ProLife? Or ProPerson?

[Az]

The term prolife is misleading in the abortion debate. The prolife crowd attempts to appeal to our concern for life when they pitch their arguments. But is it life that we are really concerned about?

Every day you exist millions of cells die in your body. Each cell is a human cell. Each cell is alive. But as humans we go through cells with gusto. We are not the cells we were when we were born. Every 7 years or so all the cells in our body replace themself. Every seven years the cellular equivalent of you dies.

If you lose an arm or a leg you may be upset but you would still be you. Your identity would still be intact. It seems to be identity that we most closely guard. Even nature has examples of animals sacrificing a limb so the individual might survive.

A brief examination of most of the worlds religions will find that those that focus on survival of some sort after death regard the survival of identity over the survival of a body. That is the religion appeals to the survival of the mind of the person after the death of the body.

The common thread here is that our minds seem to be the thing we most seek to protect. Life mearely seems to be a vehicle to enable our identities. If someone slapped a skincell sample from our arm in a petri dish we would not consider that immortality. We would have no experience of it. True our DNA could be preserved. But the thing that matters most to us is not in that petri dish.

From what we know about our bodies it is clear that our mind arises from our brain. We also know that it is not just a question of an intact brain. It also must have collected some measure of experiences before identity seems to start to rise from it.

What we can learn from this is that the aspect of life that we most seek to protect is the identity of a person. And that it does not exist until there is a brain that has accumulated some small amount of experience.

I am not prolife. I am properson. I am proidentity. I will seek to defend whatever has a sense of self. I mourn the passing of life without identity only to the extent that it inconvieniences or disables something with an identity.

Life on its own is interesting. But with no identity there can be no rights. Life on its own is just matter undergoing a process. Interesting but not terribly special on this life encrusted planet. Identity is an entirely different matter.

[Az]

1. Selfkick

Sigh

[seabeyond]

2. i swear people have forgotten why we made abortion legal

they think they want to ban it. but being banned just a small period would remind people why. the vast majority of people who's family will then be effected. especially in todays world. they know not what they do.......adn the reason for that, is they dont think past their agenda. ban abortion. then what. all go to jail that have them. 5 years in prison. we seem to want to put everyone in prison for every little mistake tehy make. lets just imprison the world

[TN al]

3. Conservatives aren't prolife...

...they are probirth. They don't give a damn what happens to the life after the birth. It is just another way for them to keep wages down.

[annabanana]

4. The total number of abortions remains pretty much constant....

Whether it's legal or not. The question is if we are willing to jail doctors and consign our unlucky daughters to death by sepsis

[melv]

5. I disagree with that

although I know that making it illegal will not stop abortions.

Abortion rates were going down up until Bushie took office. Then the reporting agencies just stopped reporting. So who knows? One can only reflect on what was making the rate go down during the (ahem) Clinton era.

Drum Roll, Please -

Less Americans in POVERTY.

Address poverty, address abortion. 'nuf said.