gadgetlady

Yup. I was slipped with severe scarring. I converted to gastric bypass and lost 90 lbs in a year. I'm basically at goal. Years and $ wasted with the band, and virtually instant success and a much better lifestyle with the bypass.

I think I need to unsubscribe from this thread! I had my band removed 1.5 years ago. Only lost 25 lbs in 3.5 years with the darn thing, and then it slipped. Converted to bypass and I'm down over 90 lbs and loving it. The band was a waste of time and money for me.

Sorry -- meant to say SOME -- that's what I get for posting and running, which is what I'm also doing now. Bye!

No, that's not my argument at all. I fully understand that some women are raped. Lots of things happen to us in life that are not our will and leave us without a choice. "Once a woman develops breast cancer, she is either a cancer victim or a cancer survivor; she has no other choice" -- that statement doesn't require her consent to the cancer. My point is that once a baby is conceived, there is no reversing the fact that the baby exists. The parents are parents, regardless of whether they want to be or not. If they opt for the fate of their child to be death, then they are parents of a dead child. They can't reverse the fact that they are parents. Every pregnant woman already has a baby. Some babies die in utero. All babies die at a young age. All people die eventually. That doesn't negate the fact that they were ever alive! We don't -- or shouldn't -- determine whether someone lives or dies based on what we believe their destiny might be. That being said, I don't only focus and sympathize with the baby, even though he or she is 100% defenseless and a victim; I am also fully sympathetic with the mother. I recognize her plight and believe in supporting her emotionally, physically, and financially. Women deserve better than being told they can, should, or must kill their babies to lead full lives. Causing others' deaths never advances our lives in any meaningful or positive way.

Yes, if it is a spontaneous abortion (miscarriage), it is natural, just like a natural death. You know as well as I that that has nothing to do with the discussion we're having here. That's what laws are for. Protecting the defenseless. I would much rather people not kill people for any reason. I don't think adoption is the answer for everyone. I just know taking the life of another human being to solve a problem is not ever a good answer.

Uh, yes, there is a familial connection and the children are the children of their parents. But that doesn't indicate ownership. My husband is my husband, he belongs to me, but I don't have the right to kill him. The choice of the would-be parents comes before the pregnancy. Once the mother is pregnant, they have become parents whether they like it or not. It is no longer a choice. The only choice at that point is a live baby or a dead baby. LOL. There is nothing "natural" about elective abortion. It is its own intervention, a violent surgical procedure that ends a life that would otherwise naturally eventually become an adult.

It's unfortunate because many people wish that a mother's body were not inconvenienced for 9 months. I don't find it unfortunate -- I find it incredible -- but it's one of the facts of life that is unfortunate for those who don't want to be pregnant. There is no such thing as a perfect world. But we shouldn't kill people when we find circumstances to not be what we'd like them to be. Absolutely right. Mothers should not be making death decisions for other people -- in this case, their offspring.

What you're delusional about is my potential participation in such a thing. Whatever.

Unfortunately, our reproductive system dictates that the place a new baby gets to grow is within a mother's womb. I know a lot of people think that's not fair or it's oppressive or whatever, but it is what it is. Just because the baby is growing in the mother's womb doesn't make it not a baby and it doesn't make it something we can own and kill at will.

A fetus is most definitely a person. It is a very young person, but "fetus" is not a term that defines something other than a human being in the very early stage of pre-born life. Why is this so difficult for you to understand? I have no concern over whether people have sex or what they do for birth control or whether they want to sterilize themselves or anything else along those lines. My concern is, once a human being is in existence, that we protect that human being from being killed by other human beings. So I am wholly opposed to killing children based on gender, as well as killing them based on pretty much any other reason you can come up with.

That says it all. We can't own other people. When we do, we get to do such things as kill, enslave, and oppress them. It fosters the very worst part of human nature to believe and treat others as objects and possessions. Yes and no. If you abuse or try to kill your child at any point during his or her post-uterine life, the government will intervene, and rightfully so, to protect the basic rights of that child. It is only right to extend those basic rights to the beginning of life. Delusional much?