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March 07, 2007

The Abortion line

Where do you draw the line as a moderate between the pro-lifers - "every cell is sacred" and the pro-choicers - "every abortion is sacred"?

I think a lot of folks have used viability as a touchstone, but, as Gus Van Horn and Amillia Sonja Taylor help us see, that's a doomed argument:

It takes little imagination to conceive of further advances in technology that will permit a fertilized egg to be grown to full term artificially. If, as Blackwell hopes, we confuse such advances in technology with actual viability, we will have what passes for a "secular" argument against all abortion.

Science fiction has been positing uterine replicators and artificial wombs for some time now. Clearly, we need another touchstone.