Have I no right?

[Bottle]

I don't know if anyone has said this yet, but you cannot truly call an egg a baby until it starts breathing.

Why breathing? (just curious)

If a baby stops breathing, does it suddenly stop being a baby?

Well yes, because normally no breathing = death, so it stops being a potential baby and starts being a potential main dish.

Interesting...so sleep apnea would mean that a baby is alternating between infant and food...

[Dyakovo]

I don't know if anyone has said this yet, but you cannot truly call an egg a baby until it starts breathing.

Why breathing? (just curious)

If a baby stops breathing, does it suddenly stop being a baby?

Well yes, because normally no breathing = death, so it stops being a potential baby and starts being a potential main dish.

Interesting...so sleep apnea would mean that a baby is alternating between infant and food...

[The Scandinvans]

I don't know if anyone has said this yet, but you cannot truly call an egg a baby until it starts breathing.

Why breathing? (just curious)

If a baby stops breathing, does it suddenly stop being a baby?

Well yes, because normally no breathing = death, so it stops being a potential baby and starts being a potential main dish.

Yay for dead baby jokes.

[Secruss]

I don't know if anyone has said this yet, but you cannot truly call an egg a baby until it starts breathing.

Why breathing? (just curious)

If a baby stops breathing, does it suddenly stop being a baby?

Well yes, because normally no breathing = death, so it stops being a potential baby and starts being a potential main dish.

Yay for dead baby jokes.

What do you get when you hit a baby in the head with a hammer?

I don't know what you get, but I get a boner.

[Czardas]

I don't know if anyone has said this yet, but you cannot truly call an egg a baby until it starts breathing.

Why breathing? (just curious)

If a baby stops breathing, does it suddenly stop being a baby?

Well yes, because normally no breathing = death, so it stops being a potential baby and starts being a potential main dish.

Interesting...so sleep apnea would mean that a baby is alternating between infant and food...

Again, potential food. The natural processes occurring in its body will give it muscle mass and fat, and it's just at the right stage of life that its bones are soft and easy to cook without spilling any of the blood, so it should be considered potential food. (Plus, think how many world hunger problems could be solved by eating babies. What kind of heartless person would you have to be to not support this view?)

[Araraukar]

You are wrong. If women didn't menstruate, the sperm would have to come in contact with the egg inside the ovaries themselves, resulting in millions of eggs getting fertilised at once.

A woman doesn't have millions of eggs.

Yahoo Answers lied to me!

Anyway, several hundred thousand, if the other site I looked at is to be trusted.

Only one is mature enough to be fertilized at any given moment, unless an 'accident' happens and one in each ovary is mature.

[Araraukar]

I know the internets has a plethora of this stuff, but I want to know where I remember 400 from. It was probably something about embryology, but I want to get it right.

I remember the 400 from somewhere too... maybe it's the number of eggs that mature during a woman's lifespan? Also, remember that for each egg cell that matures, 3 others are discarded as 'chaperone cells' for the one that has the chance to get fertilized.

[Araraukar]

abortions that occur after 20 weeks are truly tragedies where something has gong wrong with the fetus or the pregnancy. its not done lightly or for "birth control"

Except in Russia, where 80-90% of all adult women have an abortion at least once in their life, and where doctors will abort fetuses as old as 8 months. The abortions are done so that a woman ingests a poison that her body can deal with (makes her sick, I'd imagine), but which will kill the fetus. Then, depending on the fetus' size, either a labour is induced, or they'll just let the body do a spontaneous abortion.

[UnhealthyTruthseeker]

Interesting...so sleep apnea would mean that a baby is alternating between infant and food...

Yeah, it sounds like somebody ain't never done hearda those there Harvard criteria.

[Araraukar]

I decided to do a bit of reading, not knowing much about tapeworms, and it turns out that most tapeworm infections or whatever the proper word is are asymptomatic. So comparing a fetus to a tapeworm is flawed, but for a somewhat different reason.

Have you heard about the reality TV show "I didn't know I was pregnant!"? Someone referred to it earlier in this thread, and despite the list of the possible side-effects of pregnancy, some apparently can be asymptomatic enough (or the people concerned really, really stupid) for people not to pay attention.

I also couldn't find anything about tapeworms leaving when faced with environmental stress

As per a C.S.I. episode, they can try to leave the body after the host dies (supposing it's of causes that don't also kill the parasite).

[Araraukar]

It makes absolutely no sense for you to not have a definition for personhood.
*snip*
Could someone you like ask you and get a fucking answer?

A person is someone who responds intelligently to certain stimuli. Yes, it's my own definition. No, I can't give you exact examples without being in the same room with you. Yes, that does mean my brother's pet cat can be considered a person (most cats would, I think). No, I don't think very young (born) babies are persons either, but then that's not the point. The point is that fetuses, at least until after they pass the viable level, are not persons.

[Araraukar]

I'd like to see an eagle surf the web.

Who wouldn't? I think we can all agree that, whatever our differences of opinion on abortion may be, it would be awesome to see an eagle surf the web.

Aside from the picture someone posted, maybe they will some day. The mountain gorillas already have MySpace and Facebook...

[Araraukar]

Well yes, because normally no breathing = death, so it stops being a potential baby and starts being a potential main dish.

Oh, right, it was also my contribution to this thread to suggest how to get rid of already born unwanted babies and what to do with the resulting amount of edible material...

[Dempublicents1]

Have you heard about the reality TV show "I didn't know I was pregnant!"? Someone referred to it earlier in this thread, and despite the list of the possible side-effects of pregnancy, some apparently can be asymptomatic enough (or the people concerned really, really stupid) for people not to pay attention.

A lot of those side effects can be caused by other things as well, so unless someone has the big signs like missed periods, they can be chalked up to something else. I had a friend who didn't know she was pregnant until she was in her fourth month and began to show because when she got morning sickness and took a pregnancy test, she got a false negative. After that, she figured the nausea must be due to something else. Since she'd always had really irregular periods, going several months without one wasn't a big worry.

Of course, I think a lot of the "I didn't know!" cases are cases of denial. The person doesn't want to be pregnant, so they chalk all the symptoms up to something else. A few are pretty weird, though. My great-grandmother, for instance, menstruated normally throughout her entire pregnancy. She didn't have any idea at all that she was pregnant until my grandmother started kicking.

[Xsyne]

Btw a tapeworm will deteriorate your health over time till you die no matter how good it was before it arrived.

Tapeworms very rarely kill the host. Why would they? They would gain no advantage by doing so, because they're not very good at moving.

Also tapeworms never leave on there own.

Yes, they do. They routinely shed large numbers of body segments (which are organisms in and of themselves) that are expelled in the host's feces. As I recall, tapeworms will also leave when faced with severe environmental stress.

Apparently, pregnancy is not the only thing a person has to be completely ignorant of in order to make an anti-choice argument.

I decided to do a bit of reading, not knowing much about tapeworms, and it turns out that most tapeworm infections or whatever the proper word is are asymptomatic. So comparing a fetus to a tapeworm is flawed, but for a somewhat different reason.*

I also couldn't find anything about tapeworms leaving when faced with environmental stress, although it turns out the individual segments have enough muscle structure to move, and have been known to crawl out the host's anus without even bothering with being expelled in feces. I now know more about tapeworms than I ever wanted to know.

*And I'm not even going to go into the studies that suggest intestinal parasites can actually improve one's health.

If you have access to such, I'd like to see them. Not on this thread, of course, as that would be too off topic. But I am curious.

Unfortunately, I don't. They're mentioned in Parasite Rex, which is an excellent read, so I'll just refer you to that.

[Justice for Mankind]

I support the father's right to have a say in abortion. I don't oppose abortion per se. In your case, however, I would not support the father's say in the issue. Had your mom aborted you, I would have had no problem with it.

You just said to someone if your existence had been prevented or, If your mom killed you, I would be fine with it. TO HIS FACE! What kind of person are you?!

[Dyakovo]

I support the father's right to have a say in abortion. I don't oppose abortion per se. In your case, however, I would not support the father's say in the issue. Had your mom aborted you, I would have had no problem with it.

You just said to someone if your existence had been prevented or, If your mom killed you, I would be fine with it. TO HIS FACE! What kind of person are you?!

He is a self described asshole, and I for one agree with him on this one point (i.e. the bolded).

[Justice for Mankind]

Good thing your mother didn't have an abortion. It should only be allowed if the mothers life is in danger.

Thank you. That's the right thing to do. Anyways, I feel sorry for you Quotation Marks. I know you're not trying to have a pity party or anything, but life must've been tough.

And really people, why aren't they considered people? And why do we protect Eagle eggs better than HUMANS?

Because there are fewer of them. The world needs more eagles a shitload more than it needs more people.

Traitor to your race, you disgust me.

[Grave_n_idle]

Good thing your mother didn't have an abortion. It should only be allowed if the mothers life is in danger.

Thank you. That's the right thing to do. Anyways, I feel sorry for you Quotation Marks. I know you're not trying to have a pity party or anything, but life must've been tough.

And really people, why aren't they considered people? And why do we protect Eagle eggs better than HUMANS?

Because there are fewer of them. The world needs more eagles a shitload more than it needs more people.

Traitor to your race, you disgust me.

You think the world needs MORE people?

[Treznor]

Good thing your mother didn't have an abortion. It should only be allowed if the mothers life is in danger.

Thank you. That's the right thing to do. Anyways, I feel sorry for you Quotation Marks. I know you're not trying to have a pity party or anything, but life must've been tough.

And really people, why aren't they considered people? And why do we protect Eagle eggs better than HUMANS?

Because there are fewer of them. The world needs more eagles a shitload more than it needs more people.

Traitor to your race, you disgust me.

It's people like you that make eagle eggs more valuable.

[Maurepas]

I don't know if anyone has said this yet, but you cannot truly call an egg a baby until it starts breathing.

Why breathing? (just curious)

If a baby stops breathing, does it suddenly stop being a baby?

Well yes, because normally no breathing = death, so it stops being a potential baby and starts being a potential main dish.

Interesting...so sleep apnea would mean that a baby is alternating between infant and food...

They arent always both?

[Buffett and Colbert]

Good thing your mother didn't have an abortion. It should only be allowed if the mothers life is in danger.

Thank you. That's the right thing to do. Anyways, I feel sorry for you Quotation Marks. I know you're not trying to have a pity party or anything, but life must've been tough.

And really people, why aren't they considered people? And why do we protect Eagle eggs better than HUMANS?

Because there are fewer of them. The world needs more eagles a shitload more than it needs more people.

Traitor to your race, you disgust me.

When talking about humans compared to animals, I find someone calling someone else a "traitor to your race" quite silly.

[The Tofu Islands]

Traitor to your race, you disgust me.

Nothing wrong with a little treachery, now and then. Especially when it helps eagles.

[Grave_n_idle]

Traitor to your race, you disgust me.

Nothing wrong with a little treachery, now and then. Especially when it helps eagles.

There's a certain mentality that will be screeching about 'traitors to humanity' and 'tree-hugging hippies' as the last tree is felled and we all have to learn to breathe CO₂.

[Justice for Mankind]

Good thing your mother didn't have an abortion. It should only be allowed if the mothers life is in danger.

Thank you. That's the right thing to do. Anyways, I feel sorry for you Quotation Marks. I know you're not trying to have a pity party or anything, but life must've been tough.

And really people, why aren't they considered people? And why do we protect Eagle eggs better than HUMANS?

Because there are fewer of them. The world needs more eagles a shitload more than it needs more people.

Traitor to your race, you disgust me.

It's people like you that make eagle eggs more valuable.

It's people like you that make human intelligence more valuable. We unlike filthy muck-wallowing animals are self-conscious rational beings with limitless potential to survive thrive and expand, even leave this planet if ew so chose, or alter it. Unlike animals, humans are infinitely gifted with potential as a whole.