Reddit reviews Rethinking Life and Death

The question of vegan views on abortion has been posted here a few times. Maybe that will wind up in the sidebar at some point.

Searching for 'abortion' in r/vegan pulls up these links:

• http://www.reddit.com/r/vegan/comments/krluv/what_are_your_thoughts_on_abortion/
  
• http://www.reddit.com/r/vegan/comments/m2b1v/vegans_of_reddit_how_does_your_respect_for_animal/
  
• http://www.reddit.com/r/vegan/comments/hojr0/thoughts_on_abortion_rvegan/
  
• http://www.reddit.com/r/vegan/comments/ef6iz/ask_rvegan_how_do_you_feel_about_eggs_and_abortion/
  
• http://www.reddit.com/r/vegan/comments/c3tkh/how_should_vegans_approach_abortion/
  
  I am pro-choice. Here's a comment that sums up my views nicely.
  
  Edit: Formatting
  
  Edit: If the topic interests you significantly, you may find Peter Singer's Rethinking Life and Death: The Collapse of Our Traditional Ethics an interesting read, as I did.
  
  Edit: I neglected to answer your first question - yes, I would identify as liberal.

No, /u/Xenjael is saying that even though they are brain dead, "brain death" is not plain old death. Doctors themselves will often speak of these patients in such terms as "as good as dead" or "practically dead," which is really another way of saying they are alive.

The traditional criterion for when death has definitely occurred is when the whole body has begun to rot. Peter Singer provides a useful discussion in his book Rethinking Life and Death: The Collapse of Our Traditional Ethics of how the "brain death" definition was developed in the 60s in response to the demand of doctors for fresh, healthy organs.

The article is entirely reasonable - it's basically what Peter Singer outlined in rethinking life and death, which is a must read.

Since when we grant person-hood and rights is entirely arbitrary, we should arbitrarily agree on an age that the infant becomes a person with full rights - say a week after birth.

I have a suggestion.

[Rethinking Life & Death] (http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/0312144016) from Peter Singer . The first link takes you to amazon.com, where you can read some of the book to get a feel for whether you think it will be of interest. The second link takes you to the wikipedia entry on Singer.

This book does not focus on the death penalty, but does focus on other cases involving killing (euthanasia, abortion), and on the question of whether life really is sacred. I have my copy in hand (apparently I bought it in 1995, according to my habit of writing name and date on the inside cover). It really is a nice read.

Edit: Leafing through the book, I have just found this bombshell:

>But, in the case of infanticide, it is our culture that has something to learn from others, especially now that we, like them, are in a situation where we must limit family size...for reasons we have already discussed, in regarding a newborn infant as not having the same right to life as a person, the cultures that practiced infanticide were on solid ground. (p. 215)

So if you think that killing is wrong, then I am sure that you will think killing newborn infants is horrific. The fun thing is trying to find out why Singer thinks this, and where you think he goes wrong. If you do that, then you will be doing philosophy.