That's not a problem.  This is a situation where there is no need and no room for compromise.  

What human life is is up for debate.  I see people in this thread suggesting that any human cell is human life, but that leads is an obvious oversimplification.  Human cells die every second, and we allow all kinds of medical procedures that kill cells.  You're allowed to kill your own cells in all kinds of ways, and you're even allowed to kill the cells of others in many circumstances.  

The simple fact is that we don't have an answer.  As a matter of practicality, we have to set some limitations.  Certainly we have to protect the fetus once it is outside, with continuous brain activity, and subject to external threats.  We also need to have some sort of restriction as to when a fetus can be aborted, because it obviously doesn't suddenly switch alive the moment it is born.  But, the best we can do is lines in the sand.  We're never going to have a magican moment when a ball a cells qualifies as a human.  So, we leave the decisions in the gray area to the people directly involved in any case, particularly the woman who will be carrying the child.

It's not that I necessarily disagree with your opinion, think it's wrong, evil, or whatever.  It's just that your opinion (or anybody else's) is absolutely irrelevant to any pregnancies that do not involve you, and should have no bearing on any legislation. 

The problem with that though, is that ending a human life isn't ok, even if it doesn't really affect me. I agree that there should probably be a period of time where a pregnancy can be aborted, but the current line we've drawn is way too late in the pregnancy. I guess pro-life isn't the best way to describe my opinion, but then again, I don't think that many people are COMPLETELY at either end of the spectrum. 

It is not your decision whether or not a fetus is a person.  It's not a topic you, or I for that matter, have any special knowledge or authority on, so your opinion is not relevant to the situation.  You're perfectly entitled to express your opinion, but there is no reason anybody should be forced to consider it.

I thought so too, until I saw the responses here!  I can't say I agree with the logic.  Performing triage on people's very lives is not something that I think should be done outside of a crisis situation, which I don't think most of these pregnancies qualify as.  Perhaps they see the lives of unborn people as much less valuable. 

Lacking brain activity?  I support the ability to take brain dead people off of life support as well. 

There is a different between human life and a person.  

Agreed; if the patient has no documented wishes to be on life support, the decision should fall upon the family--NOT the State.

I stand corrected; sundin13 isn't a majority even if he meets the stricter criterion (his post isn't explicit). 

While I have your attention, I'd like to ask you about your statement, "We also need to have some sort of restriction as to when a fetus can be aborted, because it obviously doesn't suddenly switch alive the moment it is born.  But, the best we can do is lines in the sand.  We're never going to have a magican moment when a ball a cells qualifies as a human.  So, we leave the decisions in the gray area to the people directly involved in any case, particularly the woman who will be carrying the child."

How gray is this gray area you're talking about?  Your wording suggests that we let women get abortions when we aren't even confident we aren't killing people, just so long as we aren't confident we ARE killing people.  Would you like to clarify or elaborate on this? 

The answer seems pretty obvious to me:

At what age has the youngest fetus ever been removed from a mother's womb and survived with assistance.

That is the age at which it is too late to abort a baby.

Even under those circumstances though, it's still a potential human being and should only be aborted after having been approved by a certain authority and only due to exceptional circumstances. For example: The mother was raped or the mother is not physically prepared to have the baby and will probably die if she gives birth.

We all have to live with our mistakes, and if you chose to have sex unprotected or while not in a long term relationship: have the child and deal with it.

I personally don't believe the government or state have the right to tell a woman what she can/cannot do with her body.

That being said, I don't support aborting past the 3rd trimester unless the mother's health/life are in jeopardy.