Yes, a human life begins at conception. But that human life, in its earliest stages of development, has not attained personhood; that is, it does not scientifically have the capacity to experience awareness, pain, feelings, or emotions, which are qualities we assign to actual persons who are granted basic rights. No harm is being done to a human fetus when it is terminated, because it does not possess the ability to experience physical or emotional pain.
The pro-lifer:
Human life begins at conception. There should be no stipulation for granting the most basic rights to any human who has a future. Level of dependency and stage of development should have no bearing on whether a human is granted the right to life. Abortion is a disruption of normal human development. We should not assign rights to humans based on the developmental stage they are currently in. By doing this, we are denying the unborn their futures as fully developed members of the human race.
Okay, I'll point out what I think could be logical issues with both stances in this instance.
PC Argument: I think the premise "human life begins at conception" is unproven which means we cannot logically move to a conclusion. I think that personhood is attempted to be assigned in tandem with viability. Meaning, when a human fetus is able to survive outside of the womb, the fetus can be assigned personhood and inherits a right to life. -- Still a major debate about personhood and if viability is the best choice for assigning it.
PL Argument: Again, the premises "human life begins at conception" might only hold weight if a religious stance is taken. We run into the same issues as the PC argument. With the religious stance, that would be combatted with scientific rebuttal. AND we cannot logically reach the conclusion here because of the questionable premises. Additionally, the "potential for life" argument can be a slippery slope argument.
All in all, Vindris, as you said there is really no meeting point between each side and we all ultimately reach an impasse. It's possible that a good way to start a discussion about abortion is to try to agree on the terms involved. Right-to-life, personhood, human life, etc.
I had addressed the "human life" question in a previous post that you might have missed. Let me ask you these questions again.
Of course there is more to it (scientifically) than this, but here are two simple questions that, when answered, might lead you to understand that human life starts at conception...
1 - What species is a newly conceived human zygote part of? 2 - Is it alive? ---
glitteringfairy: Just build the damn wall ThyCorndog: and how exactly will that stop the mexican space program from orbital dropping illegal immigrants?