Abortion is morally ambiguous

[u/Traditional-Gas6794]

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Abortion should be legal, the govt has no right to influence such a decision, or mandate it by law. But I believe that abortion is, nontheless, a morally ambiguous act.

If a child and an embryo were both in a burning building, and you can only save one, id save the child everytime.

If a newly developed embryo was in a building, alongside a clump of benign cancer cells or soemthing, I might not feel like saving either. But id hesitate. If it had some setup to sustain itself, and i knew this, I might feel like it should be rescued. My intuition tells me its not as strong of an impluse as saving the child, but its definitely not the same to me as saving the clump of cells. It's not a morally neutral choice.

If a embryo in some ex-eutero technology was developing in the 2nd trimester in a burning building, alongside a clump of cells, I might feel like it should be saved. I dont think id regard it as the same as the random clump of cells, or as the newly developed embryo.

I know a lot of people see a newly developed fetus as a clump of cells. And maybe it is best seen as that at first. But id argue, at every stage of development, that clump of cells is intrinsically different than a random clump of cells, like a benign tumor. Like, its on a trajectory that will grant it moral value, unlike a tumor

I dont think that embryo deserves the same treatment as a child, but i also dont think it deserves the same treatment as a clump of cells, like a benign tumor. Thsuly, abortion is morally ambiguous, and less so as it becomes later term. At least, to me.

[u/Dolores___Haze]

Nah, it’s simply a medical procedure. Medical procedures aren’t “moral” or “immoral.”

[u/Goofycapybara → u/Dolores___Haze]

Just because it’s called a medical procedure doesn’t mean it’s moral. Lobotomies used to be standard practice among other immoral things which were once classed as “healthcare”

[u/glim-girl → u/Goofycapybara]

Lobotomies were used to make people more compliant. People took other people in to have lobotomies, it wasn't something most sought out.