Abortion II

[Lief Erikson]

Originally Posted by Insidious Rex

How is lack of choice a cultural association? It either is true or its not true. Its wholly independent of culture.

Yes, but as I said, it's not part of the definition of "parasite." Therefore it is a cultural association of what "parasite" means.

Originally Posted by Insidious Rex

And any “nasty harmful insect” associations are yours because a fetus isn’t an insect, just a parasite. The negative connotations of the word don’t bother me. My sister used to call her unborn child “the fish”. Wed call her up and ask “Hows the fish!”. Seemed fairly appropriate at the time. And didn’t hurt anyone’s feelings. And now my niece is 18 and no longer a fish OR a parasite. And half of that is good parenting.

The word "fish" has its own private set of non-negative connotations in your family, and therefore is valid for you. If someone loathes fish and call a fetus a fish, that's entirely different.

Most cultural associations with the word "parasite" are profoundly negative, demeaning, derogatory. Parasites are generally seen as little bad things that are good to kill if they interfere.

If someone actually likes parasites, finds them cute and has a hobby of raising them, if someone enjoys their company and has family in-jokes about them, it would be valid for that person to call a fetus a parasite to his or her own family, where this definition is accepted. Because in that situation, there are no negative cultural associations, only positive ones. It wouldn't be anything demeaning in that context. The term would be one of affection, like your "fish" example.

This is NOT a common association for "parasite," though. It would be an incredibly unusual aberration from what people normally think when they think of parasites. The normal associations people make with parasites are profoundly demeaning. Parasites are usually seen as harmful, bad things that it's good to casually exterminate if they interfere with your life. So to call a fetus that is monstrous, because of what the word means to people.

Originally Posted by Insidious Rex

This has the reputation of being a very contentious polarizing topic but I often find that usually most people aren’t that far apart on this subject as you would first assume. You wont find any abortion cheer leaders here or twisted individuals openly delighted at the prospect of women being put in horrible predicaments because they become pregnant. I find most pro choicers tend to think abortion is a horrible choice (even if they feel a fetus isn’t sentient or fully human) but one that needs to be allowed in an imperfect world. And most pro lifers tend to really feel for the woman tremendously in most cases but simply feel a fetus is too human to be allowed to be destroyed even if it means the adult host has to suffer some because of it. I think its important to note that MOST people on EITHER side agree that theres NO good choice in the situation. That you are basically choosing the best of two possible bad choices. The only difference is which bad choice people think is the least bad.

I pretty much agree.