Is any one stage of a human's life cycle more deserving than the others?
Disclaimer: This is a blatant rip-off of Chuz-Life's debate http://www.createdebate.com/debate/show/This_is_a_Child_in_the_First_Days_of_their_Life
His argument blew me away.
When the egg meets the sperm, a child is conceived. That is the first stage of its life cycle. During the first days (stage) of its life (cycle), a child looks like a clump of cells. But it is alive (just as single cell animals are alive) and it is a child (it is just in a different stage in its life cycle than the stage we are in).
A butterfly is the adult stage of that particular insect. A butterfly has 4 distinct stages in its life cycle. Egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis), and butterfly (adult). Is any one stage any more deserving of life than any other stage? Why would it be OK for a butterfly to destroy its eggs but not OK to destroy the larva or the pupa?
Why is it OK for humans to destroy the fetus but it is NOT OK to destroy a new born, or a toddler or even a pesky teenager? ;)
The debate is not, "Does a woman have a right to kill a fetus because it impacts her life in a negative way."
The debate is, "Is the fetus a human life form in a particular stage of its life cycle?"
True.
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Wait..., what? No!!!
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Oh, I know the counter arguments. The butterfly egg doesn't impact the life of any other stage in the butterfly's life cycle. A fetus impacts the mother's life in her stage of the human life cycle. My response is, "So? She should have either abstained or used contraceptives." The debate is not, "does a woman have a right to kill a fetus because it impacts her life in a negative way." The debate is, "is the fetus a human life form in a particular stage of the human life cycle." I mean..., I'm in the stage in my life cycle where I see teens as a pesky clump of cells that wear their pants below their ass, knock me off the weekly leader board, claim to win arguments simply by changing the definition of words, and try to consume my beer when I'm asleep. They negatively impact my life and I don't have a right to kill them because teens are just in a particular stage of the human life cycle and no stage is more deserving than any other. Wait..., I ought to be on that --> side. If a fetus is not a human life form in a different stage of the human life cycle, then maybe teens aren't either..., and if that's the case then that means I can retroactively abort them... Bwahahaha ;) Side: True.
Probably the most effective argument I've ever seen, wow. This could be the discovery of the century! If modern society still possessed normal and rational thought process, which unfortunately is highly questionable... If you were to kill a butterfly egg, you would be destroying it's potential of becoming a beautiful butterfly and impacting the whole web of life on earth. That one butterfly you have destroyed could have pollinated hundreds of flowers, which would have been cause for hundreds more of flowers per each flower pollinated to grow, with would then present the opportunity for hundreds of flowers per those thousands further on and on down the life cycle forever. Furthermore, because you destroyed that one butterfly, which otherwise could have lain another many butterfly eggs, which would have hatched and grown into many more butterflies, hundreds of thousands of flowers and future flowers will not be pollinated either. And additionally, because you destroyed that one butterfly, that butterfly, or any of it's decendents might not flutter beautifully in front of a young child, who will look at it with wonder and awe, and grow up inspired by that butterfly to create great art, or perform acts of service, or become a wise leader, or simply share the joy he felt with his friends and family, uplifting their day and adding a little more joy in an ever increasingly joyless world. Alternatively, that butterfly you destroyed might have been made into a meal by a bird or other predator, but such is the web of life. But because you have destroyed great potential, the world will never get to see it in it's full beauty and completion. So too, if you kill a fetus, you have destroyed great potential for good and beauty in the world, as well as murdered all their potential decendents and whatever impact they might have had on the world. Side: True.
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lol, true, but then the butterfly that grows out of them provides pollination and beauty, and the endurance of many other flowers in the future. Human children eat and eat, and take and take without providing anything of substantive worth too, in a sense, yet when they are grown, they have the potential to effect much good in the world. Side: True.
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You're right, it isn't cyclical. It's fractal. That one butterfly egg has the potential for MILLIONS more butterfly eggs, and by extension, millions of beautiful butterflies, which could have had a beautiful effect on the world in future generations, but because that one egg is destroyed, that beauty will never be seen. Side: True.
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