While I believe that a woman has a right to control her own body, I also believe that life begins at conception. As for the issue of unwanted pregnancies if you don't want a kid keep it in your pants. A little bit of self control will go along way towards keeping the population under control.

So far I've got the impression that if a child isn't a child, then it's ok to get rid of a 'clump of cells' but if that clump is considered a child then it's not ok to get rid of it.

One could give analogy after analogy about where something begins and another ends eg. a circle. Hate to quote The Lion King here, but there is a circle of life. What goes around comes around. Even the Budhists believe that...along with the fatalists and all the other ists.

I guess until such time as we live in a Utopian society, where everyone lives by the same moral/religious/ethical code, there'll always be differences of opinion on these sort of issues. Human beings live for conflict, and none of us have ever learned how to love thy neighbour without judging them. The biggest issue I see here is that one side judges the other, and there's no real middle ground.

I've grown to realize that you can never judge another person till you've walked a mile (or a thousand) in their shoes. You can never understand they choices they make about these kinds of issues unless you've lived their life. You will never know what it's like to choose whether your 'clump of cells' becomes a human being or not till you've had to face the choice for whatever reason.

Understanding how someone can abort their 'child' isn't something anyone can have any concept of unless they've had to make that choice, and anyone who hasn't had to face it doesn't have a right to condemn those who have.

I'd take a different slant.
You can judge me all you want.
But if you interfere, I get real pissy.

I get real pissy with the government, a lot. :haha:

In my experience, the ones that judge you are the only ones that ever interfere. The ones that don't judge you are happy to let you do your thing your own way.

I prefer the middle of the road, I don't judge, but I don't give a sh*t if you screw yourself up and/or kill yourself in the process. To many assholes out there bent on their own destruction to care, that's probably my main libertarian slant.
btw, who else thinks a great way to throw some bleach in the gene pool would be to legalize all drugs, but write in a clause so that no one with drugs in their system may be given emergency care.

Much as I like that one ... even junkies have real medical emergencies not related to their substance use.

My own answer is legalize all drugs, but stop paying for detox and rehab. Recognize that drug and alcohol use is a decision, not a disease. In some of my softer moments, I include a plan to allow each person ONE chance at government-funded rehab.

I see too many repeat customers, which, incidentally, includes people with 20+ years sober who were working as drug and alcohol counsellors before they "slipped up."

Ah. Now I know why you don't like me.

I was hoping against hope.