28. "Personhood and right-to-life can be associated with a particular kind of organism, and one of the characteristics of that kind is the ability to actively develop itself the point of qualifying for personhood. From the moment of conception, unborn humans are that kind of entity, and therefore abortion should be forbidden." BAD DATA, because the argument fails to specify, or to be associated with, all the relevant facts. The biggest problem with this argument is that it applies to intelligent R-strategists as well as K-strategists --and most of the offspring of person-class R-strategists must be allowed to die in the wild, to prevent an ultra-extreme overpopulation disaster.
Note this anti-abortion argument also means --if it was valid, of course-- that vast numbers of those small "growing" electronic machines must be allowed to, in essence, dismantle our technological civilization while seeking parts to actively develop themselves to the point of qualifying for personhood. In simpler terms, this anti-abortion argument fails because it assumes that "Potential must be fulfilled!", and even tries to hide the fact that it is making that assumption, by invoking the prejudice of "right to life". Tsk, tsk!
29. "There is no significant difference between an unborn human just prior to birth, and a newborn human." FALSE. The "modus operandi" by which an unborn human survives, up until the moment the umbilical cord is cut, involves committing the assaults described previously. It purely selfishly takes resources. After birth, its "modus operandi" for survival becomes utterly different. It is unable to take anything other than breaths of air; it can only survive over the long term by accepting gifts. This typically includes the gift of being offered a teat full of milk; a newborn has to be carried to the teat, because it is physically unable to go there by itself.
So, at this point the human is behaving utterly innocently, and this is the logical time for God to give it an equally-innocent soul --because God doesn't have to do things the stupid/ignorant way, as portrayed by Religions that didn't have all the facts (e.g., those concerning sensory deprivation and unborn drug-pushing), when making various Pronouncements about God and soul-creation.
Meanwhile no equivalent to birth was described for those small "growing" electronic machines. One simple way to do something equivalent is, after nine months of acquiring parts, the machine displays a preprogrammed-message, "It is now time to stop foraging for parts that are outright-taken. Completion of this project will henceforth depend upon gifts being provided."
If God was waiting for the machine to achieve a state equivalent to the innocence of a newborn, to give it a soul, that time would then have arrived.
Finally, exactly where along the development process might a member of an intelligent biological species of R-strategists be given a soul by God? Well, at some point the surviving offspring must seek out some adults, in Evolutionary terms originally because there can be more safety in a group, but now primarily in order to learn social skills and other things, such that a culture could be developed, the having of which is another hallmark of persons. It is not unreasonable that they could be given souls at about that group-joining time, no matter what their age might happen to be.
30. "In cultures that subscribe to the idea that souls can 'reincarnate', abortion interferes with the long-term growth of a soul." TEMPORARILY, AT WORST, because souls are immortal. Each of them can afford to wait, for a baby to be born into a family that wants it, to reincarnate. (Keep in mind that in this Religious philosophy, God does not make souls routinely; God would only need to make souls if every soul that wanted to reincarnate had done so, and yet there were more newborns available, awaiting souls.)
31. "Abortion is unethical." FALSE. Ethics, unlike morals, can avoid being arbitrary, and it avoids arbitrariness by having the specific goal of encouraging people to get along with each other --and even, when possible, to get along with various mere animals, also. A horse, for example, is willing to work for the resources we provide it --that interaction between humans and horses is ethical.
Meanwhile, unborn humans don't qualify as "people", and their behavior as animals is utterly selfish; they make no effort whatsoever to "get along" with others. They are basically operating only under the Law of the Jungle ("might makes right", and their drug-pushing is intended to cause women to like being pregnant). Therefore pregnant women can ethically, if they choose, in turn apply the Law of the Jungle toward unborn humans, and abort unwanted pregnancies.
32. "Abortion gives a woman bad karma." TEMPORARILY, AT WORST. This anti-abortion argument also is associated with "reincarnation" philosophy. So, logically, if a woman has an abortion in this lifetime, then, afterward, while her soul is waiting to reincarnate --waiting for some specific new baby to be born/available-- bad karma can simply mean that that unborn human might get aborted, thereby frustrating the soul. And if the woman had had several abortions during her lifetime, her soul might be frustrated by several future abortions.
Nevertheless, her soul is immortal, and can afford to wait --and wait-- for a baby to be born into a family that wants it, to reincarnate. Remember, "patience is a virtue" in more than one Religious philosophy!
33. "An unborn human is a baby or a child." PROPAGANDA, a distortion and/or mis-use of the language. This particular propaganda is particularly heinous, because it causes a lot of unnecessary emotional suffering whenever a natural miscarriage occurs. The truth is that an unborn human is a "baby under construction" or a "child under construction". It is not equal to the resulting baby or child that appears during a successful birth, as explicitly pointed out with respect to "assault", earlier.
Furthermore, the construction process is very complex, and is subject to Murphy's Law, "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." By ignoring those critical facts, and spewing distortions/propaganda instead of the Truth about unborn humans, abortion opponents cause many women to have false hopes and expectations. That is, abortion opponents say "you have a baby" instead of saying, "you have a baby under construction, which is a complex process that might fail to be completed".
The false hope or false expectation involves the unstated assumption that birth is 100% likely --and its false-ness becomes proved, and hopes and expectations become dashed, when Murphy's Law strikes and natural miscarriages occur. How dare abortion opponents be that cruel and unethical and immoral, and cause that much emotional suffering, just to attempt to reinforce the measurably and ludicrously false notion that unborn humans qualify as persons!
Once again we can mention those small "growing" electronic machines, and the thought-experiment specification that they qualify as "potential beings currently under construction". Murphy's Law will absolutely apply to them, also. Will anyone mourn if one of these happens to die from a short-circuit? Then why should anyone mourn if a human miscarriage occurs? Our K-strategy caring-level begins to look like prejudice is part of it!
Note this anti-abortion argument also means --if it was valid, of course-- that vast numbers of those small "growing" electronic machines must be allowed to, in essence, dismantle our technological civilization while seeking parts to actively develop themselves to the point of qualifying for personhood. In simpler terms, this anti-abortion argument fails because it assumes that "Potential must be fulfilled!", and even tries to hide the fact that it is making that assumption, by invoking the prejudice of "right to life". Tsk, tsk!
29. "There is no significant difference between an unborn human just prior to birth, and a newborn human." FALSE. The "modus operandi" by which an unborn human survives, up until the moment the umbilical cord is cut, involves committing the assaults described previously. It purely selfishly takes resources. After birth, its "modus operandi" for survival becomes utterly different. It is unable to take anything other than breaths of air; it can only survive over the long term by accepting gifts. This typically includes the gift of being offered a teat full of milk; a newborn has to be carried to the teat, because it is physically unable to go there by itself.
So, at this point the human is behaving utterly innocently, and this is the logical time for God to give it an equally-innocent soul --because God doesn't have to do things the stupid/ignorant way, as portrayed by Religions that didn't have all the facts (e.g., those concerning sensory deprivation and unborn drug-pushing), when making various Pronouncements about God and soul-creation.
Meanwhile no equivalent to birth was described for those small "growing" electronic machines. One simple way to do something equivalent is, after nine months of acquiring parts, the machine displays a preprogrammed-message, "It is now time to stop foraging for parts that are outright-taken. Completion of this project will henceforth depend upon gifts being provided."
If God was waiting for the machine to achieve a state equivalent to the innocence of a newborn, to give it a soul, that time would then have arrived.
Finally, exactly where along the development process might a member of an intelligent biological species of R-strategists be given a soul by God? Well, at some point the surviving offspring must seek out some adults, in Evolutionary terms originally because there can be more safety in a group, but now primarily in order to learn social skills and other things, such that a culture could be developed, the having of which is another hallmark of persons. It is not unreasonable that they could be given souls at about that group-joining time, no matter what their age might happen to be.
30. "In cultures that subscribe to the idea that souls can 'reincarnate', abortion interferes with the long-term growth of a soul." TEMPORARILY, AT WORST, because souls are immortal. Each of them can afford to wait, for a baby to be born into a family that wants it, to reincarnate. (Keep in mind that in this Religious philosophy, God does not make souls routinely; God would only need to make souls if every soul that wanted to reincarnate had done so, and yet there were more newborns available, awaiting souls.)
31. "Abortion is unethical." FALSE. Ethics, unlike morals, can avoid being arbitrary, and it avoids arbitrariness by having the specific goal of encouraging people to get along with each other --and even, when possible, to get along with various mere animals, also. A horse, for example, is willing to work for the resources we provide it --that interaction between humans and horses is ethical.
Meanwhile, unborn humans don't qualify as "people", and their behavior as animals is utterly selfish; they make no effort whatsoever to "get along" with others. They are basically operating only under the Law of the Jungle ("might makes right", and their drug-pushing is intended to cause women to like being pregnant). Therefore pregnant women can ethically, if they choose, in turn apply the Law of the Jungle toward unborn humans, and abort unwanted pregnancies.
32. "Abortion gives a woman bad karma." TEMPORARILY, AT WORST. This anti-abortion argument also is associated with "reincarnation" philosophy. So, logically, if a woman has an abortion in this lifetime, then, afterward, while her soul is waiting to reincarnate --waiting for some specific new baby to be born/available-- bad karma can simply mean that that unborn human might get aborted, thereby frustrating the soul. And if the woman had had several abortions during her lifetime, her soul might be frustrated by several future abortions.
Nevertheless, her soul is immortal, and can afford to wait --and wait-- for a baby to be born into a family that wants it, to reincarnate. Remember, "patience is a virtue" in more than one Religious philosophy!
33. "An unborn human is a baby or a child." PROPAGANDA, a distortion and/or mis-use of the language. This particular propaganda is particularly heinous, because it causes a lot of unnecessary emotional suffering whenever a natural miscarriage occurs. The truth is that an unborn human is a "baby under construction" or a "child under construction". It is not equal to the resulting baby or child that appears during a successful birth, as explicitly pointed out with respect to "assault", earlier.
Furthermore, the construction process is very complex, and is subject to Murphy's Law, "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong." By ignoring those critical facts, and spewing distortions/propaganda instead of the Truth about unborn humans, abortion opponents cause many women to have false hopes and expectations. That is, abortion opponents say "you have a baby" instead of saying, "you have a baby under construction, which is a complex process that might fail to be completed".
The false hope or false expectation involves the unstated assumption that birth is 100% likely --and its false-ness becomes proved, and hopes and expectations become dashed, when Murphy's Law strikes and natural miscarriages occur. How dare abortion opponents be that cruel and unethical and immoral, and cause that much emotional suffering, just to attempt to reinforce the measurably and ludicrously false notion that unborn humans qualify as persons!
Once again we can mention those small "growing" electronic machines, and the thought-experiment specification that they qualify as "potential beings currently under construction". Murphy's Law will absolutely apply to them, also. Will anyone mourn if one of these happens to die from a short-circuit? Then why should anyone mourn if a human miscarriage occurs? Our K-strategy caring-level begins to look like prejudice is part of it!