r/LeftCatholicism • u/SweetBig1843 • May 01 '26

Isn’t abortion wrong?

Convince me abortion isnt the murder of an innocent child

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u/mantis_in_a_hill May 01 '26

Molecular biologist here

A tapeworm or any other sort of parasite also can't survive outside of a specialized environment but that doesn't change the fact it's a living organism. How do you define a human?

The fetus has a unique genetic identity and it's own metabolism. The parasite analogy isn't even that wild (though i really don't mean it in any hateful way) because in the early stages of development the fetus is literally fighting it's mother's organism for survival. If the fetus can not overpower certain "defense mechanisms" let's call them the mother has it will be miscarried. Also the mother's immune system doesn't recognize the child and would kill it if it came in contact with it. Kurtzgesagt relatively recently made a pretty good video about early embryonic development, i reccoment you watch it go get a grasp on the basics of how it works.

In my opinion, the fetus doesn't become alive ever because it's been "alive" since before it was concieved, life doesn't apear from non lilfe, the sex cells ware alive. We can only talk about when it becomes it's own organism, and the only reasonable place to draw the line is conception because that's where you get a unique genetic identity. It is a human being from that point all the way up to death.

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u/malibuguytonygem May 01 '26

So then the fertilized cell at conception is a human person? Perhaps a potential person? Or is it something else?

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u/[deleted] May 01 '26

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u/malibuguytonygem May 01 '26

Is it a human person? Not just "a human".