The argument is not whether the fetus is a separate living organism or not, but consent. The concept of women having the right of consent is still very brand new in our society (and history itself). It has only been a very few years that the right of consent existed within marriage; until that time, men could rape their wives with impunity.

The fetus, as a potential separate being, has no right to trounce the woman's right to consent. You might argue it is right for her to consent, that it would be selfish for her not to consent or any other argument that you wish to express your opinion that she SHOULD consent, but it is the right of the woman to make that decision.

Any religious argument against abortion has to be rendered constitutionally invalid, because it denies the right to consent to the woman. When we are talking legalities of abortion, two issues stand out:

Who is to give consent for the woman's body to be used as a host for another?

To be considered a citizen in this country you must be natural born or go through the process of becoming a citizen. Since the fetus has done neither, it is not a citizen.

You might be personally abhorrent of abortion, but on a legal level, it must be kept available. And that is what all the arguments are about. A woman can always believe that it would be wrong for her to have an abortion but it should be left to her to decide.

The question is all wrong and is comparing apple to oranges. The question is can an atheist trust his wife? Somehow the debate is trying to show that disbelieving in a god makes it impossible to trust the wife. No trust in god means no trust in another. The first step towards trusting another being is trusting that the other being actually exists. A man can know his wife, talk to his wife, see how the wife acts to draw conclusions on whether she is trustworthy (although the question of virginity as the trust issue is rather bizarre).

To trust a god when there is no evidence of actual existence is not being trusting, it is being stupid. The god of the bible is shown to be very untrustworthy, blessing one minute, punishing the next minute.

The bottom line is an atheist can come to trust his wife because he sees the existence of his wife and draws conclusions from her behavior as to whether she is trustworthy. There is no basis for a christian to trust in a god he has no reason to believe exists and is shown in his own holy book to be untrustworthy.