I started thinking about this book, and the idea of Auias(sp) after I read one of your essays/articles which touched upon abortion.
It seems as if the idea of the Auia, and its attachment to one upon creation, could be seen as an analogy for the soul as you talked about in the book. I was thinking that this idea of this "auia" could be seen as a reason that abortion is indeed the killing of a "person" rather than just a collection of cells without an indentity, because it could be viewed as showwing that life begins at the moment of conception. Actually never mind the above part, because the novel never does really explain when the Auia enters a child.
I guess, the real question I am wondering about is, when do you think life truly begins for a human? I believe as a science fiction author you must have an interesting, well thought out opinion on this topic. I don't know if this has been asked before, although I wouldn't be suprised if it has.
Also, what is your opinion on the morality of birth control pills? Considering they don't neccesarily prevent eggs from being fertalized, and can infact cause fertalized eggs to be aborted in the same manner as abortion, just automatically.
If you do not feel like answering this on the message board, and e-mail would be fantastic too. I just happened to be thinking about this, and the idea of life in general a lot recently. My e-mail is asicsnow@gmail.com, and as for anyone else who would like to share thier opinion, but not neccesarily place it on the boards, feel free to e-mail me as well.
Posted by Mario S Queiroz (Member # 8823) on :
I do believe that human life is beyond human body, like the Aiúas that exist before they get entwined into the human body, and will exist long after. Each encarnation of the Aiúa is what we call an existence, a brief period of time where we can "live" with a glimpse of the memories of our past encarnations.
Each encarnation is an evolution of the past ones, when we may correct past mistakes, commit new mistakes and more important commit old and new good deeds.
Thus, abortion is one of these mistakes we might commit by knowledge or not, as any other mistake we commit during our brief lifetime.
Although, as anything else, there's grades for the level of mistakes we commit. So as for birth control, the ones that do not allow conception is far better than any other.
As the process of connecting an Aiúa to a body is a complex process and it takes sometime to be completed, the contraceptives that kills an recently fertilized egg is graded differently of abortion a 3-4 month baby.
The moral and ethical questions in general have much more shades than we can even imagine.
Posted by Orson Scott Card (Member # 209) on :
But keep in mind that I don't actually believe that the soul takes possession of the body at the time of conception. I don't think abortion is the exact equivalent of murder. And there are circumstances, in my opinion, where abortion is justified or even essential. But I recognize that good people can disagree with me in both directions.
Posted by TheHumanTarget (Member # 7129) on :
quote: But I recognize that good people can disagree with me in both directions.
I wish more people could take a similar stance of respectful disagreement.
Posted by Julian Delphiki 2 (Member # 8864) on :
heres a question, what happens to the aiua when the abortion occurs? does it go back into limbo or does it get destroyed as well as the fetus?
Posted by neo-dragon (Member # 7168) on :
If dying after you're born doesn't destroy your aiua I don't see why dying before your born should. Assuming that a fetus has an aiua, after that fetus is aborted, there's no reason why the aiua wouldn't just go back "outside" as they always do when the physical form which they inhabit becomes uninhabitable. In fact, you could even speculate that perhaps with such a newly formed (or rather, still forming) body, the aiua wouldn't have a very strong connection to it yet anyway.
Posted by mojammer (Member # 4416) on :
quote:Originally posted by TheHumanTarget:
quote: But I recognize that good people can disagree with me in both directions.
I wish more people could take a similar stance of respectful disagreement.
I agree, but where does that leave us socially? When people disagree who's opinion takes precedence as far as making laws go? If it's simply those in office then it will constantly be changing. This is my dilemma, I have my opinion on what is and isn't moral, but I'm not at all sure of what can or should be enforced legally. Any thoughts?