Philosophy In Utero

 I am sure many of us on this sub have encountered the silly concept that "a fetus is not a human." At first, I thought it was just some silly, outdated concept being used by people not well versed in the debate, something to just look past. Now I realize that it is, indeed, an outdated concept, but not one we should just look past. That phrase tells us a lot about our history on the discussion of, not just humans, but human rights. The idea of "human rights" came about during times when the idea that the unborn were not human was still widely held. (This is where that outdated argument came from.) The concept of human rights never included fetuses. The concept of human rights came about during these times, when fetuses were not included in the concept of "human." And this is further supported by the fact that abortion was not seen as a similar crime or sin to that of murder throughout history. There has always been a marked difference between that of born

The argument of the prolife movement is that of right to life. According to wikipedia, "The right to life is the belief that a being has the right to live and, in particular, should not be killed by another entity including government." But the sentiment of "right to life" is highly misleading, specifically in the abortion debate. The defining factor for prolife is not life or death.  It's action. Herein lies the issue with the prolife argument. The prolife movement should have life at it's foundation. However, upon further examination, it actually has another foundational block underneath that, and that is about  preventing people from doing things that they deem as wrong.  It is about action vs inaction. If life can be saved through action, it is not permissible if it violates someone's bodily autonomy. Why? Because that would then involve  doing something wrong  (taking action.) But if life can be saved through inaction (such as banning abortion), it

The person hit in the crosswalk arrives at the hospital: Doctor: What were you doing, walking outside like that? Crosswalk person: I was walking to the grocery store. Doctor: Why didn't you take Marble st. instead of City ave. City ave. has a lot of fast cars on it and if you hadn't been there, this car wouldn't have hit you. Crosswalk person: Sorry, I just wasn't thinking clearly about it at the time. Doctor: And why were you walking to the grocery store anyway? Did you need to go to the grocery store? Where you out of groceries or were you just going to get soda? Crosswalk person: Um... I am not sure what that has to do with anything cause I need help regardless, but since you ask, I was going to get soda. Doctor: Well sorry, but we cant help you. You should have thought about what street to take and if it was really necessary before you decided to walk to the grocery store. Going to the grocery store for soda isn't a good enough reason to get access to medical ca