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Emergency contraception
Jul. 22nd, 2006 11:58 amMeant to link to this ages back, never got around to it: How Does Emergency Contraception Work?
The article goes into more detail, but I'll summarise and embellish:
When does human life begin, and what does this mean for family planning? If you believe that it starts at 'first breath', you're going to come to some different conclusions from the person who believes that it begins when the heart starts beating, or when an embryo implants, or when the egg is fertilised. Or, for that matter, the person who believes it's wrong to even attempt to prevent pregnancy when having sex.*
I'm not going to argue that issue just now. Instead, I'm going to take it for granted that most of you already have some sort of position on that, and run with what you do believe. (In particular, most of what follows is chiefly relevant to those who put it at somewhere around 'egg is fertilised' or 'embryo implants'.)
Because, as hard a question as 'when does life begin?' might be, it's only half of the equation.** The other half is 'when do family planning methods act?' This is in some ways a much easier question that can be answered by scientific means, but it's still complicated enough that there's a lot of confusion and misinformation doing the rounds.
( How does emergency contraception work? )
*FWIW, my own stance is a rather involved 'none of the above, because I reject the entire premise of this question', but let's save that for some other day.
**Actually, it's really an inequation, but that also is for another day.
The article goes into more detail, but I'll summarise and embellish:
When does human life begin, and what does this mean for family planning? If you believe that it starts at 'first breath', you're going to come to some different conclusions from the person who believes that it begins when the heart starts beating, or when an embryo implants, or when the egg is fertilised. Or, for that matter, the person who believes it's wrong to even attempt to prevent pregnancy when having sex.*
I'm not going to argue that issue just now. Instead, I'm going to take it for granted that most of you already have some sort of position on that, and run with what you do believe. (In particular, most of what follows is chiefly relevant to those who put it at somewhere around 'egg is fertilised' or 'embryo implants'.)
Because, as hard a question as 'when does life begin?' might be, it's only half of the equation.** The other half is 'when do family planning methods act?' This is in some ways a much easier question that can be answered by scientific means, but it's still complicated enough that there's a lot of confusion and misinformation doing the rounds.
( How does emergency contraception work? )
*FWIW, my own stance is a rather involved 'none of the above, because I reject the entire premise of this question', but let's save that for some other day.
**Actually, it's really an inequation, but that also is for another day.
