscarriage.” Some people say it could also mean “premature birth,” but I don’t speak ancient Hebrew.
February 18th, 2007 at 10:26 am
Interesting biblical quote. It’s good to keep that in your philosophical quiver when dealing with the irrationally religious (note: not all religious people are irrational, I think you know the ones I’m referring to).
One of the contentious issues for me is how arbitrary it can seem. I am a proponent of laws that treat terminally damaging (i.e. killing) a fetus during the commission of a crime against a pregnant woman as a homicide. But it is hard to reconcile how a similar, yet unwanted, life in another woman may be terminated prematurely without compunction.
My three children were born an average of five weeks early and all were perfectly healthy and did not need any artificial support. I would have a hard time buying someone’s justification that a four, five, or six week premature “fetus” is not a certifiable life simply because it has not yet exited the mother. But again, it is impossible to determine when, without doubt, a fetus is capable of independent (by that I mean no artificial medical equipment) life. Even then we exercise all available medical techniques to prolong and enable the live of a very premature wanted child who would not survive without the extensive attention.
It is easy to see why this, more so than homosexual issues, is such a difficult (and probably impossible) chasm to bridge.
January 16th, 2008 at 6:24 am
[...] of whether or not individuals should be allowed to sell one of their kidneys. It is a question I’ve raised here before (along with thoughtful dialog in the comments) and placed into the context of how pro-choicers [...]