{"id":12531,"date":"2015-01-19T07:00:28","date_gmt":"2015-01-19T14:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=12531"},"modified":"2015-01-23T09:46:21","modified_gmt":"2015-01-23T16:46:21","slug":"are-you-willing-to-bet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2015\/01\/19\/are-you-willing-to-bet\/","title":{"rendered":"Abortion: Are you willing to bet?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"pregnant\"Picking up from where we left off\u00a0yesterday<\/a>, I would like to continue my series of posts on the subject of abortion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For many people, the fundamental question which must be answered in the abortion debate is this: when does human life begin?<\/strong><\/em> If the aborted child does, in fact, represent an innocent human life, then abortion must be recognized as immoral.<\/p>\n

(Some would disagree with this last statement, but I’d suggest that such people are in the minority and I’ll address their position\u00a0some other time).<\/em><\/p>\n

So when does human life begin? Personally, I think it’s clear\u00a0that life begins at conception. I think that this position\u00a0can be defended both scientifically and philosophically\u00a0since, from conception\u00a0onward, you have a distinct, growing, human organism with its own unique DNA. However, for the sake of this post I’m going to set aside my own position…<\/p>\n

Differing Pro-Choice\u00a0Opinions<\/h2>\n

You see, not everyone holds to my\u00a0opinion (I know, who’d have thought it?!). The thing is that among those who would identify themselves as “pro-choice”, there are a vast range of opinions<\/a> as to when the unborn child can be considered a living\u00a0human person worthy of protection.<\/p>\n

Who’s understanding should we accept? For example, some say that the child is only human after certain organs have formed. Some people point to the moment when\u00a0the heart starts to beat. Others say the child should only be considered worthy of protection\u00a0once brainwaves are\u00a0discernible, and still others withhold protection for the unborn\u00a0until the child is viable outside of the womb. Still more readily admit that they just don’t know<\/strong>…<\/p>\n

Given this\u00a0cacophony of opinions, we can establish that, among\u00a0those who identify themselves as pro-choice, <\/strong>there is no consensus <\/strong>as to the moment from which the unborn child should be recognized be a human person <\/strong>and be deemed worthy of protection.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think the uncertainty on the side of pro-choice\u00a0advocates is a powerful argument against the legalization of abortion. If one is not sure<\/strong> when life begins, then it must be admitted that there is, at least the possibility<\/strong>, that abortion\u00a0results in the death of an innocent human person and is therefore immoral.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Demolishing Analogy<\/h2>\n

Imagine you’re a demolition expert and you have a building to destroy. You have it rigged to blow and you’re pretty sure the building is empty. However, suddenly lots of people rush up to you and shouting that\u00a0there’s someone in that building.\u00a0What do you do?<\/p>\n

Would you just blow it up? After all, you “think” that there’s nobody inside… Well, no, of course you wouldn’t! You would err on the side of caution<\/strong>. You would leave the building alone until you could have absolutely certainty<\/strong> that your actions wouldn’t be end in the destruction of innocent human life<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"FeaturedDemolition\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This week at the March For Life<\/a>\u00a0in Washington DC,\u00a0thousands of people will be crying out that the “building” isn’t empty and that the innocent lives are at risk.<\/p>\n

Now, you may not be convinced by the arguments that pro-life advocates make, but how certain are you of your position<\/strong>? Are you willing to run the risk<\/strong> of being wrong?\u00a0Why not err on the side of safety?<\/strong>\u00a0I mean, if you’re wrong, then the consequences are colossal! If you have any doubt, why risk supporting something which, worldwide, kills forty-two million a year<\/strong>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Picking up from where we left off\u00a0yesterday, I would like to continue my series of posts on the subject of abortion. For many people, the fundamental question which must be answered in the abortion debate is this: when does human life begin? If the aborted child does, in fact, represent an innocent human life, then abortion must be recognized as<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[232,2969,801,2985,1728,1601],"class_list":["post-12531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apologetics","tag-abortion","tag-featured","tag-march-for-life","tag-march-for-life-2015","tag-pro-choice","tag-pro-life"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/FeaturedDemolition.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12531"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53973,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12531\/revisions\/53973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}