> what other sentient entity is available for consultation?

Surely you don't mean what you imply there? Not being sentient or available for consultation don't justify harming a person. A mother absolutely has a moral responsibility not to cause lifelong harm to the sentient entity her baby will later become. You wouldn't say excess alcohol consumption during pregnancy is only up to the mother's decision about her own body when there are adults walking around with terrible lives because of fetal alcohol syndrome.

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kelnos 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

> You wouldn't say excess alcohol consumption during pregnancy is only up to the mother

That's absolutely the case, though, isn't it? I wasn't aware of any laws that bar pregnant women from buying or consuming alcohol. So it's totally up to them.

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ejstronge 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

>You wouldn't say excess alcohol consumption during pregnancy is only up to the mother's decision about her own body when there are adults walking around with terrible lives because of fetal alcohol syndrome.

I would - because the alternative means we are locking up current human beings to act as incubators for potential, future humans

	▲	foxglacier 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		Wow, that's a pretty extreme view. They're locking themselves up voluntarily and also locking their baby up. The baby is helpless but not the mother. If she didn't want to and somehow still recklessly got pregnant, she could always get an abortion which may be just a pill from the pharmacy once she missed a period, or more involved if slower. It's a deliberate choice to be responsible for somebody else's life.