Ramblings On Abortion, Part One

Today my good friend Chris sent a link to an issue I admit has been off my radar scope for some time regarding the decision of the South Dakota supreme court on abortion. The letter was short but passionate regarding his disagreement with their decision. I'm not too sure if he knew my thoughts regarding abortion, so to make the record public I hereby declare myself firmly in the "pro-life" camp. Now to be honest, my most passionate reasons tend to stem from my theology rather than my philosophy but I do think that my rational processes create a valid structure for being against abortion as it currently stands. The email though did something to me (something good), it started me thinking about the subject matter again, which lead me to think about this whole blogging thing. Some topics are really difficult to write about, especially ones that are (1) emotionally charged and (2) require strong, often long-winded and intricate logical arguments. I don't know about you, but I still have problems reading online articles for extended periods of time. So, to help us both out I will chop what I have to say into several hopefully smaller articles (though perhaps not consecutive, depending on who Cheney shoots or Michael Moore lies about). I will also try to the best of my ability to leave overt reference to theological arguments out since not everyone is convinced that God or some higher power exists.

So here goes nuttin': For me, abortion as practiced today is simply murder. Okay folks, thanks for stopping by, don't forget to tip on your way out. But seriously, if my understandings are correct, the conclusion is inescapable and we must take action (after all, murder is at the very least illegal if not down right immoral... and yes, I do separate the two). So how do I come to this conclusion? By the following argument:

P1: Murder is the killing of an innocent human being.
P2: A fetus is an innocent human being.
P3: Abortion is the killing of a fetus.
C: Abortion is murder.

Now I don't think my definition of murder is off the mark so P1 should stand. Some people may quibble with my use of the word "fetus" in P3, so if you want to use "embryo" that would be fine with me, I think that the argument works as well. Where I think most people will have problems is with P2, that is, they will say that I am off my rocker to say that a fetus (or embryo) is an innocent human being. In fact, to me, that is the the nut of the problem that needs to be cracked, and unlike Justice Blackmum in the original Roe v Wade decision , I am not afraid to try (interesting enough, I think one of his strongest arguments works against the pro-abortionist, but more on that in a later blog).

So, there you have it, my starting point. In subsequent writings I hope to expand on the argument with attention to P2. Hope you stick around and let me know what you think.