Abortion... the room falls to silence.

OK, it's a hot-topic, sure to bring-out some very polemic views.

I want people to know before I delve into this: I have given it a lot of thought, on and off for years (because it's just such a divisive topic), and tried to decide what side to be on and have yet to come to a side.

It should be obvious which way I'm leaning by the questions and thoughts posed here. But as of yet, not set in stone. I'm malleable.

I'm hoping to get thoughtful responses, not a war. It's one of the things that disappoints me about certain topics, there seems to be no way to have a civil debate. Which means there can be only one acceptable solution to each side... Extinction of the other side (see Israel and Palestine: Training the next Generation of Hatred).

It occurs to me that this topic may be one of those that cannot be resolved. And that troubles me.

Now, as much as I want comments and ratings, don't feel you have to comment or rate. I've found myself reading stuff that I didn't agree with, but was well written and thoughtful. I rated it, I hoped it didn't mean I agreed with what was said, but that it gave me pause to try and put myself on the other side.

I've not found a forum I thought might be open-minded enough to even think there may be a chance for debate on this subject.

Abortion also may be a subject that isn't black and white, but gray. Most of the world is gray. It's my own belief that what we think we KNOW may be wrong, what we think is wrong may be right and most importantly what we're sure we KNOW is but a grain of sand.

That said, let me try and wade into this...

I've been appalled by people who breed at maximum capacity. This seems the height of selfishness and yet, they're celebrated on TV. This would not be celebrated if America wasn't in the enviable position it is. If I were watching an American family with 20 kids in my shack in a third world country, I'd be pissed at our arrogance.

If every human alive today kept breeding at maximum output: As it stands technology is struggling to keep up with demand. Technology would lose the fight. Human population would peak and our already taxed resources would be the cause of wars and pestilence and death, as mother nature fought back against the virus Humanity.

So, too much life too fast would cause too much death, too fast.

This due to the fact we didn't use the brains we were given.

The brains we were given should allow us to think before we breed. Think about how life is said to be precious to us.

All we need to do is take a trip to the internet and find millions of children dying. Children that had no hope from inception. Their parents condemned them to very short, painfully grueling lives and deaths after they were born.

What was your first memory? These children never get that far, or if they did it is the pain of dying.

American's are not fully qualified to comment on abortion, because we believe everyone has a fair chance. Everyone does not have a fair chance.

It can be argued that we're all doomed from inception. I prefer we bring children into the world with a fair shot at living.

With every life, there is more death. I'd like to see us deal with the live's we have here now. We have plenty of death to go around.

Humans are no longer grasping at a toe hold on Earth. We're actually reaching the point that Earth's resources will not be able to support our unrestricted growth. Our infestation has a firm grasp on the throat of Mother Earth.

I know I'm not the only one to be watching the over-population and infant deaths and children being sold into slavery and babies born to provide unconditional love to people that need it.

The reasons for children are endless. The reasons to not have children are endless as well.

However, we as a species, have been given a brain. We choose to TALK about how precious life is and how WE hope for the future.

Evidence is we don't think life is precious and we don't give a shit about the future. We care about us and now.

One of the most confusing aspects is the argument over when life is considered life. I've read that from conception it is a life.

I thought it back a bit further and decided that if a woman turns me down for sex, this is abortion. I am not trying to make light of life, I'm trying to put into perspective that we can't take care of the innocent infants we have here and we're defending zygotes?

Priorities seem askew. First priority would seem to be to make less infants die AFTER they are born. If you are born with to a death sentence, with no chance of survival, this end is much more horrifying to me. But, maybe I'm missing something.

An anti-abortionist asked if abortion had killed the next Einstein. I immediately began to think of worse ways to go: Starved to death, thrown in a dumpster and die slowly, premature birth due to drugs and die... Or if you're the next Einstein and female in China: Suffocated by parents and then given to strangers to be eaten.

I'd prefer we never need an abortion, but that would involve us using our brains when considering procreation... and then there's birth control.

This unfortunately or fortunately leads me to religion. The reason millions will not use birth control.

This outdated set of beliefs was set down when humans were struggling to survive... "go forth and multiply?" We did. Roughly 10% of all humans are alive today.

We need an amendment. Or are religions willing to take responsibility for raising all the children its gospel has brought into this world with no chance of survival? Actions speak louder than words...

If life is precious why don't we treat it is such?

With resources limited and our ability to breed exponential, this is math even I can do. Wars will not be caused because we don't know we have limited resources, they'll be caused by our thoughtless breeding of cannon fodder.

Is it an abortion when a woman turns me down? Granted, this is taking it to the extreme, but it's the only way I can think this through: Extremes trying to meet in the middle.

Most religions only recognize sex between a married man and woman, so why do religions fight for lives outside sanctioned sex?

I know gay men that have adopted children. These children are damn happy, yet you are against gays that adopt the children your teachings brought into this world and forgot. They saved them, not you.

Worse, religion views gay parents as unfit and unholy.

If humanity were to open the flood gates: Increasing longevity while increasing births. We would selfishly embrace life for life itself. Forgoing quality of life, the future of our children and the "life is precious" rhetoric we've been selling ourselves.

Too late we'd realize we'd just hastened our own demise.

Life on Earth isn't in peril. Human life is in peril.


*******

I'm hoping for civil discourse. I'm not delusional enough to think we'll solve this problem. But hope to stimulate synapses and maybe open our minds to new perspectives.

This issue is not an island to itself, it has far reaching implications.

Also, this is a test to see how OS (I think we could refer to the people on OS) handles a divisive topic that's difficult to broach (or once more into the breach), yet worthy of our thoughts.

Personally, I'm going to be using this post to gauge whether or not it's worth the effort to post difficult/taboo subject matter for discussion here.

"Worth" defined as: Is this going to turn into a pain in the ass fiasco yielding nothing?

Obviously, I hope OS rises above the fray of mere mediocrity, transcending into an honest, open and enlightened journey of learning a little more about what makes us all tick.

But I expect some bumps.

I assume people before Nobel attempted inventing dynamite. They may or may not have succeeded... they just blew themselves up.

So, Nobel is the accepted inventor of dynamite and a peace prize... go figure.