Life

So, we’ve done politics, we did religion a while back (will resurrect that soon – pardon the pun), so what’s left – ah yes, abortion.

This topic comes to mind for two reasons. One, because a blog reader suggested it*, and two – because I had a discussion with someone close to me about it recently.

It goes back to my earlier post ‘At what price life’. 

But a step back. When does life begin? Does it begin at conception? Does it begin at time of implementation? Does it begin when the heart starts beating? Does it begin when the foetus is viable? Or does it begin at moment of birth?

Before IVF I was kind of fuzzy around the actual point where life begins. IVF was a scientific, factual living lesson in exactly how the process of life does begin, from a biological point of view. 

The moment sperm meets egg (this can be done through a processes called ICSI – I had this done with K&A), and fertilization happens (conception) – an embryo is formed. At that moment the two-celled embryo has all the DNA needed to form a human being. Of course, so much more is needed before the embryo can grow any further, and in fact many many embryos are created and then die naturally, either do to faulty DNA, faulty fertilization or lack of implantation. Every month to millions of women, without them even knowing. So, can we reasonably argue that life begins at conception? Not sure. (and how did this affect the argument raised by some that all embryos created during IVF should be considered to have ‘life’?)

Then, once the newly formed embryo begins to develop into 4 cells, 8 cells etc, doubling every day, the embryo starts growing and the cells start beginning their specific journey to their own particular end goal in the body – to become the hands, the feet, the brain etc. Do you know, that at 3 days old, when the embryo is a mere 8 cells big, you can already tell whether it is a female or male embryo? The process called PGD . A single cell is removed from an 8-celled embryo and sent away for analysis (at the 8 cell stage, each cell is capable of becoming any organ, it is only after this stage that each cell has a specific end goal). I had this done on Kate and Adam. When they were 8 cells big, they had a cell removed and tested. Isn’t that amazing. So, does life begin then?

However, as many many IVF patients will tell you, you can have 10 zillion embryos, if they don’t implant into the womb, there is no baby to be had. Implantation is the last, big unknown in the infertility world . We can stimulate the ovaries to make eggs, we can create fertilization through ICSI, we can culture embryos through lab and petrie dishes, but we can’t force an embryo to implant in the womb. We can transfer as many embryos as we want into a ready and willing womb, but only once one the embryo has implanted can that embryo become your baby. So, does life begin at implantation?

So, once the embryo has implanted, it has to reach the critical phase of the heart beating. It is a pass/fail point for many aspiring embryos. Once you’ve seen the heart beat, the next big thing is to get through the first 12 weeks. The first 12 weeks are crucial, because that is when all the organs are formed. It is during this time that your embryo, your foetus is at its most vulnerable. Amazingly enough, after only 12 weeks, your baby is fully formed, just very little. Does life begin after 12 weeks?

However, even with all its organs there, with a brain and a beating heart, your baby can not survive outside of the womb until at least 22w, and even then, sadly, the chances are survival are not great.

Once you start hitting 26w, your baby has a better chance of surviving outside of the womb. So, does life begin at stage of viability? (viability is the term for when the baby is able to survive outside of the womb). But not all babies born at 26w survive – some do, wonderfully. Some survive even earlier, but some don’t. 

Or is it that life only begins at birth? 

It is a very difficult issue – with so much emotion, faith, feelings involved. Even from a factual, scientific point of view, as I have described above, it is difficult to pin down.

Of course, this brings up the whole abortion issue – how does this play against abortion, where does life begin? And of course, at what price life? Is it life at all costs? And whose life takes precedent?

It is an academic debate for most. Until you have been in that situation it is difficult to say with total conviction what you would do. 

I am interested to hear from you, when you do feel life begins?

An admin note: I am happy to hear all points of view, but I wont tolerate any one being ugly to any one else. We are adults here, lets debate things intelligently and without anger or ugliness. Tell me how YOU feel, and your reasoning. 

*As punishment for taking my previous poll too literally, I made the errant blog reader come up with a new poll. So this is her poll choice. 

Comments

[zygote]

Not sure how I feel about being the first to comment on this, I feel a bit, like i am hanging myself out to dry but..... I can't say at which point "life" begins. As a bio major in college my gut feeling is at the point of viability. It makes it sense to me that if a child could live outside the womb that it should have the opportunity. From a political stand point I can see how this is relevant, but from the point of view of a women who's had an abortion it had nothing to do with my decision. I knew during my pregnancy what exactly was going on and the potential. I had to choose what kind of life I wanted for my child ( father, economical and support issues) I, personally, wasn't willing to subject a child to all of that. This subject has so many levels it's difficult to separate them all. Basically I believe that the viability argument is some what important for keeping abortion legal, but for a women contemplating an abortion, you can either go through it or you can't and you find a way to justify either option.

[cheryl b.]

I'm never going to explain this right, but I'll try because I love you so.
I had a miscarriage (still so hard to type a year and a half later) at 8 weeks. We had been trying (though not for long) so I knew I was pregnant for 4 weeks and had thought (was sure) I was for 6. 6 weeks is a long time. And since I had wanted that baby so very badly I was compleatly in love her and therefore devistated when she died. Because I loved and wanted her and was at a point in my life where a baby would have fit so perfectly she was a baby to me at only 8 weeks.
A couple of months later my friend J. found herself pregnant with a baby that she knew she couldn't keep. I agreed with her but won't go into details here about her situation. I drove her to the clinic and held her while she cried and held her hand while they preformed the abortion and held her afterwards while she cried some more. I have never thought of that situation as having takin a life even though she was about as far along as I had been.
The only difference of course is that having a baby would have been a good thing for me and a bad thing for her.
I am not at all religious so there is no issue of an afterlife for me. This would be easier for me to talk about if you had asked strait-up about our veiws on abortion. I am 100% pro-choice no matter what. Even if I don't personaly beleive there is a good reason for an abortion I feel that every woman everywhere should have the right to make her own choices about her body. I also feel that we (meaning humans) need to work harder at making this a world where abortion becomes less necessary to begin with.
Now if you really want to know when life begins? That would be the day one discovers the blogosphere my freind.

[Jennifer]

Life begins at conception, be it within the woman's body or in a lab. Those are MY beliefs about when life begins.

That said, I cannot say with 100% certainty that I would NEVER have an abortion. If I became pg from rape, if my unborn child was diagnosed with something horrific prior to viability, or if I had become pg with more than quads come to mind right away as situations that I just don't know with great certainty what I would have done.

I also believe in a woman's right to choose what happens to her body and unborn child prior to viability. I may not agree with another woman's choice, but it isn't MINE to make, nor do I have to live with the consequences of her choice.

I also believe viability is the point at which life outside the womb is a POSSIBILITY. At this point in medical history, I believe I would say viability is somewhere between 22-24 weeks.

[Sheridan]

I think, for me, life begins when the heart starts beating. That was when my son felt real to me.

But I do have a double standard, because I don't believe that anyone having an abortion is doing anything wrong, or "taking a life" as such. I really mean that. Such a terrible decision to have to make, but I think every woman has the right to make it according to her circumstances.

Thanks Tertia for a thought-provoking question.

[bec]

Oh brave, brave you!

At the moment of conception.

I lost a little boy at 16 weeks, he was tiny and to young to breathe but he was perfect, 10 toes, ten fingers, the dearest little face and it was a little life lost and mourned.

My view on abortion is - if there is something wrong with bub (not talking minor) then I would have an abortion and probably in the case of a pregnancy due to rape, I do not agree with abortion becuase of an oops.

[Boulder]

Here you have gone & done it again - a taboo subject; a subject that is divisive; a topic that can make friendly folk become bitter opponents.

I have my own opinions, and I too (zygote) am loath to out myself. Not because I don't have an opinion that I feel matters, but more because I feel that too many people JUDGE so quickly without walking in my shoes. In fact, I came here a few times to see what was written, and it was 0 comments for a while. And then I though, I must write something.

My choices are not necessarily what someone else would agree to, but that is where I am passionate. My opinions and choices should be private and mine alone. And those of someone who disagrees with me should belong to them alone. No matter if the opinions are pro-life or pro-choice. I feel a doctor's decision on whether to perform abortions should be the doctor's alone. I feel that if you have taken an oath to practice medicine, and have seen life come into the world, and leave the world, and choose your life's work to be a part of that process, then you should be considered able enough to judge for yourself whether you can take part in the procedure.

So I have these opinions about privacy, choice, and life, and then I think, how pitiful that we've finally come to a point in history where I'd be more comfortable proclaiming my sexual orientation, if it were not the "norm," in a public forum than I would my opinions on abortion. Such a sad statement. So, I'm not going to shy away, because - frankly - I think that a vocal group is over-shadowing a lot of us who don't want to hear the fury of their wrath. So here it is:

I am pro-choice. I believe that I have the right to know what is best for my body and my life. This extends to the greater continuum of life, as I also believe that I should be able to decide when my life has come to a point where it is time to die. I also believe that if you don't believe this, that is ok. I choose to disagree with you, but you have the right to your opinion.

How can I be an IVF veteran, with multiple miscarriages, and believe in the sanctitiy of choice? Because, when you use science to create the potential for life, you value it immensely, and you understand the precarious nature of it intimately. At every step along the way, every few days, you know that the potential life you want to bring into the world is the next blood test or ultrasound away from not being there any more. And if I were in the position to make the decision to have an abortion, then it would be with heavy heart and life long personal implications that I would walk into doctor's to have the procedure.

So, when does "life" begin?

I haven't the slighest clue, particularly when I review the thoughts that you've posted. With the flicker and doppler sound that you see & hear at 6 weeks, it is hard to dismiss that heartbeat. But remove it from my uterus, and it has no chance at living.

I've lost pregnancies at so many stages along the way, it seems. 8 weeks, 10 weeks, 4 months. With each passing week the potential for life is more tangible, and the loss is more painful because a relationship is established and growing.

I don't think that there is an arbitrary line that can be drawn in the sand about when "life" happens. Especially in the later stages of pregnancy, when the balance between life and death is so tenuous. With regards to IF treatments, my convictions are that it will never be "at all/any costs," so if the treatment is that way, the pregnancy would be too. In fact, I have made a promise to my husband that potential life ≠ actual life. If that battle were to play out in our lives, my actual life would be the deciding factor. I've felt the same thing in talks with my surrogate to be. Her actual life is more important than the potential life of our child(ren).

Sorry for the extremely long post....

[Felicity]

Hi. :)

I went to Catholic School, and we were shown a really horrific movie called 'The silent Scream' from year 9. (I was 14, they showed it twice a year until year 12.) I dont think they would be allowed to do that now (It was the 80's) because it was really indoctrination. I think that all the girls left our school with huge hang-ups attatched to their opinions of abortion, and those who may have had to have one would have been so damaged by guilt.

I believe that an embryo is a life and soul from the moment of conception. I doubt I would ever be able to have an abortion, regardless of rape, or damage to the child. I dont have any major tests done when Im pregnant, because I dont know what I'd do if they found anything.

I do, though, believe that every woman, and couple for that matter, has/have a right to make the decision for themselves. I would like to think that the decisions are 100% in the best interests of the child. I would never judge anyone who decided to have an abortion, and have stood by a few friends sides when they made the decision to abort babies. None of them even know that I would never have an abortion myself, having never asked, and me having never offered the info!

I like to believe that souls return to Families they are meant to be with, and who they love. Maybe just a fanciful notion, Im not sure, but it seems nice to think that if a baby were miscarried, or aborted, its soul would return at the right time, because it was meant to be the child of that Family.

:) Felicity.

[Shanna]

Tertia, you are so evil for making us talk about these things without coming forward yourself. You WILL once we're done here, right?

I think life begins with a heartbeat, the little cells and miniature organs showing that they have what it takes to function, a will of their own instead of just a biological fact of cellular existence. When I found I was pregnant and went to the doctor (just under 6 weeks), this baby's heart (now 33 weeks and doing great) was already beating. It meant something to me that just seing the yolk sac and little budding body never could have meant. It meant LIFE.

Now, as regards abortion... I honestly feel that it is the wrong choice in almost every circumstance, and yet I don't feel it should be illegal because I fully recognize that what I believe is not necessarily "correct" or believed unanimously.

As some other posts have mentioned, if a foetus is found to have a terrible malformation or disease (a friend of mine just went through a Trisomy 18 scare, for instance; I work for a foundation that does research on a terrible and fatal genetic childhood disease called SMA, and I know of women who simply do not have the strength to carry ANOTHER child to term who will only grow weaker and sicker and likely die before the age of 2), I can see ending that little life before its suffering begins.

If a mother's life is in danger, yes, it's harrowing as hell, but I can see how that situation would warrant a sad goodbye.

But for the life of me -- and I don't mean this to be judgemental, I really don't -- I do not understand the "for the child" argument. Unmarried, poor, bad situation with the baby's father, still in school, too young, etc -- the idea that this situation would be too hard for the child and so abortion is the right decision: this blows my mind. Adoption. Adoption adoption adoption. Adoption! Yes, it could be painful or humiliating or inconvenient or downright terrible to go through pregnancy with a child you don't intend to keep, but you can give something tremendous to people who want nothing more from you than to release your child from the burdens that were so present in your thoughts.

I worked at an abortion clinic in a major hospital, one where they did the latest term abortions in that part of the U.S. It was horrifying to me to see a) repeat patients; b) extreme late-term abortions where the doctors actually told the woman we can anesthetize you and deliver this (living) baby and you will never have to see it again and the woman refusing; c) the pain and responsibility that is transferrred onto abortion providers -- even the most pro-choice OB/GYN, a man or woman absolutely committed to women's health and women's reproductive rights, is a wreck by the end of the day in the clinic. Even when you are performing abortions for all the "right" reasons, it is difficult, difficult work.

And with all that said, and the rawness of my feelings on the line -- again, this is how I FEEL only, I would not support legislation to ban abortion -- I must say that I have very good friends who have had abortions, some repeatedly, some as recently as last year. I did not support their decisions, but I absolutely support them. They simply made a decision that I probably couldn't make (and thankfully I never was in a situation to make it, partly through responsible sex but mostly through luck) and have a difficult time understanding because it is too emotionally charged for me.

Tertia, you asshole. You'd better come clean when all this is over.

[colicmommy]

From conception. A fertilized egg can move, divide, grow, metabolize, and reproduce (by dividing). Just because it doesn't always implant, or just because it isn't able to do these things with great success doesn't mean it's not alive. Not every living human on the earth can move, grow, metabolize or reproduce without massive intervention, if at all, but that doesn't make these people any less alive or worthwhile.

I personally cannot support abortion any more than I can support murder. It might really improve the lives of some mothers to leave a day-old baby somewhere because the mom's life is a mess. If I can't support that, I can't support abortion either. This is why I pour so much money and time into crisis pregnancy centers that stay with the mom and dad from day 1 all the way through the child's childhood, providing them help with parenting classes, money, donations of food/clothing/formula/diapers, etc.

On the same note, though, I would never judge someone who had an abortion. Meaning, I am not an asshole who would call someone a baby killer or exclude them from an organization of ANY kind or try to make them feel guilty or shoot abortion doctors or picket outside a clinic or whatever. What's done already is done already, and I keep quiet about it. I'd rather try to reduce the number of abortions by supporting women, esp. pregnant women in bad situations.

But at the same time, I don't think I'd be able to hold somone's hand while they had an abortion, no matter how much I loved them. Just as I couldn't hold someone's hand while they abused drugs or whatever, especially if I loved them.

[Judy]

Geez, Louise, Tertia! Bringing out the big guns I see! And on a weekend, too!

Seriously - your post brings up some thoughts that I hadn't had in quite a while.

My personal view is every woman's body is her own and she can choose to do with it what she wants - I may not like it or agree with what she does, but it isn't my place to say what she can and cannot do with it.

And others may say, "What about the right of that unborn child?" Well, I believe it is that mother's duty to take care of that child as best as she can before, during and after the birth. However, I cannot MAKE the drug user stop using, the alcoholic stop drinking, the smoker stop puffing or the abusive boyfriend/spouse/so stop beating. I can educate, I can speak my piece...I can lead that horse to water, but I can't make him drink.

That being said, I do have to say that in Judy-world, life begins with that heartbeat. After going through everything that I did with all my pregnancies, the miscarriage in which I never heard a heartbeat is probably the easiest to take. Still not easy because I was sooooo ready for that baby, but easier to say that there was no heartbeat so there was no baby. Just the way my mind handles it, I suppose.

I was faced with the possibility of a very sick baby with my last pregancy...strong possibility that the baby would be born and not make it past the first couple of days. We found this out very early in my pregnancy (sometimes I think the medical field knows TOO much!!!) and my doctor wanted to do further genetic testing. I refused. My thought was that I had this baby in me for a reason, whatever it may be, and whatever the result, I would accept it and love this baby forever, no matter how short our time together on Earth was. I didn't need a bunch of tests to tell me what to expect. I readied myself for whatever could be, and spent the next 6.5 months of my pregnancy in a fog of emotions. Had I birthed my child and then had to say goodbye, as you and so many others have had to do, I would have been devastated, crumbling like a mighty fortress that was defeated by a single blow. But, I think it would have been worse on me to NOT have that moment, to take it away by aborting the pregnancy, to never look upon the face of my child and say my goodbyes.

I respect women and their decisions to do what they feel they need to do, but I don't believe I could have an abortion. I can't say NEVER - I'll be some freak of a case who ends up preggers when I am 70 or something and I may have a different opinion about abortions then! But for now, I'll enjoy my pregnancies if/as they come, for however long and with whatever result.

[Kat]

I've voted for "at birth", however I've kind of expanded this to mean any number of things. A premie babie, born at 23 weeks, is born, and is therefore as much of a child as a 40 week infant. However, if there were genetic defects incompatible with life, or severe illness in the mother, I do not think that it's impossible to conceive of an abortion at that stage. It's the individual choice of the pregnant individual.
Now, just because to me a fetus isn't a child, isn't "alive" until it's born, doesn't mean that the entire pregnancy isn't a potential, on-its-way, person. Losing a fetus/child in utero (no matter what the mchanism) is losing a potential member of your family, and should hurt as such. It's possible to separate yourself from this if it hurts to much or if you have different views, and I think that's the only way people can survive abortions and miscarraiges.
All that said, I cannot stand the idea of any late-term abortion for myself, it's too close to being a real baby, even if it isn't "alive" yet to me. And I suspect that if I were put in a situation where an early term abortion was the only solution, it would hurt more than I can say.

[jax]

When I was 16 I lead a debate where I was anti-abortion ... many many years later my how I've grown and realised that nothing is clear cut and we all have a right to have double standards, to change our opinions and so on but never to judge. I agree with many comments here and possibly believe that "life" begins when you heart is ready for it. And let's face it nothing much in this life makes too much sense no matter how much we understand scientifically.

[Ingrid]

I don't know exactly when the biological process becomes a sacred human life. Even my religious denomination is a little unclear on it. I'm comfortable with the ambiguity and don't have any need to parse it out. I guess I'd say sometime AFTER implantation and BEFORE viability outside the womb. How's that for fuzzy?!!!!!

I'm not easy with abortion. It's never a good thing, always, at best, the lessor of several evils. But it must, it MUST, be kept legal and made more accessible, along with birth control.

To me, the moral discomfort with abortion increases with the length of the pregnancy. A gamete that doesn't implant due to the morning after pill doesn't strike me as much different than a gamete that doesn't implant by chance, while a 6 week embryo is vastly different from one at 20 weeks or so, on the brink of viability. This is why I wish birth control were more effective and easily available, why I support easy access to the morning after pill, and then easy access to early abortion.

At the same time, I am sympathetic to people who would restrict late-term (post-viability) abortions, even while I question whether that policy is workable without placing an undue burden on women who discover fetal abnormalities late in the pregnancy. Aborting a viable fetus seems no different from infanticide to me.

So to me it's a loaded issue. I envy, in a way, my two friends who are very comfortable and matter-of-fact about the abortion each had as a married woman who could not manage a third child. I don't know, I was raised to think it was a mortal sin, and while I reject that simplistic point of view, I can't embrace the opposite view either.

[Michelle]

I have no idea when life begins. And even if I thought I did, I wouldn't seek to impose that belief on someone else. I am 100% pro choice because I think that there are reasons when an abortion is called for (for instance, when the mother will die) and to eliminate the possibility of a woman being able to have an abortion when it is necessary seems wrong to me. Plus, I was sexually abused as a child by a family member. If I had gotten pregnant, I know I would not have wanted to be forced to carry that baby. If I could think of a circumstance in my own life that might lead itself to an abortion, then I feel like I should be willing to let others make that choice too.

[Anette]

When we are facing the ultimately death of an elderly one it becomes easier to understand that a group of cells, a fertilized egg, a product of conception and even a beating heart does not necessarily mean life. People understand the concept of BRAIN DEATH and commonly accept the end of life as when somebody is declared "brain dead".

By analogy, I consider that life begins when the brain is fully formed (that being around 12 weeks - and that's why the 12w mark is so important).

As to the other question, I am pro-choice and I don't think it is life at all costs.

[Lisa V]

I really don't know when life begins. However, I must not really think it begins before 12 weeks, I have no problem with abortion during the first trimester. After the first trimester it makes me wince, but I still don't believe it's my business. I am completely pro-choice.

[Melani]

I started to read other comments first but then realized I didn't want other opinions to affect what I write. Not that it would change my views necessarily just that I may be afraid that I would fear writing my beliefs. I believe that life begins at the moment of conception. Sure there is lots of technology but I believe that God is the creator of life. Like you said, they can do lots of things but that still doesn't mean you are going to end up with a baby. I have 2 living children and have had 3 (early) miscarriages. I firmly believe that there are 3 children of mine in heaven. I can't go as far as saying that I think there should be no abortion whatsoever. HOWEVER, I think that (at least) 95% of abortions are wrong and most definetely murder. I realize that most people do not agree and would be offended by my belief but you asked for our own opinions so there it is.

[sarah]

Tertia--

Something I've always wondered about, and now your poll gives me an opportunity to ask: has the experience of infertility changed your (and other infertiles') opinion about abortion?

Just being a reader has made me value pregnancy so much more. I would never advocate forcing any woman to go through pregnancy, but I do think that along with the woman's right to choose should come the responsibility to choose in a timely manner--say the first 14 weeks or so. My personal experience with pregnancy, along with my understanding of other women's struggles to adopt, and my concern for pain a fetus might feel (some say at around 26 weeks, they can cry), has made me realize that I wouldn't be able to check a box that declares myself one or the other: Pro-choice or pro-life. I'm somewhere in a nebuluous middle, asking for a "Pro-adoption" box or "Pro-choice but only in the first 3 or 4 months." Unfortunately, this is an issue that does not lend itself to any sort of middle ground, so I have a hard time finding leaders on the left or the right who represent my position.

Interesting question you've asked.

[Mollie]

"The baby" wasn't "a baby" to me, personally, until I saw her on the 20 week ultrasound, which was done as part of "genetic testing," to see if she was healthy and "normal." I was told that if I decided to terminate the pregnancy, I'd have to hike across state lines, because it wouldn't be legal in Minnesota, where I was living at the time.

It felt like a bit of a setup.

Anyway, that aside, I think that the reason it's so hard to articulate or pin down with complete assurance, concensus, etc. exactly when life begins is directly parallel to the difficulty in deciding when it is that life ends.

I think "life" means different things to different people, and legislation dealing with these issues is never going to please everyone. There will always be passionate disagreement and debate over these concepts, and my hope is that humans, especially in the U.S., can learn to accept the "gray areas" and get along, making life easier for women.

Technology makes these areas more and more and more gray every day. Before IVF, ICSI, CVS, ultrasound, amniocentisis, and doppler, there was "the quickening." I'm doubting that many women had to struggle with as much inner conflict about ending a pregnancy before they could feel a baby moving, or hear a baby's heartbeat through a stethoscope, even though that "baby" had been "alive" before then, with a heartbeat, and movement. We were all kind of "in the dark" about what was going on in there on a cellular level between the missed period and the belly bumps, which is when most abortions take place these days.

Technology breeds many things, not just humans. I'm no luddite, but I think a lot of things were simpler back in the old days. More deadly, too.

Abortion should always be legal, and always be between a woman and her care provider. In order to make that true, I'd argue for abortion to be legal throughout a pregnancy, up until birth.

Once a baby takes its first breaths outside the womb, whether assisted or not, that child is alive. And even then, if technology alone is prolonging life, I think the parents should be able to decide to separate the baby from the apparatus and let death occur.

What a heartbreaking subject. Life and death really freak us out, don't they?

[beck]

I am of the opinion that life begins at conception AND (for the IVF stuff) when the embryo is implanted and has everything it needs to develop into a full human being. Of course things go wrong naturally sometimes, at which the embryo/fetus can no longer has the potential to develop into a complete human being and therefore dies.
NOW, if you want to talk about issues... why not do a poll (w/lots of answers!) regarding the issue of "if you find out your child has Down Syndrome, mental retardation (small or great), etc., before they are born... would you abort and under what circumstances?

[Amie]

I personally believe life begins at conception. Sure its open for debate as to the exact moment but I choose to error on the side of utmost sanctity of life because really once your right to live is gone what right is truly safe?

Whats sad, is that in the majority* of cases, the deciding factor comes down to a women's own perception of her pregnancy. If its wanted, its a baby and cherished. If its not wanted, its a fetus and disposable. So really, I don't believe our culture cares about when life begins because it might put a kink in our "if it feels right to me, its right" mentality.

*I realize there are very much wanted pregnancys that are terminated for conditions not compatible with life.

[aderyn]

I believe life begins at birth. Just my personal opinion. I'm an atheist, so I don't have any strong religious convictions. I personally never say "unborn child," I always say "fetus."

I had an abortion when I was 18. I was about 8 weeks. I never felt bad or anything. That may make me sound callous, but I never considered it "killin a baby."

However, I've never been pro-abortion. I don't think anyone is pro-abortion, choice is different. If a 17-year-old gets pregnant and decides to continue the pregnancy, I will wish her luck and hope for the best, and if she wants an abortion, I will wish her luck and hope for the best.

I never believe abortion is murder. Never.

[Michelle]

I'm leaning toward life beginning when the heartbeat starts. I've had two miscarriages. The first one was the "blighted ovum" type - an empty sac on ultrasound at 9 weeks. While I was devestated, I never felt like I had lost a child. It was a potential conception that went wrong. The second one (after I already had a healthy daughter) was different. I saw the heartbeat at 7 weeks, I felt very pregnant, but the heartbeat stopped somewhere between 8 and 10 weeks. I saw what I thought of as my baby drop into the toilet. I even think of it as a her, and have a name for her.
However, that doesn't change my pro-choice stand. While there are very limited circumstances when I myself would have an abortion at this point in my life (defects incompatable with life, my life in danger . . .), I can't make that decision for others. And even though I think a fetus with a heartbeat is a "life", there are many different circumstances when all of us think that taking a life is acceptable. War, the death penalty, self defense, defense of others are a few examples. I doubt there is one person who would say that killing another is NEVER acceptable. Abortion, to me, can be a form of self-defense. And while I certainly think it is morally wrong in many circumstances, that is something that the woman will have to deal with herself - it is not the government's place to be involved.

[summer]

On a biological level, I don't think there is one moment where life begins. I think becoming a living human being is a journey in the same way that becoming an adult is a journey. Trying to determine biologically when life begins is like trying to determine if you become an adult when women get their periods the first time or when men's voice changes or when a person turns 18 or 21. I believe it's a process that you work towards over time and for everyone it occurs at a different pace.

I don't think saying the circumstances when it is ok to have an abortion (whether it's never or before 12 weeks or only when it is due to rape or genetic defect) should be tied to when life begins. I think it is a decision a woman should be able to make for herself not by someone who has no idea of her circumstances or beliefs.

[Rivka]

I don't think abortion has much to do with the question of when does "life" begin. In America, we do not force people to save other people's lives. We do not force people to give blood, or donate bone marrow, or give organs...hell, we don't even force people to donate their organs after they are already dead, even though many lives would be saved that way.

A baby cannot live outside the ute until, at minimum, 22 weeks. A woman should not be forced to carry a baby in her ute if she doesn't want to--for whatever reason. That is her right, now matter how "alive" the baby is.

Maybe someday, we will figure out a way to take the baby out of her ute, and put it in a special incubator, and that way, the woman can have her body back and the fetus can grow into a viable baby. But until then, the choice of the woman must come first. She must have the right to control what happens to her body.

And to all the people who say she should be forced to carry the baby to term, I ask: When was the last time you gave blood? Have you registered for bone marrow donation? Have you filled out an organ donor card? Cause all those things are easy ways to save a life, cause minor inconvenience, and have no chance of killing you. Unlike pregnancy.