Rape and morality in popular media

[Buffalobiian]

I do not think masturbation is evil.
I don't think abortion is evil.
You know, I think that there may even be valid arguments for abortion to be extended to POST BIRTH babies.


Let's lay some foundations.
I'm assuming that killing itself is not evil. My argument does not apply to vegetarians.
Actually scratch that, even vegetarians eat plant life, and that itself is killing.

What makes killing animals and humans seemingly worse than killing plants in my opinion, is that the former have some level of self awareness and are able to communicate this with us.
A "soul" if you will, but basically it comes down to them being higher life forms with more advanced nervous systems, and thought processes plus communication ability to go with it.

So we think "These things (animals and humans) seem to know they're living, and it'd be bad to end that for them."

I'd say that killing humans is more taboo than animals mainly because we display a higher order of the above again compared to animals.
I'm not in the sanctity school of thought that considers humans superior simply because they carry human genes, or are of the genetic group called Homo Sapiens.

If the above thought processes haven't turned you off this post completely, what happens when you introduce a human, or cell that isn't capable of thought yet?

DEX mentioned sperm. And would certainly NOT argue that if you stomped on my chopped off finger that you'd be murdering my bone cells of their otherwise long and happy life.
(Note: sperm have a limited lifespan too in the testicles so they die and get recycled anyway when you don't jack off but we'll leave that for now).

Later on, sperm joins ovum, and now you have a bunch of cells which don't think, feed off another entity, and pretty much fits the definition of a parasite.
Is this living thing, incapable of thought or any higher function sacred? To the point where its rights trump that of the established human carrying it?
Because really that's what it comes down to - killing babies aside in abortion, it's about whose rights matter more. And what's so special about this organism that it has rights in the first place?

Babies soon post birth aren't all that different to those prior, mind you. Their nerves are still undeveloped. They have very limited thought process.
So if you were to "abort" this baby 1 week after birth compared to 14 weeks gestation, what's really changed?


The same applies at the other end of the time continuum.
We lose brain function when we get old. Some don't even seem to be able to communicate or show any signs that they comprehend the concept of life. Keeping someone alive on life support indefinitely (until pressure injuries and infections ultimately take them) is possible with modern medicine.

Food for thought. If you do not believe that humans are superior simply because of genetics, then there's something else that factors into it. Which factors are those? And what happens when they don't apply to our entire lifespan?