I'm grinning fairly evilly when I read this:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/0...y_n_97194.html

OK, so it's just a creative fiction project that (much like War of the Worlds) has been taken seriously by far too many people.

The ambiguity and controversy that this brings up, however, is impressive. Reading comments on Digg suggest even adamant pro-choice people are against this.

The reason for this explains why abortion is still a controversial subject after all this time. We still can't collectively decide what life is. And no, it's not as simple as you think.

You say life begins at conception--but why isn't the egg itself "alive"? Because a fertilized egg comes from two genetic donors? What if I grafted skin from my neighbor's foot onto my arm? Would it then be wrong for me to let the grafted skin grow for a week, then kill it and throw it out?

It's ambiguous. And no matter how much we think we're for or against abortion we never really sit down and critically think about things like this.

Which explains why I was grinning while reading it. I love being forced to think.

My own conclusion is that what she wrote about doing is not wrong. Disgusting, maybe--and certainly cause for psychiatric evaluation should someone actually want to do it. But not wrong. Liberty over one's own body must be defended. Without this fundamental right you get crap like the war on drugs (among other things).

I don't know when life begins No, that's not true. I know when life begins. I don't know when life matters. Certainly my skin cells aren't deserving of protection. Certainly not a zygote. Certainly not a fetus less than a few weeks old.

You simply can't punish people who do things you disagree with if they're not hurting someone. You can't pass judgment like that just because you're disgusted.