chenisthebestkitty:

zabulon-the-slender:

ladyofinsanity:

sanityscraps:

dobbaaa:

prettybeingme:

I have read a lot of pro choice arguments today and I have to say the “If abortion becomes illegal women will do it anyway but they will have unsafe back alley abortions and possible die from it” argument is the…

Lol prolife. Dumbass.

Amd yeah, unborn fetuses are hardly human, anyway.

In fact, human babies do not gain full sentience before during their first year after birth, according to an experiment of BBC exclusive (I think it was in the millenium children season if I’m not mistaken?).

Anyway, scientists wanted to find a test to see when a being is aware of being alive and being itself. They found this possibility: beings that could be considered fully sentient, especially humans, recognise themselves in a mirror. Beings who they considered at least partially sentient - consciously thinking and evaluating their surroundings - reacted at their reflection in the mirror. Beings they didn’t consider sentient - i.e. beings that gave jackshit about anything - did not react at their reflection at all.

Basically, most animals are on the middle level, with some exceptions (I think dolphins for example do recognise themselves). Humans, of course, recognise themselves in the mirror. Now the experiments with babies had the following results:

At first, the youngest babies didn’t react at the mirror at all. They just usually didn’t care.
When the test was repeated a few months later, they often reacted, but thought that the baby in the mirror was another person than themselves. When the scientists painted a big red dot on their forehead, they tried to touch the dot of the reflection.
Towards the end of and after their first year of living, when the test, including the dot, was repeated, the children would immediately conclude that the picture in the mirror was their reflection, because they apparently had gained enough conscience and sentience to know that they existed. Upon seeing their reflection, their first reaction would usually be to touch the dot on their own forehead.

Of course that does not answer wether sentience/conscience is learned or grows naturally. And of course, there would always be some children who developed more slowly or quickly than others. But still the evidence points very heavily towards fetuses not being any more sentient than a plant or cell.

Chen the Science Gal.

Reblogging again because Chen is master of words