The Morality of Abortion

Date: 01/10/2017

Stream Summary

This stream presents a philosophical argument about the morality of abortion from both theistic and atheistic perspectives. The speaker argues that regardless of whether one believes in God or a soul, abortion poses serious moral questions about ending a unique life. For believers, the uncertainty of when a soul enters the body creates a risk of murder. For non-believers, the speaker argues the moral weight is even greater because destroying the unique DNA means permanently erasing that being from existence with no afterlife or continuation.

Key Topics Discussed:

• The concept of ensoulment and when it might occur during conception and development
• The impossibility of medically measuring the presence of a soul
• Religious perspectives on abortion and the afterlife
• Atheistic perspectives on the uniqueness and finality of biological existence
• The uniqueness of DNA and genetic identity
• Moral justifications for ending defenseless life

Sources

No external sources referenced in this stream.

Key Points of Wisdom

• [00:00:34] "Let's face it, there's no medical device that can measure the presence of the soul." - Highlights the fundamental uncertainty in determining when life becomes morally protected from a religious perspective.
• [00:00:49-00:00:53] "So if you end life here or here or here... you really need to have an exact measurement on whether or not that life has a soul, or you're risking killing a being with a soul which is Simply put, committing murder." - Presents the moral risk argument from a theistic viewpoint.
• [00:01:44-00:01:57] "It's a one-of-a-kind DNA strand that doesn't exist anywhere else in the universe. So if you destroy that entity, whether it's at 2 weeks, two months, nine months, that unique being is forever snuffed out of existence. It doesn't move on. It just ceases to exist. You are cosmically erasing that life form from the universe." - Argues that from an atheistic perspective, the finality of death makes abortion even more morally significant.
• [00:02:15-00:02:24] "It's hard to make a moral justification for ending the existence of a life that is unique and defenseless. And that's what abortion is. God or no God." - The speaker's central thesis that abortion is morally problematic regardless of religious belief.

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