As discussed at the vL forums, sperm does not have the same potential for life. Sperm/egg forming human > just sperm.
You'll forgive me if I don't count the vL forums as authoritative.
That implies actively being against legislation.
No it doesn't. Just because you have a belief (or in otherwords you support a position), doesn't mean you're going to march out into the world and start actively protesting. You support not legislating on homosexual marriage, since you
think that government has no place in telling homosexuals that they can't marry.
You just don't feel strongly enough about it to spend your day holding protest signs. This is probably because you have a moral objection to homosexual marriage that counterbalances your more intellectual position that the government shouldn't get involved.
Yes, it does. "Support" is an active voice verb. It implies doing something. I'm
in favor of not legislating on homosexual marriage, but I don't
support it. To support it would imply that I'm doing something in favor of the "cause."
Um... yes. An unborn baby is definitely 'alive.' Its heart beats, it breathes, it reacts to things happening outside the womb. It's definitely 'alive.' Perhaps you're looking for a word like 'conscious?'
Sorry, I meant "human", not "alive".
is the unborn fetus a human?
Yes.
I disagree, I don't think an unborn fetus is human, and entitled to the rights of a human, for the entire duration of pregnancy. Who's right?
I am curious. Assuming that conception and embryonic/fetal development are all parts of the human developmental cycle, as is old age, do you consider old people who depend on others to, say, go to the bathroom, to be not human? What about a 25 year-old in a coma who has to be hooked up to life support machines? Is that person not human? I don't see any evidence that that person *is* human. He doesn't breathe or eat on his own, he doesn't communicate, he shows nearly no sign of brain activity.
What qualifies as human?
I stand by my definition, that a human is a human at any point in the developmental cycle. Monkeys don't have human children, and two humans aren't going to have sex and produce a dove. If you say the 25-year-old is not human, then clearly we have a difference of opinion as to what constitutes humanity.