If you think abortion is murder - which pro-lifers do - then why would you not want to "regulate" murder?
I don't think abortion is murder. In fact, I'm 100% certain it's
not murder, since it is legal and murder is defined as "the
crime of
unlawfully killing a person especially with malice aforethought"
murder - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
What you mean to say is not "murder". What you really mean is "
immorally killing a human". If someone thinks abortion is immorally killing of a human, then they
might want to regulate it. Not always though. Some people don't believe in regulating morality.
But it's definitely
not murder as per the definition of the word.
BTW, IMO, murder is not always immoral, but that's another discussion entirely.
I've never really understood the assertion that personal views of abortion don't have to be expressed in one's political views of the same issue. Unless you are an anarchist or something.
I'm an "or something". :lol: As I clearly mentioned:
yes, my views have been altered, but probably not in a way that most people would readily understand given the emotionally-driven nature of the subject matter
I doubt that I'll be proven wrong about that, but I like you, Dav, so I'll give it a shot.
Above I mentioned that some people don't believe in regulating morality. And that's true. But I'm not really one of them. I believe that it's up to a very local region to define the morality that they see fit for that region. I'm talking regions smaller than states. I believe that it is someone's right to live in a region that has an equivalent moral structure to that which they themselves have so long as that morality is agreed upon by the majority of people within that region. A micro-level pure democracy.
I feel that if a town in Texas wants to ban abortions, and give the death penalty to people who get abortions in that town, so be it.
Hell, I think that a town should have the right to outlaw free speech if it's decided by a direct democracy.
If people in that highly localized region do not like the rules and regs of that region, they should get the **** out of that region.
Conversely, if a local region decides they want to make abortions mandatory for pregnant women in that region who fail to meet a certain set of standards, more power to them. Slaughter the zygotes to their heart's content.
If people in that region do not like the rules and regs in that region, they should get the **** out of that region.
And I would choose to live in neither of these regions.
But I'm of the belief that morality is a product of humanities nature as a social animal. I don't believe in a universal morality, but I do believe that morality is a drive within humans that is a product of evolution. Unfortunately, due to the intelligence of humans, we've overextended our reach with regards to morality to include "outsiders" (humans outside of our own "tribe"). We seek to enforce our morality upon others, and this is done by all sides of the political divide.
I like to point out to pro-choicers who claim that pro-lifers are enforcing their morality that the pro-choice movement is essentially doing the same by forcing pro-lifers to live in a region that has legalized something they find abhorrently immoral. Pro-choicers are enforcing their morality (that is is better to live in such a region) upon the pro-lifers.
So, I've come to the conclusion that no matter what, somebody's going to be forcing another person to acquiesce to their moral code, regardless of what the decision is.
I find
this to be immoral, yet unavoidable.
But it
can be minimized. To do that, we need only keep such social issues to the most local of levels. It creates the option for people of all stripes to live within the same country without having to compromise their morals.
Unfortunately, there will always exist people on both sides that wish to force their morality down everyone else's throats. They will not be content to keep things localized. They are, in fact, the majority. They just differ on which morality they want to shove down everyone's throats.
But the fact that people are inherently inclined to be domineering over others, especially those they disagree with, doesn't change my principles on the matter.
Ironically, for a person who doesn't believe in any rigid, set-in-stone morality, I follow a very rigid, set-in-stone set of morals for my own behavior. This is not a contradiction when you realize that not believing in a universal morality doesn't mean one cannot have very strong morals.