One of the mantras of the pro-“choice” movement is “my body, my choice”. Certainly one should be able to decide what they do with their body. But when it comes to reproduction, whose body is it?
In the past, I’ve made the argument that a fetus can have its own blood type, that it involves chromosomes and DNA not present elsewhere in the mother’s body, and that it can not exist without the input of a man. These arguments have been largely ignored. So let’s make it a little more basic.
According to a Wikipedia Article on Common Descent (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_descent), the genetic code (the “translation table” according to which DNA information is translated into amino acids, and hence proteins) is nearly identical for all known lifeforms, from bacteria and archaea to animals and plants. The universality of this code is generally regarded by biologists as definitive evidence in favor of universal common descent.
So humans are related to all life forms, but are the expression of millions of minute variations and modifications which took place over millions of years. Evolution. In that sense, we all sort of work the same, with various functions being improved along the way. According to genome.gov (see https://www.genome.gov/12514), chickens represent a life form which occurred sometime between mammals and fish. Again, we are all related, just modified. Chickens produce eggs, as do humans, and the fertilization of those eggs by the male of that species results in reproduction. Same with humans.
In chickens, a fertilized egg is clearly not part of the chickens body. It’s wholly separate. This creates a problem for the “my body, my choice” crowd, because it has already been established that humans are merely improved modifications of that very same chicken. The placement of the fetus within the womb was a modification designed to improve the outcome as required by evolution. The fertilized human egg is still not part of the host human’s body, it was merely placed there to improve it’s likelihood of growth and survival.
For that reason, the female body should be regarded with reverence and awe, as the protector of offspring, the guarantee of survival for our species – the guardian of humankind. But it shouldn’t be regarded as the same thing as the fetus. They are distinct. They are different.
Even if you don’t buy into that logic, it’s still plausible. And for that reason, we should act with caution. By this, I mean that the decision to terminate the existence of that fertilized embryo should not be the sole decision of the person inhabiting the body charged with protecting it. Not simply because it houses the fetus, not for that reason alone anyway. It’s a big responsibility, and men and woman, together, must take it seriously. The fertilized egg “belongs” to neither. It is its’ own entity, and as such, should have some say in its’ existence.