“I think, therefore I am”

That's a very powerful sentience. When you think about it long enough, it makes you question life. I exist, only because I know I exist. The only thing that makes me human, is thought. Without it, I would be a collection of cells.

A fetus before brain function is a collection of cells. Thus, I feel it can be treated differently.

I will reverse the question, and see how pro-life people answer:

If a person is being held on life support, and no longer has brain functions, is pulling the plug murder?

Can anyone vouch for this statement being true from the OP?

"Legally, the United States have declared abortion legal up to 22 or 23 weeks into pregnancy."

I would consider it along the same lines as plant life. It's alive, but unaware.

The respect, is because I would look at it, and wonder what it would have been if not aborted. I like you despise abortion, I just don't think my desire to never be part of one should be forced on others.

The best answer I could find:

Generally, most states have a law that people can get an abortion on demand for the first 25-26 weeks of pregnancy (that's about 3-3 and 1/2 months). It is still possible to get an abortion after that, but only if a woman's doctor says it's necessary for health reasons (the baby is SO seriously malformed that it wouldn't live outside the womb at all, something like that). Then in the last couple months of pregnancy, an abortion is only legal if the mother's life is at stake.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080202151306AAEELJm

Because an infant clearly has a working, albiet not fully developed, brain. In other words, all the difference in the world.

@Onyx. I consider a fetus alive but not a life to me its an extension of its mothers body until it gains indepedent thought. I would find bottling a fetus creepy but I would find bottling any body part creepy.

I like the first sentence there. What I find funniest is that it's an argument used by pro-lifers. Overall I think more connects the two ideologies than seperates them.

Also, you have no idea how much I despise abortion. I'm in support for allowing it, but I cannot help myself looking down upon the poor soul that goes through with it. I find it to be a weakness.

That information is incorrect. 25-26 weeks does not equal 3-3 1/2 months. 25 weeks is over 5 1/2 months. Can abortions really legally happen in a voluntary manner at that time, because that's almost entering the third trimester. I'm pretty sure babies have been born sooner than that.

@Rath-What kind of life to you consider a fetus to have? Also a fetus is dependent on it's mother for the entire pregnancy, so why would that be a deciding factor?

You realize that your analogy is a bit off, right? The old person has nothing to look forward to and their life is at an end, while a fetus has great potential and an entire life in front of it.

Well he did say reverse, didn't he?

I'm a smartass, I know.

I have no conclusive answers on abortion; I think it's as sticky a subject as they come, and while I consider myself pro-choice, I have no idea where to draw the line.

I've been thinking about the idea that abortion is murder, however, and it got me thinkng about a couple of scenarios:

Suppose a pregnant woman trips and falls down a flight of stairs, which results in an abortion.  Is that involuntary manslaughter?  Is she criminally responsible?

And, for those who think that abortion is not murder, how about this:

Suppose a pregnant woman is attacked by a someone who savagely beats her stomach, resulting in an abortion.  Is this crime merely assault against the woman?  Or is there any additional penalty for ending the life of her would-be child?