As we continue our series on abortion, today we’ll be looking at the SLED test to help us see that no matter what way you look at it, you can’t say that the unborn aren’t persons without discriminating against many born humans as well.
Size – obviously the unborn are smaller than the born but if being larger makes someone more of a person, does that mean a tall person is more valuable than a short one?
Level of development – this is another one which changes all throughout our lives, childhood; puberty, adulthood – we are constantly growing and developing but this does not change our status as a person.
Environment – Does an astronaut on the moon have a different personhood status to someone on earth? Can travelling through a 7 inch birth canal make you go from being a non-person to a person?
Degree of dependency – yes the baby is dependent on its mother to live but so is any young child, the elderly and many with various disabilities or illnesses. In fact no human is an island, we all came from two parents and need each other for survival.
In summary, there really is no logically consistent reason to suggest that human beings are not human persons without excluding other humans from rights as well. The pro-life view is consistent with science and protects the rights of all human life without discrimination.
I’m Becky Gillespie from Thinking Matters and this has been your Thought for the Week.
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