Reply #96: There is, in fact, a compromise.

[Mugsy]

I wish more people would take on my position on this.

(I preface this by noting that I am pro-choice but anti-abortion as a means of "birth control")

If you consider that there are in fact THREE stages of fetal "viability", then it solves A LOT of problems: "fertilization, attachment and growth"

That second stage is the one most forget. Until the fertilized egg actually attaches itself to the uterine wall and receives its blood supply, it can not become viable.

God, if you believe in such, already has no problem with disposing of fertilized eggs. It happens all the time. Any woman that has ever had unprotected sex prior to her period, has evacuated fertilized eggs from her system. It is completely natural, and "rhythm method" sex has been promoted by many religious for centuries as a way to "fulfill marital obligations without conceiving additional children".

So if you include the stage of "attachment", and argue that simply being "fertilized" isn't viable even in the eyes of God until the egg actually attaches itself to the wall of the woman's uterus, thus receiving the blood supply for food/oxygen, then it can never grow to become anything more than just a fertilized egg set in motion by a chemical reaction. Eventually, without "attachment", that reaction will cease on its own and flushed from the womans system... a system designed by God.

(PS: I know this doesn't resolve every problem, and may even create others, but it gets you closer than any other... most importantly, making "stem cell research" religiously permissible.)