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Recently, on the Catholic Network channel, I saw a spot where a priest talks about how sea turtle eggs are protected by the government, but human fertilized eggs are not. I do not consider that comparison valid. While I understand that Catholics consider abortion to be a serious sin, I believe they shall use fallacious argumentation to make their point.

Humans are not like sea turtles at all. For starters, we are not endangered creatures. Humanity will not become extinct just because some woman decide to abort.

Second, sea turtle eggs are protected from being destoyed by another species (i.e. humans). If a sea turtle herself destroyed one of her eggs, you wouldn't punish her, would you?

Third, and most important, a sea turtle does not become pregnant. Her body does not change while the egg is developing. I am sure that, if women could reproduce by laying eggs, there wouldn't be any abortion debate.

Turtles aren't humans. They don't have the capacity for thought that we do. They can live longer, smell funnier, and have those neat little shells fused to their ribs, but they don't have human intelligence and human value among humans. They don't get labor laws and jobs with turtle briefcases and suits. They aren't sent to school to learn to do physics and read/write literature. An adult turtle is worth less, human-value wise, than a human is. If it's, save the human or save the sea turtle, I'm saving the human. I know not everyone would, but you get in more trouble for killing an adult human than you do for an adult sea turtle.

So why is it that an adult human has more legal rights than an adult sea turtle, yet at a different stage of life, they have the roles reversed? It doesn't make sense to me that at this point, one is worth more, but after this next point, the other one is. I think that's the point he was making. Why is human life worth less than turtle life?

At an embryonic stage, yes, turtle life is legally more protected than human life is. No human is allowed by law to kill a turtle in its egg. There are humans who can kill a human its mother's womb, legally.

Whatever our ecological value is, our moral value as humans is higher than that of a turtle, to most people. There are more humans than turtles. There are more turtles than dinosaurs. There are more eagles than dodo birds. Extinction is a natural part of earth, it can have devestating impacts though. It is in our best interests to protect turtles. It is also in our best interests to protect humans. Not because of the quantity, but because of who they are.

Yes, but it's also legal for any other thing in nature besides humans to kill a turtle egg. Only humans are prohibited. It is legal to kill a human, as you said a human is not a sea turtle, that's a human fetus, it isn't a viable human being though. All the other turtles can kill that turtle's egg, and wouldn't be arrested. That'd be hilarious, sorry, just imagined it. Anyway....

It is keeping all humans from killing a turtle in its egg. Abortion law keeps all but one human from killing a human in the womb, the mother of the fetus. Turtle fetuses are protected from all humans under that legal system. Human fetuses are protected from all but one human under that legal system....meaning one human has the right to decide the life or death of that fetus. No human may legally decide that for a turtle fetus.

That does not change the fact that a turtle fetus is more protected by law than a human fetus is. Yes, there is a reason behind it, but it still has more protection.

You said that a priest talks how the government protects the endangered animals better than human embryos. You admit that they do. Legally, a turtle fetus is worth more than a human fetus just based on the fact that it's protected more. If they were worth the same, than the human fetus would be given equal protection.

You say it makes sense that they get in more trouble. Is it because they are worth more since there are less of them?

Well, perhaps someone else could answer the question you did ask.

Personally, when I say I support abortion being legal, it is because I am against the legal punishment of women who abort and the doctors who asist them. It is not because I believe that abortion is the greatest choice ever, but because I believe that it should be an available choice.

What makes sense to me is that, just as a turtle would not punished for killing its own egg, we should not punish women who abort, either.

Do punish, however, those humans who destroy turtle eggs and those who harm the fetus in another woman, without her consent.

So you agree with me that there is much difference between a human and a sea turtle?

I believe that the fact that sea turtle eggs are protected has no place in an abortion debate, because a sea turtle who has just laid her egg is in no way comparable to a pregnant woman.

So a sea turtle egg is legally more protected than a human fetus. That is true, and interesting, but irrelevant. It is a poor comparison.