If you kill a baby — in its mother’s womb — 10 minutes before it’s to be born, that’s called abortion. If you kill a baby 10 minutes after it’s born, it’s murder, according to our law. In a new academic paper, a pair of medical ethicists argue that the two are morally and ethically identical — and that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with killing babies.
I don’t think many people would disagree that any sane and civilized society should prohibit murder. The question has been when to define a human being as attaining “personhood.” Many who have argued for the morality of abortion have generally said that a human being comes into existence only at birth, arguing that late-term abortions — in which the developed baby’s head is cracked open and destroyed — are perfectly legitimate. (Read about “intact dilation and extraction” here. This was made illegal in the United States in 2003.) Others have argued that the point at which the growing baby would be viable outside the womb is when it’s a human being.
In pretty much every moral or ethical area, I want people allowed to make their own decisions, just as long as they’re not violating someone else’s life or property to do so. I’ve argued that abortion is immoral, because at some point it’s the same as killing a baby. And since we don’t know exactly what that point is, my view is that the benefit of doubt should go to the baby — since the mother and father had to decide to take the actions that created it.
In discussing the issue, I’ve many times made the point that it’s legal in many places to kill a baby minutes before birth, but it’s considered murder right after birth. So I’ve asked why there was something about the birth process that made the baby different from what it was minutes ago. I never dreamed that anyone could use the same argument to make the case for infanticide.