I'm not religious, but I'll play god's advocate:SecularCauses wrote:Then prove it. When the zygote first forms, why does it have rights? It can't even voice an opinion, so how does giving it rights mean anything? Even if it does have rights, doesn't the pregnant mother also have rights? What if her rights conflict with the zygote's? Whose rights are given greater weight, and why? Does the potential father have any rights? If so, how, and what weight is he given in the issue? What about potential grandparents? Do they have a say?
Couldn't you say abortion assumes the fetus will mature into a person with rights? Otherwise, there wouldn't be a need for the abortion. This is a negative right -- namely, the right not to be killed. The mother has this right as well. If the fetus' life imposes on the negative right of the mother (i.e., the outcome of birth would likely result in the mother's death), you might argue the mother's life trumps the fetus' life. Otherwise, why is it justified to terminate a fetus whose potential for person hood is assumed by the very act of abortion?