[Qualm]

naw. The only reason people feel pain is because of their brain, there are people with neurological malfunctions that cause them to not even feel pain, so you could shoot/stab them and they won’t even notice. That poses the question “is it still unethical to hurt them?” And I say ‘yes’ because there’s still the effect of the wound and the effect of possibly dying, and regardless of whether they feel pain, they may still want to have their life, they will still deal with all the physical ramifications of being hurt. Why do they want life? Because their brain tells them to. Why do they deal with those ramifications? Because their brain processes their existence and distresss associated with them.It’s a biological imperative that developed through thousands of years of evolution where people fear death and want life. Which makes sense, because any species that didn’t would’ve already died out.

But to ultimately understand that the only reason humans desire life/fear death is because neurologically they’re preconditioned to is the key. A baby that hasn’t formed a brain or who isn’t cognizant of their existence can’t desire life or fear death, they’re nothing but an inanimate object.

Saying life begins at conception is stupid af. Life only begins when a baby can neurologically process it, which means that a baby being forced into an impoverished home that can’t sustain a baby becomes unethical the moment it’s born. It’s essentially saying “we’re going to destroy this inanimate object” vs. “we’re going to force this cognizant human being to live their entire life in a home where they’re not wanted”. Option B is unequivocally the unethical one

But the more important issue brings us back to the trolley problem. The world is overpopulated, and we can disagree on the timespan but you’re ignorant if you don’t acknowledge that the expansion of humans threatens the entire human race, and anyone who condones families having 4+ children are choosing to kill the 5 over the 1.

Now sure, there are more elegant ways to implement birth control but nobody on the religious side of that fence are proposing those ideals