An embryo has no rights. Rights do not pertain to a potential, only to an actual being. A child cannot acquire any rights until it is born. The living take precedence over the not-yet-living (or the unborn). (The Ayn Rand Lexicon, "Abortion," first entry)
I don't think that Ryan could conceivably be any further from that position. Talk of his "distancing" himself from it sounds odd.
As to which properly counts as "individualism," I would argue for its being Rand's, and I suppose to you it's academic anyway, since I don't think you are an individualist; but I don't think it makes sense to call both of them "individualism." What they mean by "individual" is just too different; their positions are only verbally similar.
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Date: 2012-08-23 03:51 am (UTC)An embryo has no rights. Rights do not pertain to a potential, only to an actual being. A child cannot acquire any rights until it is born. The living take precedence over the not-yet-living (or the unborn). (The Ayn Rand Lexicon, "Abortion," first entry)
I don't think that Ryan could conceivably be any further from that position. Talk of his "distancing" himself from it sounds odd.
As to which properly counts as "individualism," I would argue for its being Rand's, and I suppose to you it's academic anyway, since I don't think you are an individualist; but I don't think it makes sense to call both of them "individualism." What they mean by "individual" is just too different; their positions are only verbally similar.