True, but the Declaration DOES set forth what this nation was founded on.

As far as what I think?  I think a human life begins at conception.  I also think that Science has a hard enough time wrapping things up, that it has no right to dictate when THEY think life begins.  As a Christian, of course, life begins at conception, as we were "sinful from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me."  I'd just assume to not risk making myself a murderer, christian or not, because science cannot definitively say.

The Avatar

The Declaration of Independence is every bit as important as the Constitution because it provides the premise, motivation and justification behind the Constitution. That said, it is true that the Declaration itself does not constitute U.S. Law. That's what state and federal legislative bodies are for -- to enact laws in accordance with the will of the people, provided that said laws to not enfringe on rights established in the Bill of Rights.

Syrius is suggesting that legal protection applies only to citizens defined as "natural born." Of course, the problem with this, which I believe someone else tried to raise, is that deportable aliens would not be entitled legal protection either (yet they are: one cannot kill an illegal alien and claim it wasn't murder because he wasn't "natural born"). So, the Constitution goes further than just protect "citizens" -- it also protects "persons." Which leads to the next argument of the pro-choice Left, that being the old ploy of dehumanizing the object: "an embryo ain't a person." Whether or not a zygote, embryo or fetus is a "person," I'll concede, is a matter of debate since there is not an objective definition of one. However, modern science has confirmed that conception (or fertilization) is the critical event in which a new individual human being comes into existence. Even given that, however, zygotes are not the object of surgical abortions -- by the time a woman realizes she's pregnant, the pregnancy is already at the blastocyst or embryonic stage. "Personhood" is quantum in nature -- something either is, or it isn't -- there isn't a continuum of personhood. Therefore, the least arbitrary, and most commonsensical, threshold would be the objective biological event of fertilization -- that a pregnant woman is "with child."

But what about birth -- is this the point that the Founders considered to be the beginning of citizenship/personhood? I highly doubt it. The only, I repeat, only, reason "birth" has been classically considered the "starting point" is that, prior to modern medicine, what went on inside a woman during pregancy was a mystery. There was no way of looking inside -- it really was a "black box." In all likelihood, the Founders, being well read in Scripture, would have considered abortion to be an unthinkable abomination, a mortal sin.

We have to ask ourselves, what kind of society permits, even encourages, mothers to destroy their own offspring as a matter of convenience? Where men and women reduce each other to mere objects of pleasure? These are my thoughts in response to Syrius' posting. I apologize that it is long-winded.

I gotta agree Sarc, I think the comic took it a bit too extreme (we aren't so evil that we want to humiliate people who've made mistakes) and it focuses too much on humor as a way to dissuade people from thinking about the very REAL implications of abortion.  You, and everyone else here could be non-existant should our parents have viewed us 'a mistake we need to deal with.' 

I do believe in a person's right to choose, but I'm also leery, moral issues aside, because in an increasingly sexualized society, I believe that many women and men will begin viewing the morning after pill or even abortion as another form of birth control.  Afterall, why bother with a condom when you can get the full pleasure and just make your lady take the damn pill each time?  Its just deplorable.  I think it should be made available for various situations, but birth control I do not think it should be used for and like it or not, legalizing abortion as a whole, you will see the number of abortions steadily increase and as generations continue on, we will become more and more de-sensitised to the issue and therefore place less focus on the very important values of human life and human rights.

And Avatar, while I agree that the cartoon's focus was wholeheartedly wrong and obviously biased, to say it is poorly drawn is foolish.  It's a basic cartoon strip style.  I'm not sure if you're an artist, if you are and you view this as bad art then I'm sure you're amazing, far better than I, but as an illustrator, animator, designer and doodler, its my personal opinion that while the comic stinks, it isn't due to the art quality :-P