[chumdawg]

Originally Posted by roadrunner

I don't subscribe to the Catholic orthodoxy.

Just so that we are clear, when I stated opportunity below I wasnt talking about opportunity to get pregnant. I was referring to opportunity to continue living and growing into a healthy baby which is why I brought in murder to the discussion. You cant murder sperm or an egg.

But, to continue into your argument, lets build on where you seem to be headed. My question to you is everytime a woman hits her period is she is extinguishing potential life simply because she did not get pregnant before her egg died? And for the guys, every time we have a wet dream are we extinguishing potential life because we are spilling our sperm? And, if a husband doesn't sweet talk his wife and they don't have sex then is that extinguishing potential life? What about those that abuse drugs and trash their bodies are they potentially extinguishing life because they are killing their reproductive potency? I could go on and this could get even more ugly than it is now. I would hope you would agree that this is silly to call this some form of murder.

Is an apple still attached to the apple tree a potential 2nd apple tree? Sure, but it cannot become an apple tree until the seed of that apple is buried and starts to grow. The moment it starts to grow is the moment it becomes an apple tree. However, if the apple is eaten and the seed is thrown in the garbage can is that the same as chopping down an apple tree? Of course not.

Extinguishing the potential to getting pregnant and actually aborting a baby after conception are 2 totally different issues. The first deals with extinguishing potential but the second deals with inevitably extinguishing someone that is already a growing, developing, innocent human. This is what I refer to as murder, unless there is a really good reason to do it such as the mothers life is in danger. You are drawing a line in the sand months after this growing starts based on a non-thinking/non-feeling defense and I am drawing a line where conception and life starts. This brings me to another question about what you wrote prior about equating a baby to a vegatable. Is someone that is in a vegetative state still alive? They can't feel or think either, right?

I agree with every single word you said. Yet, I'm not sure where that is supposed to lead me...if anywhere.