I read an interesting "pro-choice" question

[Della]

Turns out we cant even agree on 9 months. Most babies are born at 40 weeks which is not 9 months and some are born even earlier.

4 out of 5 of our kids my wife was charting so we know the exact date of conception but most people don’t. It was just, Well, you were born 40 weeks from feb 14th soooooo…

By the way. Ever do that? Ever pick your own birthday and go back and see what was going on ten months prior? Ewwe.

Even more of an Ewwe factor. My son and I have the exact same birthday 40 years apart… So I guess history repeats itself.

This feeling was especially predominant when my mom was a young married lady. In her day sex was never mentioned in polite society. Many women never went outside their homes if pregnant because it was proof you’d had relations with your husband, and even though sanctioned by law and religion was still considered a necessary evil. This was long before the sexual revolution, of course. Now we’ve swung the pendulum too far the other way–nothing is sacred or private, leading people to question the most basic principles of life and death. Life is no longer celebrated unless it’s living as long as possible while staying as young as possible for as long as possible, creating generations that want to stay teenagers forever. It’s no wonder our values have become so skewed.

 

[clem456]

Because we can’t see conception. We don’t know precisely when it happens. Birth is a visible event.

The most sacred aspects of our humanity are frequently hidden.

 

[Bruised_Reed]

When I was younger I might’ve happily tacked on an extra 9 months to my age. Now I’d like to subtract 9 (or more) months from my age. And, yeah, spare me from trying to figure out the exact day that I was conceived. Ew. The story is that I was born 2 weeks after my due date…or was I? I think my mom was using the rhythm method to conceive so she probably knew. There are lots of things I’d like to ask my mom but that is not one of them. :nope: One more “ew” for the road.

 

[DrTaffy]

Basically the question is that if life starts at conception, why don’t we tack on 9 months to our age? Whereas instead of being born at 0 months old, you’d be born at whatever amount of months you were in the womb for…

Because it would be too obvious if you celebrated your 40th ‘conception day’ before your parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary?

 

[Joe_5859]

I’ve thought about this too. That, really, you are already nine months old at birth. That’s why, for longer than lately, birthdays are no longer special for me. I mean, they are, but I know I’ve already been the age I’m supposedly “turning” on that day for the past nine months. Literally, it is true. Also, what has always kind of annoyed me is the way they still refer to babies’ ages as in the months old once they have passed a year. Twelve months, you might as well say a year old. I really don’t get this twenty months, and so on. It makes the baby sound younger than they actually are. I’ve never understood this, actually.

It’s mainly for development benchmarks. Babies are growing and developing at such a swift rate for the first two years. There’s a big difference between 12 months and 20 months. But both would be considered “1 year old”.

 

[Catholic80]

I would venture to guess that a good majority of women cannot p(name removed by moderator)oint the exact day they conceived their child. Furthermore, even if she could remember the day she had relations, that doesn’t mean it was the same day she conceived (sperm can live up to 5 days), and if she hadn’t ovulated yet on the day of having relations, then the child would have been conceived days later.

Pregnancy isn’t an exact 40 weeks for every woman. Some children are born premature, some late, some women don’t know for months that they have conceived, some children have developmental problems and it’s hard to p(name removed by moderator)oint gestational age… etc. You get my drift.

So, it would be pretty close to impossible to celebrate a Conception day. However, it IS easy to know when a person is born, hence, the tradition of Birthdays. It’s a day the parents get to “meet” their child for the first time, and the first time the child encounters the world, so it’s also a day to celebrate.

As Catholics, however, we do celebrate conception. The feast of the Immaculate Conception (Mary’s conception on Dec. 8) is a Solemnity and Holy Day of Obligation, while Mary’s birthday (Spet. 8) is “only” a feast.
Jesus’ conception (the Annunciation) is also a Solemnity (although not a HD of O) and His Birthday is both a Solemnity and HD of O.

 

[e_c]

But don’t they generally say 1 year?

Yes, sure. But the point still stands that it is ironic that they are acknowledging the humanity of a person prior to birth and yet are (one of?) the largest practitioners of abortion in the world.

Maybe the most effective way to respond to an objection using this kind of question is, “What was being born?” That could start a conversation about how we don’t become humans by having our umbilical cords cut but have been humans the whole time. I dunno.