cbostrum (01/31/83)
The argument mentioned by T.A.Rock earlier is known as the "slippery slope" argument, and is clearly fallacious, for using it one can prove, for example, that black is white. Abortionsts use it by noting that a newborn child is a person, and concluding by sliding down this slope that a newly fertilsed ovum is a person. Can you imagine that, someone in this newsgroup earlier referred to a **fertilised ovum** as a child! Can you imagine that, a child! What next? Another fallacious argument used by anti-abortionists is the argument from potential. They say that since a foetus is a potential person, it therefore has the rights of a person. When stated without fancy equivocation it is clear that this too is fallacious. Being a potential X clearly does not give you the rights of an X.