Jul 17 2009
Abortion Kills a Caterpillar
While sipping my morning coffee on the patio this morning I came to an insight about the anti-abortion stance. I think I better understand their perspective now.
As a half-dozen butterflies flitted within view, I marveled at their strange double existence. They have a double life not in a parallel way, but a serial way. First they are caterpillars; then they are butterflies. I got to thinking, probably erroneously, that the caterpillar stage is almost fetal-like: they seem not fully developed, more amorphous in form and incapable of flight.
And here came my insight by analogy, perhaps a faulty one at that. It seems to me a human fetus is a sort of caterpillar, feeding not on leaves but on its mother. So to speak. (In the majority of cases, this is a welcome arrangement.)
In my own mind, abortion does not kill a child or a human being. It kills a fetus, a potential human being. The butterfly that appears later is the human being. And it appears not overnight from a chrysalis, but it fully develops, unfurling its potential and personality, slowly over months and years post-birth.
Here’s the thing: when I view a caterpillar as a potential butterfly of one type or another, I treat it differently. Alright, go ahead, use my backyard foliage as your own personal salad bar. I like your potential.
I have been pro-choice for years and years. But I think I can now better understand the perspective of the other side.
Is a caterpillar a butterfly? No, not really. But it has potential. How much does potential weigh?
—
For a bit of recent science conducted on the subject of fetal abilities, look beneath the fold.
A couple days ago I read this article: Fetal short-term memory found in 30-week-old fetuses. I thought, “Oh boy, I can hear the misuse of this science now.”
Fetuses can remember! How can you kill (abort) something that remembers what happens to it?!
Three things:
1) 30 weeks is more than 7 months.
2) What do they remember? Nothing explicit. The researchers merely found that they are able to habituate to stimuli by that time. They show a reduced response to a type of stimuli. Which, strictly speaking, qualifies as memory. But not what we typically think of as memory.
3) Worms are capable of this type of memory. As are millions of other creatures that human beings have no qualms about killing.
Conclusion: to use this bit of data in support of an anti-abortion stance would be ridiculous. But used it no doubt will be.
