18608 - | | | 18670 - Reply from Gianna , 24 y.o. (US) - 2021-08-25
| After doing more research, it is viewed by scientists that life begins at conception. A beating heart is not the only indication of life. Things are alive if they do all of these:
-Grow and develop
-Respond to their environment (stimuli and what not)
-Living things are based on a universal genetic code, DNA
-Living things are made up of cells (a cell is the smallest unit considered to be fully alive)
-Taken as a group, living things evolve
-Living things obtain and use material energy
-Living things maintain a stable internal environment (homeostasis)
-Living things reproduce (or have the ability to)
A baby, from the moment the sperm fertilizes the egg, is alive. From that moment it begins to do all these things. It is, indeed, a religious viewpoint as to whether or not we have souls, but there is no doubt that babies are alive from conception. Humans have always been on the top of the food chain, thus we kill animals to eat and live. And humans have dominion over other animals. You may say this is a religious viewpoint, but if you look at the world around us, it is established by humans. This all points to evidence that humans are the dominant species, and have been this way for thousands of years. I know what I am about to say is religious, but here I go:
Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:26-28)
Everything I said, even without the religious things, points to that it is okay to kill animals for food and for necessary reasons. Obviously it is cruel to abuse animals more than necessary, as that wouldn't be taking care of God's creation, but we are still able to kill them. This being said, killing babies has no point or value, and it is widely believed that human lives are more valuable than animals, and that animals have a reason to be slaughtered.
Again, in about every religious belief killing is wrong. And in our laws, killing is wrong. And all evidence points to the fact that babies are indeed alive before they are born, from the moment of conception. It is more than a belief that they are alive in the womb. Going back into the past, people believed that African Americans, or people of another ethnicity than Europeans', were not truly human, or that they were less than us. It was their belief that they were less than us, which is obviously not true. It was everyone's different beliefs on it that stopped it from becoming illegal for a long time. Everything points to the fact that they are the same as us, but people in the past did not believe it. Now it is similar; everything points to the fact that zygotes are a less developed human, but still is human, but people do not believe it.
I understand that it may be extreme to hold control in a country for 20 years, but when the risk of them overtaking it again is so high, I feel that it is okay to stay longer. Well, really I think we should have held Afghanistan to a deal, and if they broke it, it would be like we were back in control. It is slightly similar to when, long ago, I was inpatient for an eating disorder. Sometimes, if you were suspected of exercising, you would be on CO- constant observation. If you built up enough trust, you were off CO, but once you are found to be exercising again, you are back on CO. We also signed contracts before leaving, agreeing not to do certain behaviors, or it could result in our readmission to the inpatient program. I feel that something like that would have been better, making it clear to Afghanistan that we would still be keeping an eye on them from afar and if they did anything out of line, we would be right back in.
I think I would still like to debate if you do. I'm sure you understand coming back from work/school and doing absolutely nothing but not feeling up to doing anything else because you are exhausted. |
|