bangingpatchouli:

People who say this aren’t talking about ‘life’ in a literal biological way. They are referring to a religious idea that at the moment an egg is fertilized, it becomes ensouled.

This is an important distinction because that is really the sticking point for them, but they frame their assertion as though they are talking about a biological event, which makes it difficult to argue. Furthermore, even if we agree that the cells that make up a zygote or even an embryo are alive, that doesn’t make it a separate, independent life. It isn’t. If it were it could survive outside the uterus.

If we are just arguing about the value of life in the sense living tissue — that’s a whole different thing from an ensouled being. If I had to choose between my dog and a zygote, there would be no contest. I’d choose my dog. Some people will be outraged by that (apparently they think that human cells have more intrinsic value than dog cells, or cow cells, or what have you), but I value the actual life of an animal over the potential life of a few human cells. 

More importantly, I value the actual life of a woman — and her family — over a potential life, but as long as we allow the “pro-life” faction to frame this issue, we are playing by their rules, and will always be on the defense. We need to take back this issue and frame it in a way that shows their duplicitous language.

Actually, when people say ‘life begins at conception’ they are saying ‘Human life begins at conception.’  And this is true.  There is no human in an egg, nor in a sperm.  They are both gametes, having only half the number of DNA, and do not have the possibility of separately growing into an adult member of the species.  Together, they form a fertilized egg which is a member of the human species, and if allowed to grow, will become an adult member of the species. 

Just because it can’t survive on its own until it is born, doesn’t mean it is not fully alive, fully human, and fully person.  There are many people who are physically and socially dependent on other people and things, yet we don’t diminish their personhood because of that.  Your bigotry towards the unborn is unfounded.

Since people are equal under the law, and we believe all people are created equal as an integral precept of a free and just society, it flies in the face of justice to claim a born human being is worth more than an unborn one.