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EVDebs Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 05:26 PM
Original message
Do sperm have rights ?
Do ovum have rights ? No, this is not John Stewart or comedycentral, although you have my permission to ask them for their opinion too.

So, what is it then ? Comment please.
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prolesunited Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 05:27 PM
Response to Original message
1. They are both
*POTENTAIL* human life forms, so I would have to go with yes.
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Q3JR4 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 05:33 PM
Response to Reply #1
8. So...
everytime a guy ejaculates into a paper towel, that person is killing millions of potential human creatures (creatures with some kind of rights)? That means that a million potential life forms are killed (possibly) each day by almost every man in the country.

May as well give us all the chair.

;)
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Old and In the Way Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 06:37 PM
Response to Reply #8
23. I'd say that's war crimes material right there.
Oh, the humanity......
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KitchenWitch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-19-05 12:10 AM
Response to Reply #8
44. "every sperm is sacred"
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fob Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 07:01 PM
Response to Reply #1
26. So I can claim 3 million dependents and do my part to defund this
maladministration then?
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prolesunited Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 07:33 PM
Response to Reply #26
30. I think it would be an excellent test case
BTW, I hope the sarcasm was evident in my first post.
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fob Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 11:32 PM
Response to Reply #30
40. Then you should have said, "I think it would be an excellent testes case"
:evilgrin:


And yes the sarcasm was evident.
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GarySeven Donating Member (898 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 05:29 PM
Response to Original message
2. Does that mean Penthouse can be prosecuted for murder conspiracy?
Just wondering.
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MadAsHellNewYorker Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 05:32 PM
Response to Reply #2
4. I guess that includes gay men?
Edited on Tue Jan-18-05 05:32 PM by MadAsHellNewYorker
and what about women who just have a period? wouldn't that be murder as well?
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texastoast Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 05:40 PM
Response to Reply #4
11. How dare they have a period?
Perfectly good uterine lining gone to waste.

It's a sin and they WILL burn in hell.
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Warren DeMontague Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 06:00 PM
Response to Reply #11
17. save the preconceived babies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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MadAsHellNewYorker Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-19-05 01:37 AM
Response to Reply #17
46. hahaha! n/t
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texastoast Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-19-05 01:12 PM
Response to Reply #17
50. LOL!!
Too funny!
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EVDebs Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 06:05 PM
Response to Reply #2
20. ROFLMAO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! n/t
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lastknowngood Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 05:30 PM
Response to Original message
3. Every sperm is sacred every sperm great
if a sperm is wasted God is so irate.
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jeff30997 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 05:35 PM
Response to Reply #3
10. LOL! I thought the same thing.
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nine23 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 05:32 PM
Response to Original message
5. According to Monty Python...
... every last one of them, every last one that ever existed...is sacred. Does that count?
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LittleClarkie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 05:32 PM
Response to Original message
6. Every sperm is sacred. Every sperm is great.
When ever one is wasted, God gets quite irate.
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EVDebs Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 06:18 PM
Response to Reply #6
22. "Sacred sperm" ? Isn't John Stewart going to be on the floor if
they get wind of this at comedycentral.com ?
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bunkerbuster1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 08:04 PM
Response to Reply #6
37. I really hated that film
and I hated that musical number.

And yet I find myself humming it whenever this question arises. go figure.
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LittleClarkie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 09:09 PM
Response to Reply #37
38. That and "Always look on the sunny side of life" from Life of Brian
It wasn't their best film. That would be "The Holy Grail" But I can still quote from it, from the wafer thin mint and "Fuck off, I'm full," to "It's the same with us dear. We do have two children."

Python sticks with you regardless, apparently.
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bunkerbuster1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-19-05 09:23 AM
Response to Reply #38
49. I almost don't want to see "Life of Brian"
Edited on Wed Jan-19-05 09:24 AM by bunkerbuster1
I enjoyed it so much when it was in theatrical release that I was let down when I watched it on tape maybe 10 years ago. I suspect the intervening 15 years haven't been all that kind.

You're right--Holy Grail will always be funny. 100 years from now, it'll still get laughs... probably because they'll STILL be making cheezy King Arthur movies in the 22nd century.
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politicaholic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 05:32 PM
Response to Original message
7. No. There is no legal precident set for the rights of sperm. But...
After the sperm has worked it's magic you DO have the right to pay child support for the next 18 years.
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Warpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 05:34 PM
Response to Original message
9. The homunculus theory, first written down by Aristotle but
common in ancient societies claimed that semen contained tiny, perfect, male human beings (seed) that only needed to be planted in the animated flowerpot known as woman to grow into full sized, perfect, male infants. If girls resulted, it was because either the woman was sick or maybe even practicing witchcraft.

This is the reason for the horrors against masturbation, gay sex, early abortion, and contraception. It meant those LITTLE MEN would get killed.

None of the ancients ever realized the woman contributed anything to the process beyond fertile soil and a container. Being men, they thought they were responsible for the whole business.

The church is still clinging to this paradigm under the burden of prior infallability. You'd think sensible people would have let it all go long ago.
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put out Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 06:10 PM
Response to Reply #9
21. Funny you mention that.
There also have been societies (see Margaret Mead?...dang I'm lazy) in which it became apparent to members of the tribe that intercourse had nothing to do with pregnancy. See, some women became pregnant even while their men were away hunting. ;-)
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jeff30997 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 05:40 PM
Response to Original message
12. Each time you scratch yourself you kill hundreds of cells...
All those cells are potential clones.Now in the name of the lord I forbid you to scratch yourself ever again !
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texastoast Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 05:46 PM
Response to Original message
13. This is an old argument
Addressed brilliantly many years ago by Erica Jong during the Roe v. Wade days.

Sigh. How little progress we have made.

The partial-birth abortion ban strips away this right and returns us to the antique notion of woman as womb. If a woman is defined basically as her reproductive organs, her right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is secondary to the rights of her foetus. It is this principle that the partial birth abortion ban seeks to establish. If it is ever entrenched as law, every ovum and sperm cell will eventually be defined as "pre-born". The result will be a ban on contraception and male masturbation as well as abortion.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/01/21/1074360833286.html?oneclick=true
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MadAsHellNewYorker Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 05:49 PM
Response to Reply #13
14. Pre-born!
thats a great idea. How about we start arresting people for the 1000's of sperm that die on the way to fertilize the egg? thats thousands of other lives that didn't get a chance to make it....i hear genocide
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sarcasmo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 09:47 PM
Response to Reply #13
39. I guess all males will be jailed.
You are now jailed for ten years for killing your sperm. T
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NotNInch Donating Member (60 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 11:49 PM
Response to Reply #13
41. But will I be able to say to him . . .
Edited on Tue Jan-18-05 11:50 PM by NotNInch
"fa-gid-a-bowd-it, I don't want to, I don't have to, and I ain't goin to"?

Can I please have that last bit of power over my body? or is that where he drags me by the hair into the cave while his buddys cheer?
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cosmicaug Donating Member (676 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 05:58 PM
Response to Original message
15. Your question is based on diploidist assumptions.
There is an anti-haploid prejudice inherent in the way you frame the question. In fact, people are only nature's way of making more sperm.


¡¡¡Viva la revolución haploide!!!!
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atommom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 06:00 PM
Response to Reply #15
16. LOL!
:thumbsup:
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Nikia Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 06:00 PM
Response to Original message
18. Sex cells are less human than other cells
They only have half the chromosomes of other human cells. They are not complete until they are joined with the opposite sex cell.
Sperm are not obviously went to all survive by anyones imagination. Millions of sperm are ejaculated. In a successful fertilization, only one (aside from some instances of multiple eggs) sperm fertilizes the egg. The rest die. Even if everytime a particular man ejaculated, he fertilized an egg, this fact remains.
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noamnety Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 06:01 PM
Response to Original message
19. Until I hit menopause
I'm using the carpool lane. Eggs are people too!

Sperms have the legal right to embed themselves into an egg to become a life. Sometimes this conflicts with another person's rights, as in the case of rape, but at the end of the day the sperm's right to life trumps a woman's right to not get raped; it's a sacrifice she is expected to make for the good of society.

embed? Maybe infiltrate is a better word. Like little special forces. Any women who are hurt by the sperm's actions are collateral damage.

:)
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0007 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 06:59 PM
Response to Reply #19
25. Absolutely, and all young men should swallow their sperm
after masturbating.
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Withywindle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 06:43 PM
Response to Original message
24. That does it....
From now on, I'm calling clergy to officiate every time I toss out some fingernail clippings. There should be great mourning every time a barber shop worker sweeps the floor!

Those are HUMAN CELLS! RESPECT LIFE!


I won't even begin to go into our shameful treatment of boogers.
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Anakin Skywalker Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 07:11 PM
Response to Reply #24
27. I Flick My
boogers. How about you? :)
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ElsewheresDaughter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 07:18 PM
Response to Original message
28. Biblical: Onan a man who spilled his seed (sperm) on the ground,
Edited on Tue Jan-18-05 07:26 PM by ElsewheresDaughter
and was struck dead by God...This story can be found in the Bible in Genesis 38 and 49, Matthew 1 and Luke 3.

The Story of Tamar

This story is important in many ways. It establishes the genealogy of the Jewish race, because it is fair to say that all of the Jews today are descended from Pharez and Zarah, the two bastard twin sons of Tamar. (The only other surviving son of Judah was Shelah, about whom nothing more is said in the Bible.)

Onan, the second husband of Tamar, has provided us with a word in our language. That word is Onanism. It means withdrawal during sex.

Onan was struck dead by God because he practiced birth control. Onan pulled out because he did not want Tamar to become pregnant. Because he did that, God killed Onan. When the Pope says that birth control is prohibited by God, he is referring to the story of Tamar and Onan.




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EVDebs Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 07:30 PM
Response to Reply #28
29. Begging the question, did Jesus have nocturnal emissions ?
Sorry to offend anyone here, but with Jesus the new law comes into effect and the old ways of corfu and corban become irrelevent. That's why they call it Old Testament and New Testament.

The whole dustup over Dan Brown's novel and all attest to Christ's humanity AND divinity.

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ElsewheresDaughter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 07:39 PM
Response to Reply #29
31. absolutely! New Covenant wipes out the Old Covenant.read 2 Corinthians 3
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EVDebs Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 07:56 PM
Response to Reply #31
35. yes, love that verse 17 especially on Liberty ! n/t
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cosmicaug Donating Member (676 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 07:42 PM
Response to Reply #28
33. Here's the remake using Legos.
ElsewheresDaughter wrote:
Biblical: Onan a man who spilled his seed (sperm) on the ground, and was struck dead by God...This story can be found in the Bible in Genesis 38 and 49, Matthew 1 and Luke 3.

The Story of Tamar

This story is important in many ways. It establishes the genealogy of the Jewish race, because it is fair to say that all of the Jews today are descended from Pharez and Zarah, the two bastard twin sons of Tamar. (The only other surviving son of Judah was Shelah, about whom nothing more is said in the Bible.)

Onan, the second husband of Tamar, has provided us with a word in our language. That word is Onanism. It means withdrawal during sex.

Onan was struck dead by God because he practiced birth control. Onan pulled out because he did not want Tamar to become pregnant. Because he did that, God killed Onan. When the Pope says that birth control is prohibited by God, he is referring to the story of Tamar and Onan.

The Lego version of this story can be found at http://www.thebricktestament.com//genesis/er_and_onan/gn38_01.html
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ElsewheresDaughter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 08:02 PM
Response to Reply #33
36. omg that is a really funny site...thanks so much for the link!
Edited on Tue Jan-18-05 08:04 PM by ElsewheresDaughter
what a scary, murdering and crappy god....why would anyone fight to want to claim him is beyond me!
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Anakin Skywalker Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 07:54 PM
Response to Reply #28
34. Sorry I had to Laugh.
Edited on Tue Jan-18-05 07:56 PM by Anakin Skywalker
Sperm is produced daily in a man. You can waste it several times a day and still have more. Fundies are a little obsessed with reproduction, it seems. Probably they figured that's how they keep the membership numbers since their beliefs aren't winning much converts from other *ahem* tribes.
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buddysmellgood Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-19-05 12:25 AM
Response to Reply #28
45. The problem God had was with the sperm hitting the ground. It was the
spilling. Had anything else been done with it, God would have been okay with it.
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Mountainman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 07:42 PM
Response to Original message
32. By themselves sperm are just cells
Without an egg to fertilize a sperm dies no matter what. you can't do anything about it.
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robbedvoter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Jan-18-05 11:56 PM
Response to Original message
42. Sperms rights are bigger than ovum's. just cuz.
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Greybnk48 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-19-05 12:08 AM
Response to Original message
43. I have a question about the potential argument
The idea that an ova, sperm or fertilized egg has rights because it is POTENTIALLY a live person and therefore should be treated as such.
Clearly the potential of each of these varies in that an ova has a better chance than a sperm and a fertilized egg has a better chance, or higher potential, than the other two. But none of the three have a 100% chance, or potential, of becoming an actual human--yet we should treat them as such?

Following this logic, we're ALL 100% potentially DEAD. Should we treat each other as dead people with no rights? (Sarcasm) The potential argument is bogus as you can see.

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Withywindle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-19-05 04:36 AM
Response to Reply #43
48. Ha! Excellent point.
And we actually all are 100% "undead corpses" in the same sense that zygotes are "unborn babies" -- but the future is rather more certain in the former case, isn't it?


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Greybnk48 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-19-05 07:25 PM
Response to Reply #48
53. This argument
is the intellectual property of John Harris (1985). I don't remember where it was first published.
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autorank Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-19-05 01:44 AM
Response to Original message
47. Does the right hand know what the left is doing? A parable.
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EVDebs Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-19-05 06:44 PM
Response to Reply #47
51. Which is why the "Moring After Pill" or Plan B makes moot the
whole abortion issue, in my humble opinion.
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Up2Late Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jan-19-05 07:15 PM
Response to Original message
52. I saw somewhere that a Wacko Freeper wanted a Law...
Edited on Wed Jan-19-05 07:24 PM by Up2Late
that made women that "kill" eggs, though Menstruation, murders.

I can't remember where I saw it, but it was just the other day. I think it was when I got curious about the "American Spectator" website. :crazy:

Warning: If you go to the American Spectator site, turn your Ad Blocker and Spy Ware Blockers to FULL. It's kind of fun too, Those people are SOOOOOOOO wacky, and the web site is almost all empty pages, without all the flashing ads and PIT'CHERS:dunce:
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