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It’s easy to get caught up in the passionate arguments of either side on the abortion debate, which may be why it sits like a giant wedge between so many people on Main Street, in the media and in government. As I began to write this posting even I felt the need to pick sides with an (attempted) witty remark about how the anti-abortionists have framed pro-choice as meaning “pro-death”–but such remarks add nothing to the debate and only drive the discussion off course over issues of semantics.

So instead, I spent some quiet time pondering possible ways that people could move past the semantics and even past their own passionate positions, to find some common ground from which a majority could agree to stand.

It’s hard, and that’s an obvious understatement, because ultimately the debate boils down to the question of ‘when does human life begin’ for most people. And since science has yet to be able to provide a definitive answer to that question, we’re all left on our own to pick a point we believe life begins at.

So science–or the lack of it–seems to be the real problem in this issue. If scientists and doctors could overwhelmingly agree upon a point where human life has begun, then perhaps the discussion over abortion could be more constructive and rationally debated on both sides, rather than full of passionate shouting of positions based on personal points of view.

I’m not suggesting that sceince could solve the debate, but it could help frame and shape it into a productive conversation over the unproductive wedge issue it currently is.

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