Bill O'Reilly and Charles Krauthammer discussed abortion last night. O'Reilly stated that human DNA is what makes abortion immoral and indefensible. That is a position I would not argue against, but if that is your position, then how do you judge the cryogenic freezing of human embryos? If human life begins at conception, with the merging of female and male gametes, then isn't freezing this human life to the coldest temperatures possible immoral? Many, if not most, frozen embryos are never implanted in a woman's womb.
Charles Krauthammer "defended" the indefensible by trying to explain how progressives see abortion, a position that Charles clearly does not agree with. He brought up the vague notion of personhood which he did not define. Progressives can defend abortion because a fetus - a human preborn - is not yet a "person".
Personhood could be defined as those qualities and attributes that distinguish one human being from another and make humans unique and differentiable. It's very easy to differentiate me from Arnold Schwarzenegger now, but as two first-trimester fetuses it could be extremely difficult. But a DNA test would show us to be two completely unique beings.
Using personhood as your "morality yard stick" is a totally arbitrary concept, and one person's personhood may not be another's. One Princeton professor, Peter Singer, has argued that killing a child up to two years old can be justified because a child under 2 years of age doesn't plan for the future. The child lives for the present. This type of valuing of human life isn't limited to liberal professors as witnessed by the murder of Terri Schiavo who was denied fluids until she died of dehydration. If she had only been able to forecast a future need for a glass of water and expressed that need, she'd have been a human being.
Conservatives aren't going to accept the progressive's personhood argument and progressives will never accept that human life begins at conception. So, let me offer a compromise.
I propose that humanness be evaluated on the following criteria: DNA, potential, plasticity, carbon footprint, and net societal value. DNA simply separates Man from chimp, and if progressives want to say that chimps are human and deserve human rights, we can take up that issue later. Potential is a measure of the possible future output of a "candidate" for human membership. Plasticity is the measure of a candidate's options in what direction the candidate's life can take in such matters as education, matrimony, fertility and career, etc. Carbon footprint is an important issue for progressives so I'm throwing them a bone. Lastly, net societal value measures whether a candidates contributions to Mankind are a net positive or a net negative.
Using these new criteria, let's choose 3 candidates for human membership taken at random. A random selection chose Barack Obama, Gina McCarthy of the EPA, and a human preborn in the first trimester.
We'll assume all 3 candidates have human DNA.
A measure of potential shows both Obama and McCarthy on the descending side of a bell curve. They have shot their wad. The preborn is on the ascending side of a bell curve whose height is unknowable.
A measure of plasticity shows both Obama and McCarthy to have almost none. The remaining plasticity of McCarthy may allow her to finish her transformation from Gina to Gene, but there's little plasticity left beyond that. The preborn has almost unlimited plasticity in the possible directions its life may take.
The carbon footprints of Obama and McCarthy are gargantuan. That of the preborn are minuscule.
The net societal value of Barack Obama is immensely negative. If he actually does lead Jews to the ovens, it won't change his negative societal value that much as a percentage. McCarthy is an imbecile who didn't even know how much carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere, and her EPA policies will be ruinous to America's prosperity. The net societal value of a preborn is unknowable but it is certainly not negative unless you believe a preborn harms a woman's health.
The conclusions of these new criteria are that the preborn should be allowed to live, and the skulls and legs of Obama and McCarthy should be crushed and their guts harvested to feed the cubs of Cecil the lion.
