Slavery still exists in America.

[El Barto]

I haven't decided yet, I would appreciate your comments on the strengths and weaknesses of the following thinking:

When someone has the right to decide whether you live or die, and they can do so when you are a perfectly normal human being, solely at their own discretion, don't they in essense own you. In the same way perhaps as you own a dog. You are innocent, you are healthy, but if I want I can kill you without being considered a murderer. This is slavery, yes?

Lets say you are walking down the street and you see a auto accident. The only person involved is ejected from the car and lands face down in a ditch filled with water. He is going to drown. Do you have a responsibility to remove his head from the water so he can breath?

If we did not lift a finger to help a six month old baby to survive, he would certainly die of neglect. And you would go to jail. But if you are a mother, you can decree that your unborn baby will not have permission to live any more. The unborn baby is her slave.

Lets face it, an unborn baby is human (check the DNA), has a future as a self-reliant individual (unlike a brain-dead coma patient), and is innocent of any crime. Yet that baby can be killed at the whim of their "owner", while we will preserve the life of the coma patient (who has no future), and the criminal, and cherish the life of the six month old. Does this make sense?

Yes, bearing a baby is a burden, and requires a sacrifice, but so does dragging the fellow out of the ditch, or laboring to preserve the life of the coma patient, or keeping the six month old child alive.

The unborn baby (if not a slave) is certainly a second class citizen here. He has less legal right to live than the criminal, the coma patient, his slightly older sibling, and even the complete stranger involved in an accident.

What gives?