The Straight Dope on abortion

[barondave]

Cecil Adams, of the Chicago Reader's column The Straight Dope, is usually pretty good when fielding complex questions. Not necessarily gospel and often snarky, he nevertheless goes where many fear to tread. His new material appears on the web on Fridays. Today's column tackles a highly contentious subject with calm and normality. I don't necessarily agree with everything in his answer, but it's a solid response.

When Does Human Life Begin? A reader named Frank asks about a question that was put to Obama and McCain by preacher Rick Warren:

Little problem, Frank. That wasn’t what Rick Warren asked. The thrust of his question — he phrased it slightly differently for each candidate — was, “At what point is a baby entitled to human rights?” But a lot of people think once they’ve answered your question, they’ve answered Warren’s. So here’s my take on the subject, which shows why I’ll never be running for public office:

1. Human life begins at conception.

2. Big deal.

The whole column is worth reading. It won't change anyone's mind, but does lay the groundwork for discussion.

Comments

[radparker.livejournal.com]

A commenter on the Straight Dope message board had a response that I agreed with: Life begins when you realize that women have rights.

Cecil's really going for the gold on that one. It strikes me as guaranteed to piss off people on both sides of that debate.