I think this is a really bad argument, if you kill something for the comfort or sense of pleasure it’s even worse javana citta. Your logic would apply in the sense that I have no problem killing anyone because somebody is bothering me and killing that person will make me feel go away isn’t it the worst kamma to make?
This thread has got me confused. Who said anything about pleasure? I was referring to unwanted pregnancies – accidental (like failed contraception) & forced (like rape), not the ones where you impregnant yourself due to negligence only to abort the fetus. It would be easy for someone to say something like, “Don’t have sex if you don’t want the risk.” But this is totally ignorant about the true nature of human existence. Even a sakadagami craves sex.
Christian wrote: “I understand there are extreme situations like “the child will be dead anyway so let’s save the mother” as the best choice in a given situation, but Dhamma perspective is different from than mundane perspective and logic that often falls in the big picture of the world.”
An unwanted pregnancy is already an extreme situation. Why should a woman be encouraged to carry what’s practically a parasite in her womb for 9 months straight and risk not only her own but also the fetus life while giving birth, if she doesn’t want to go through that BS in the first place? If your sister was raped, would you let her give birth against her consent? I do not care if it is a “vipaka”. We are all guilty of committing innumerable moral and immoral actions anyway.
Dr. Lal wrote: “If Taryal was referring to aborting a pregnancy, I agree with Christian. Aborting a pregnancy is taking a human life, as I pointed out in previous comments. It is done with intention.”
Yes, but would you say that the “intention” here is the same as murdering a human who is already living independent of the mother and poses no harm to her? I know that intention is contextual. For instance, a policeman killing a criminal does so with a different intention than the opposite. If a wild animal kills its parent, that would not be an anantarika kamma, would it? The mental state and thus “intention” of an animal is different and not as potent as that of a human, since there is no such thing as “absolute morality” (as I understand it). This is why I said: “So I remain unconvinced that their minds will release javana citta equivalent to the strength of “murdering” a human that is already living independent of their mother.”
