Dancing on a slippery slope

I was on the road today so you get a quick post.

Mrs ERJ was telling me of a discussion she had with one of her friends regarding right-to-life vs. right-to-chose (abortion).

Mrs ERJ's friend said that she wished she knew when the soul entered the developing fetus. In her mind, that is when the fetus changes from a lump of flesh to a human. Before the soul enters the fetus, an abortion is as moral-neutral as removing a skin-tag.

This argument is seductive and it is also fraught with a high degree of slippery-slope risk.

For example:

• What if a gifted orator makes a compelling case that children less than four-years old have no soul?
• What if somebody who hates people who sunburn easily makes a compelling case that red-heads have no soul?
• Or cat lovers?
• Or people who ever scored less than 80 on an IQ test? 
• Or people who ever scored above 120 on an IQ test?
• Or people who listen to rap music?
• Or listen to Vivaldi?
• Or people who blog?
• Or people who go to certain news sources?

Ultimately, the "no soul" criteria metastasizes into the guilt-free killing of anybody who is different enough from me---along any axis---that I can deny any empathy-bonds with that fellow human.