Sunday, February 22, 2015

SRPP: My view on pro-choice

Sperm is nearly limitless as we constantly regenerate it.

But don't women have a limited amount of eggs? (Like a 100 lol, as if they're ever gonna run out).

Something that is not yet cognizant nor has not observed anything and has no memories, is insignificant. It does not matter to argue that you are depriving the future of said entity because you cannot assume whether or not that entity's life will have been happy or not in the future. I mean sure, you could look at genetics and the social environment it will be born into to gauge the psychological conditions the entity will be subject to, but there are too many unknown and difficult to track variables for one to truly know how it will turn out (even though given limitless resources, you could tell).

From the point of view that non-aware life is insignificant, it does not matter how many bugs, sperm, eggs, fetuses, etc you disrupt the life of and degenerate into simply a mass of carbon and other molecules. A mass of carbon is no better than a rock. And the only difference between a bug and a rock is that one is sentient. Otherwise, the bug is not cognizant. The rock is also not cognizant, nor a fetus, nor sperm, nor yellow slime molds. Sentience alone does not make for significant life forms. It is cognizance that defines humans. Some life forms don't even show signs of sentience.

Note: I am interpreting sentience as the ability to feel, taste, smell, see, hear. Not awareness, not the ability to make perceptions, only the ability to sense physical phenomena. Cognizance being the ability to gain knowledge; make subjective perceptions based on your senses; retain memory; act upon memory; etc.

The only thing logically in favor of being strictly anti-abortion for fetuses is if we happen to be suffering underpopulation and are nearing extinction. But that isn't really the case on Earth right now.

Note: It is only logically in favor of that scenario if the remaining human race agrees that it does not want to go extinct.

Anyway. Non-aware life is less significant than life that already is aware. A woman giving birth should be able to make the decision as to whether or not giving birth to a child will result in a better or worse life for herself and whether or not doing so is worthwhile for herself. Of course, the woman may decide that it is better for a new child to live even if she dies, which I accept as a decision even though she cannot really predict whether or not the child will live happily or poorly - it's her decision to gamble. If the woman decides that she would rather live at the cost of a child, it is at a cost of a life that never came into fruition anyway. If the woman simply believes her life would be worse by introducing a child, it is at a cost of a life that never came into fruition anyway.

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