After doing a little more research on some pro-life sites I discovered that the main issue that Christians debate around is whether you need to take your first breath before you are considered living. I have no interest in doing a point-counterpoint of bible quotes around this (leave the theists to quarrel among each other), but it does reiterate my point that the issue of this debate is not centrally "Is abortion murder?" (as I find the media likes to frame it). Yesterday I said that the issue is really "When does life begin?", but now I feel like that is a bad way of framing the question, instead I feel like it is better to say "What is a human being?"
You see, when you ask this question in the form of a 'when' you have already presupposed the 'what'. Once you have defined what a human being is, the 'when' will come naturally. I feel like the debate in the media centers around the 'when' because the 'what' seems so obvious: I am a human. But no one really delves into the question of what exact qualities we need to possess in order to be qualified as a human.
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