Really?? Truly?? Let's Think About This

http://www.livestrong.com/article/13934-nine-reasons-why-abortions-are-legal/

A woman is more than a fetus.There's an argument these days that a fetus is a "person" that is "indistinguishable from the rest of us," and that it deserves rights equal to women's. On this question, there is a tremendous spectrum of religious, philosophical, scientific and medical opinion. It's been argued for centuries. Fortunately, our society has recognized that each woman must be able to make this decision, based on her own conscience. To impose a law defining a fetus as a "person," granting it rights equal to or superior to a woman's--a thinking, feeling, conscious human being--is arrogant and absurd. It only serves to diminish women.
Really? Seriously? I mean, I have used this same argument in the past. But what I know now is that if any human is less than capable of advocating for himself, our society has an even BIGGER obligation to speak for him. It is exactly because the unborn child is *less than a discerning, legal, conscious being* that we must protect his rights to exist.

Any other oppressed group would be championed by the socially conscious. Why is it that a baby's life is considered an accident? Unwanted? Inconvenient? How can an innocent life possibly be the cause of such woe in our world? Something is very amiss.

If you do not consider an unborn child to be human, I must ask a question. Do you have children? At what point in your pregnancy would you have gotten rid of that baby? At what point is that baby not human- not a person? At what point is your daughter, Sarah, your son, Stephen, a human who was once NOT human? At what point in this child's unborn state would you have destroyed his tissue, stopped his life, or traded in the person he has become for the convenience of your own life?

A woman's human-ness is just as significant as a child's. Even the unborn child is human. In what ways can we choose both? Allow an unexpected pregnancy to be a gift, or at least a hurdle by which both mother and child can grow in their humanity? Do we not become stronger and more fully human when we experience hardship? Do we not grow in compassion and create MORE love in our world when we think inclusively, rather than exclusively?

For a traditional Buddhist perspective: http://vishvapaniswriting.blogspot.com/2007/02/ethics-of-abortion-and-buddhist.html