This thread really effected me tonight because of the cavalier way that people here have talked about fetuses before they become "people".
When does that happen? Will we ever agree? Personally, I think that unless someone has lost a baby, they can never know what it feels like.
In 2000, my sister was killed in a car accident. A few of you know this. She was 36 weeks pregnant at the time. When she was in the middle of her second trimester, the baby started to move. The fetus became the baby, and the baby became a HE. They decided to name him Thomas James. When they were killed, I felt like I had lost two individual people. My sister and my nephew. He and I were going to be best friends. He already responded to my voice. Would I have felt that way before he started moving? Probably not. After he started moving, he became real, and I don't know if the pain would have been nearly as intense as it was, as it IS.
I think referring to fetuses as parasites is a little revolting, and it sickens me that some people here have decided that that is OK. Embryo? Sure. Fetus? No. I think, personally, that when a baby starts moving inside it's mother, it's a person. My nephew had a personality from the first time he moved. When he responded to my voice, he was this little person I dreamed about laying in the grass looking at the stars with and teaching to swim. I can't have that.
I don't know if we'll ever agree on if a fetus is property or not. Abortion is not a black or white issue. It's got more shades of gray than there are colors out there. And we're never going to agree on when a fetus becomes a baby. And I don't know if that's ok or not. I do know that I am still sad all these years later that I lost my sister's male fetus. And I will never be the same.
Duckie