Personhood

What makes a person a person? Does a fetus qualify?

I'm asking for people just to work hard to get some clarity on this issue. It's not that hard. If I've heard this once, I've heard it a dozen times: "This is a difficult issue. It's a confusing issue. It's hard to come to a real, proper understanding." The abortion issue is not a difficult issue. It is not a confusing issue. It is a very simple issue when it comes to the facts themselves. And I'm trying to urge people to have some clarity based on what is true here and what is moral and right; not based on what we want for ourselves. That's what makes these kind of issues complicated. The truth is self-evident but we don't like what is true because it makes a moral demand upon us, and that moral demand frequently is uncomfortable and inconveniencing. When we face discomfort and inconvenience, then we want to change the rules; and we try to change the rules by using contorted, disfigured arguments and we claim that it's a difficult issue. It's not difficult at all.

The abortion issue is not a difficult issue. It is not a confusing issue. It is a very simple issue when it comes to the facts themselves.

I talked with a young lady last night who made the point that she thinks that. She used the illustration of snapshots. If you took a photo of the developing fetus at every stage of development you would see something different; therefore the fetus is a different thing at each different stage of development. Well, that's an idea, I guess. That's a way of looking at it but it doesn't make any sense whatsoever. It doesn't mean because you can take a picture of me at six, and ten, and twelve, and twenty-four, and forty-four that I am somehow a different being. I'm the same being talking on this show righ ...
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