I will skip over questions about the murders of MLK & RFK, because they are similar to the RQ regarding JFK, and I will also skip over the RQ I would have asked regarding the Vietnam War, because I have already ranted about the stupidity and immorality of U.S. politicians regarding all of America's long wars in the 20th century.
I guess the next RQ I would mention in this chronology is this: Why do you think the Supreme Court approved abortion in its ruling on 22 JAN 73--and do y'all approve of that decision?
Time's up! Answer: Because the judges were ignorant of fetal development and the scientific determination of death.
If a person studies fetal development, at some point he/she will probably contemplate two pictures: one of a seven-month-old fetus in the womb, and one of a seven-month-old premature but viable baby outside the womb. This should lead one to understand that geographical location is not a valid basis for defining personhood.
There is no qualitative change that occurs at birth, merely a difference in the mode of breathing and feeding.
And so a person will be led to consider
the crucial question:
when does a developing fetus become a human person with the God-given right to civil life so that to kill it is murder and warrants punishment? People on both sides of the debate usually overlook this question when they discuss this issue, but
considerations other than the advent of personhood are irrelevant, unless someone would use the same rationale to justify the killing of children and adults.
Those who adopt
the conceptionist viewpoint are certainly right that a qualitative change occurs when the chromosomes in the egg and sperm are united, so that physical development of a new human being begins, but those who adopt
the birthist opinion are wrong to assume that birth is the qualitative change that marks the beginning of personhood. Learning about fetal development should enable birthists to realize that
the advent of personhood definitely does not extend beyond the seventh month or viability, when a premature baby is frequently able to survive. Thus, birthists should at least become “
viabilitists”.
Are there any changes between conception and viability that might reasonably/logically be viewed as indicative of the beginning of personality? There is one possibility: the counterpart of the basis doctors use for determining when an adult person no longer is alive. This basis is
brain death or the absence of certain brain wave activity detected by an electroencephalo-gram (EEG). We might call this stage “
sentience”, referring to the level of brain activity which indicates
when the fetus has brain life and is therefore a person, who should be granted the civil right to life. If our best definition of sentient death is the cessation of these brain waves, then
it is logical and consistent to view sentient life as beginning at least when these brain waves are detectable. Thus, I think every open-minded and truth-seeking person on both sides of the abortion debate should agree that the fetus becomes sentient and a legal person at least by that stage of development.
Birthists or viabilists and conceptionists should become “sentientists“.
This is only a partial solution, but it is better than the Roe v. Wade decision that allowed abortion throughout pregnancy. It recognizes that
a gray area still exists from conception until sentience, so people may still reasonably disagree about the status of the fetus during this period, which may change as science improves. This view permits some forms of birth control. Implementing this solution requires educating every post-pubescent person about fetal development until society develops a new consensus that when a fetus becomes sentient, abortion is a type of murder and should be punished appropriately. Two wrongs do not make a right.