does a fetus have rights?

I think the only rights anyone has are the rights the society grants him or her. I understand that there are:

rights I *want* to have,
rights I *want* others to have,
rights I do not want to have, and
rights I do not want others to have.

That said, nothing about my wants and desires is fundamental to the universe. If I want a cheesesteak, yet do not have one, in no sense can one claim, really, on a metaphysical level, I *do* have a cheesesteak. The same goes for the love of a beautiful woman. The same goes for "rights."

Unless one believes there is some objective universal standard by which these things are defined (in which case: prove it), then all one has is reality, where society clearly dictates what you and others may and may not do.

Fetuses are in the same boat. If socety pretended that doors are alive and made kicking through a door a capital crime, then it would be fair to say that doors have rights too.

All you really have with fetuses is the question, "Do you feel, or does the source of morality you ignore your own feelings in favor of indicate, that fetuses have the same rights as infants." My guess is that the answers will break down more or less precisely the same way as would the answer to the question: Do you support the right to have abortions?

 

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The idea that there is a human being inside you must start as soon as you learn you are pregnant, but I feel the line must be drawn where the foetus starts showing distinctly human qualities, or where the mother's life is threatened.

 

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Do you not?

For the purposes of argument, surely this should be the case. Otherwise you just sweep the problem under the rug.

spidergoat gave a good criteria, I think. You have no problems with the cases where late term fetuses have survived the abortion procedure? Or the fact that the fetus has developed nervous system to the point where it exhibits a response to pain at 24 weeks?

In many European countries, there are "Duty to Rescue" laws---that is, if one person witnesses another in peril, he must attempt to rescue the person in danger. I've never been in this situation, but I don't have a problem with a law that says "If you are in this situation, this is what you should do."

 

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It'a all arbitrary.

 

What a ridiculous question! If most people don't think that a fetus has rights, then you probably wouldn't even be here to ask that question. You would have been aborted at the whim of your mother.

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What a ridiculous question! If most people don't think that a fetus has rights, then you probably wouldn't even be here to ask that question. You would have been aborted at the whim of your mother.

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Depriving anyone of the right to life for the sole reason that he's a nuisance is called murder. Our society is becoming more depraved by the hour. Then they're stupid enough to wonder why there's a hell.

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Eternity with people like you is hell.

 

Then you'll go to hell and I'll go to heaven. Then we'll both be happy.

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LOl seriously, you're an idiot, please get off this thread. You didnt even attempt to answer any of the questions, and what you said is completely irrelevant.

Tell me about it lmfaoo

So do you believe there is a defining line between when abortion is right and when it's wrong? If so, when is that magical line? At conception? or when the baby begins to have a heart beat? or when it begins to look human? When its starts developing brain waves/patterns and activity like that of a normal adult human being?

 

No, it didn't even enter into the world yet. It's just a sleeping thing that may or many not one day wake up.

 

I said life begins at conception. I think it's hard to deny that constantly replicating cells are not alive. However I don't feel much more of a connection something that looks more like bacteria or some strange growth than I do with actual bacteria. There is no magical line, it's sort of just a feeling, like knowing when something is porn. Since these feelings differ from person to person I am Pro-Choice. My choice may not be your choice and I wouldn't hold you to my choice until society forces you to uphold a certain standard. Most people consider a 5 year old a living being, therefore it is because society says so. If most people believed that a fertilized egg is a person then it would be, but most people don't. That's why you don't have to call the police on your wife if she has a miscarriage.

 

Huh? Are you serious? Do computers have rights? No???? But if computers have no rights, they would be destroyed on the whims of their owners! Ergo, by your logic, either computers don't exist, or they have the right not to be destroyed. You see the problem.

People *sometimes* destroy things on a whim, but that people have the right to do something on a whim, does not mean that they actually choose to do so.

 

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From the Opinion of the Court, Roe v. Wade (410 U.S. 113):

The above comes from section IX.B. On a related note, the first part of section VI of the Court's opinion states,

In other words, the question of life at conception in the context of abortion arises in a context that is both recent and political. The transformation of perspective from the traditional and speculative to the modern and aesthetic is one begged by political developments. That is, the question did not demand a political reconsideration, but new political considerations demanded the question.

Beyond all that, though, I find the question fairly abstract. In terms of an ethics class, such as our topic poster has noted, I would suggest that the questions presented do not exist in a vacuum, but must also be measured according to how the various proposed answers relate to existing society. For instance, and only to underscore the point dramatically, should a mother unable to get an abortion be able to file a declaration that the pregnancy is unwanted, and thus demand of the baby compensation for services rendered? After all, few if any rights come without attendant responsibilities. Those of us who walk outside the womb only enjoy our right to life if we have a means of sustaining it. That is, we must at least eat and breathe and so forth, else we will die. Our right to free speech does not extend to lying in order to cause chaos and harm, nor does it include a right to falsely defame another. Our right to bear arms does not mean we get to shoot anyone we feel like for whatever reason suits us. Nor does it mean we get to detonate a nuclear weapon in order to burn the ass of the stupid punk stealing our car stereo.

If the fetus has rights, what are the attendant responsibilities?

If the fetus is regarded as a whole human being and thus entitled to a full complement of rights, how do law and society regard the mother?
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Notes:

Blackmun, J. Harry. "Opinion of the Court". Roe v. Wade (410 U.S. 113). United States Supreme Court. January 22, 1973. http://straylight.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0410_0113_ZO.html

 

I sort of agree with that, but I was asking the question in a much different context.

This is a ridiculously obvious question James. Human consciousness and thought is much higher and can probably even reach places science will never reach, and that makes Human thought supreme in this universe. Unless you want to argue other intelligent life out there. Im just saying, as far as we know.

Read post above. Cows think but to a certain, very limited extent as compared to human beings.

I said the same thing many posts ago.

you just re-asked my first question...?

 

I understand what you're saying, but it is completely irrelevant.

Although, would you be willing to argue that it is at conception that life begins at conception because that i when I guess you could say God unifies the Body and Soul? Because that's just a religious approach and would be, ya know..

 

We should give them the vote.
Fetus Suffrage is discrimination!