NancyLebovitz comments on Undiscriminating Skepticism - Less Wrong

97 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 14 March 2010 11:23PM

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Comment author: byrnema 16 March 2010 11:13:29PM 3 points [-]

Don't unnecessarily cause them to suffer,

Aren't abortions unnecessarily painful? This is as strong an argument pro-life as pro-infanticide.

I agree there a continuum between conception and being, say, 2 years old that is only superficially punctuated by the date of birth. Yet our cultural norms are not so inconsistent...

General cultural norms label [infanticide] as horrific, and most people's gut reactions concur.

For example, many of these same people would find it horrific to kill a late-stage fetus. And they might still find it horrific to murder a younger fetus, but nevertheless respect the mother's choice in the matter.