One day's difference

Bellevue College.

Kira [being friendly, as usual]: So, Haley, what are you into?

Haley: I really like volunteering and stuff.

Kira: Hey, me too! What programs have you worked with?

Haley: Oh, I volunteer at Planned Parenthood several times a week 'cause I feel really strongly about stuff like that and women's rights and stuff.

Kira [expression does not change]: Mmm. So what is it about the program that you want to support?

Haley: I just think that women's right to choice is really important and needs to be protected, you know?

Kira: Rights are so important. Just curious, do you think that the rights of the child inside the mother need to be protected at all?

Haley: Oh, well that's not really a person. It's not a child until it leaves the womb. That's accepted by a number of people.

Kira: Uh huh. So Haley, you're a person, right? And a pretty cute one!

Haley: Yeah.

Kira: Were you a person yesterday?

Haley: Yeah.

Kira: The day before that?

Haley: Yeah.

Kira: What about ten years ago?

Haley [looks at Kira funny]: Yes, Kira, I was a person.

Kira: Okay, what about nineteen years ago, the day you were born. Someone's a person the day that they're born, right? But the day before that, were they really any different? You're smart, Haley. We've studied biology together. The day before the baby is born, the only big difference is that its not breathing air, right?

Haley: Well, I suppose that I don't believe that abortions that occur the day before the birth should be legal, if that's what you're getting at.

Kira: Oh, I know. Because the baby could be born that day, couldn't it? Babies are born a day early all the time. The baby's development hadn't changed that much in one day, had it? And it's wrong to kill a baby, right?

Haley: Uh huh. But I really don't believe in really late pregnancy abortions.

Kira: So take the day before that. One day's difference. Or take the week before that. 7 days difference. Does the baby count as a baby then? Or do those days make it just a bunch of tissue?

Haley: I... I guess... maybe. But the fetus can't really think and feel like babies and other people can.

Kira: What about all those little nerve endings? That counts as feeling pain, right? And thinking-- well, when I was two, I wasn't very good at thinking and you said that Haley, at least, was a person when she was two. A fetus is just even worse at thinking. Is it still wrong to kill a two-year-old?

Haley: I... I guess I can see what you're saying. And then there are other people who aren't very good at thinking... mentally handicapped, I guess.

Kira: So would it be reasonable to believe that life begins at conception?