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- Feb 12, 2017
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To start off, although I do not support making abortion illegal, I am nevertheless pro-life at heart, always have been, and always will be. I am going to share what I consider to be the deep underlying psychological reasons for my views on abortion, because I suspect I am not at all a typical pro-lifer.
It seems to me like many pro-lifers’ views on abortion are connected to their broader socially conservative worldview. Surveys have found that pro-lifers tend to think that men and women should have different roles in society as a result of the biological differences between them, for example. And we all know that many who are anti-abortion are, or were, anti-same sex marriage, and espouse more traditional conceptions of marriage, and the family in general.
I could scarcely be more different. I have various psychological motives for my view on abortion, which are very different from those many other pro-lifers have, and I will now share them.
1.) I am, and always have been, an animal lover, and supportive of animal rights. And in many ways, unborn humans really remind me of non-human animals. Like non-human animals, they are denied personhood, they are voiceless and cannot speak up for themselves, and they even physically resemble non-human animals, particularly in the earlier stages of gestation. Ironically, although many people often point out how an embryo has a tail, or looks more like a tadpole or a shrimp than a human, in order to mock the pro-life position, this actually is one of the main reasons why the embryo’s plight strikes such a chord with me.
2.) I think an individual organism’s life begins at fertilization. First of all, because it’s just a truth of modern biology that was confirmed a long time ago. Second, I actually like the idea of life starting at conception rather than at birth, or later in the pregnancy, for various reasons. First, it means that I got to spend several more months alive in the 1900s, and got to live through many more events that I would not otherwise have been alive during, and my lifespan gets extended by several months. Second, it means that I once had a tail and looked like a non-human animal, which fills me with delight, being the animal lover who I am.
3.) I want my life to have meaning and value, and I feel that the pro-choice position is often associated with a depressing nihilism that robs life of meaning and value. First of all, because I am an animal lover, and unborn humans have that same quality that non-human animals have which makes me love them so much, I view dismissal of the dignity of unborn humans to be tantamount to dismissal of the dignity of non-human animals. The fact that some pro-choicers point to the embryo’s non-human appearance to demean its dignity certainly does not help with this, as well. And non-human animals are a significant part of what gives my life meaning and value. Second, the pro-choice position is often associated with a materialistic view of consciousness, which I really despise and which really depresses me. People often argue that a fetus is not conscious until a certain point in development at which its brain reaches a certain stage of development. This is materialism. Materialism really does not appeal to me for various reasons, but foremost among them is that it entails I am identical with my physical body, which I do not want to be true, and that it implies the lack of an afterlife and eternal oblivion after death, which I do not want to be true.
So these are the most major underlying psychological reasons I have for my personally pro-life stance which I can think of at the moment. What does this forum think?
It seems to me like many pro-lifers’ views on abortion are connected to their broader socially conservative worldview. Surveys have found that pro-lifers tend to think that men and women should have different roles in society as a result of the biological differences between them, for example. And we all know that many who are anti-abortion are, or were, anti-same sex marriage, and espouse more traditional conceptions of marriage, and the family in general.
I could scarcely be more different. I have various psychological motives for my view on abortion, which are very different from those many other pro-lifers have, and I will now share them.
1.) I am, and always have been, an animal lover, and supportive of animal rights. And in many ways, unborn humans really remind me of non-human animals. Like non-human animals, they are denied personhood, they are voiceless and cannot speak up for themselves, and they even physically resemble non-human animals, particularly in the earlier stages of gestation. Ironically, although many people often point out how an embryo has a tail, or looks more like a tadpole or a shrimp than a human, in order to mock the pro-life position, this actually is one of the main reasons why the embryo’s plight strikes such a chord with me.
2.) I think an individual organism’s life begins at fertilization. First of all, because it’s just a truth of modern biology that was confirmed a long time ago. Second, I actually like the idea of life starting at conception rather than at birth, or later in the pregnancy, for various reasons. First, it means that I got to spend several more months alive in the 1900s, and got to live through many more events that I would not otherwise have been alive during, and my lifespan gets extended by several months. Second, it means that I once had a tail and looked like a non-human animal, which fills me with delight, being the animal lover who I am.
3.) I want my life to have meaning and value, and I feel that the pro-choice position is often associated with a depressing nihilism that robs life of meaning and value. First of all, because I am an animal lover, and unborn humans have that same quality that non-human animals have which makes me love them so much, I view dismissal of the dignity of unborn humans to be tantamount to dismissal of the dignity of non-human animals. The fact that some pro-choicers point to the embryo’s non-human appearance to demean its dignity certainly does not help with this, as well. And non-human animals are a significant part of what gives my life meaning and value. Second, the pro-choice position is often associated with a materialistic view of consciousness, which I really despise and which really depresses me. People often argue that a fetus is not conscious until a certain point in development at which its brain reaches a certain stage of development. This is materialism. Materialism really does not appeal to me for various reasons, but foremost among them is that it entails I am identical with my physical body, which I do not want to be true, and that it implies the lack of an afterlife and eternal oblivion after death, which I do not want to be true.
So these are the most major underlying psychological reasons I have for my personally pro-life stance which I can think of at the moment. What does this forum think?