Do you realize there was a time when most white people didn't think black people were human beings?
I wonder what people a few generations from now will think of our attitude that a human fetus isn't a human being.
2010-02-19T21:48:20Z
Byron: Thanks.That is exactly my point.
2010-02-19T21:56:17Z
This is an example of an argument by analogy. Properly used, it can serve as a teaching tool (the solar system and the atomic model, for instance). But I used it here as it is often improperly used as a propaganda tool. You can see how that could be used to incite action in a crowd of pro-lifers anger the pro-choice folks. Class is over now.
Anonymous2010-02-19T21:45:06Z
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I'm not 100% sure what you are implying here...black people are human beings, and so are fetuses. end of discussion.
I realize that there was a time when most white people didn't think black people were human beings. It is unfortunate that there are a lot of white people living today who don't think black people are human beings and they are teaching their children that black people are not human beings. The parents are responsible for continuing this prejudice for future generations. Will this prejudicial attitude change where there won't be people teaching their children that black people are not human beings? Yes, when the children are given an education and meet the requirements to graduate from high school. The reason is that educated children learn to think on their own and create their attitudes based on what they have learned and what they learn may be in opposition to one or more parents teaching the them that black people are not human beings, and that attitude of opposition to their parent's teaching will have a tendency to stop the prejudice and the teaching that black people are not human beings. Prejudice can be stopped by education and that is why the children in the poor white population are not given a good education by the government of the United States and the states. There is deliberate action taken by the Federal and State governments to keep the poor as poor and uneducated so their votes can be used to sway an election because they will believe what people tell them, including their preacher in church who will tell them who to vote for and what propositions to vote for because the poor and uneducated people can't read the names on the ballot or the words in the propositions, let alone understand what they mean or the consequences of voting a particular way. Both the Republican and Democratic parties make sure this will happen and they won't try and pass a bill for more money for education because it will not be beneficial for them as their election or the passage of certain propositions is dependent on the poor and uneducated to swing the vote in their way. This has been traditional since voting began in the U.S. and it is up to the voters to insist for change and that this method of keeping the uneducated poor as the uneducated poor for their benefit stop once and for all. Will the citizens stand up and do anything about this? I seriously doubt it as politics is politics and the politicians know how to play the game of politics and sway the voters at every turn and chance they can.
In the uneducated world back then, white people labeled OTHER cultures and groups of people as some kind of sub-human species, considering their own culture as the superior one. Native Americans were considered savages, and African tribes would easily be labeled as barbaric. Such a mindset is a joke in anthropology, and any such racist comments are discarded.
A fetus is not the same as an already living human being. I don't consider it a human being, because it lacks one of the things that I consider to be one of the most vital to having that title: sentience and a desire to survive. Until the fetus reaches the stage of development where it can live if nursed, I will not consider it a human being.
Your statement is fallacious on multiple grounds. Firstly, your analogy is incoherent; people of African descent and people of Caucasian descent are fully developed human beings, whereas a human fetus is not. If I am not mistaken, there was never a time when ethnic Africans were not viewed as human beings - perhaps they were treated as lesser human beings, but they were indisputedly human and were seen as such even then. You act under the false pretense that people are asserting the viewpoint that fetuses are not human beings; while a significant point used in opposition to abortion, that is not the prime focus of related disputes. You fail to focus on the moral balances between the possible necessity of certain abortions and its consequences.
I'm pro-choice, but only in exceptional circumstances (rape, possibility of severe trauma).
There was also a time the same set of white people felt that way about the Irish.
And just a couple hundred years ago, it was considered fine for Christians to kill a "Savage" fetus by klling the Native American mother that carried it.
And now, you set yourself up as a moral authority. I hope you realize that was Scott Roeders legal defense.