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Comment by samplatt | Hacker News Reader

It's not just amusing (and for some, uncomfortable) terminology. Pregnancy stimulates the mother's immune system in ways normally associated with fighting a parasite, and the fetus defends itself using techniques that successful parasites use.

"Embryo implantation sets off a process that ultimately turns off a key pathway required for the immune system to attack foreign bodies. As a result, immune cells are never recruited to the site of implantation and therefore cannot harm the developing fetus."

...

"it gives a satisfying explanation for why the fetus isn't rejected during pregnancy, which is a fundamental question for the medical community" - https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120607142244.h...

Have a google around for similar papers. It's a fascinating topic that we've only begun to fully understand in the last decade or so.

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I get it, based on a variety of medical phenomena, you can draw parallels between an unborn baby and a parasite. If thats your point, then fine, fair enough.

If you seek to use this analysis to push a political agenda, then I am having trouble differentiating the morality between that and slave owners pointing to the shape of skulls based on race. Your explanation is an analogy, parasites dont grow up to eventually provide care for the host, it doesnt sound scientificially accurate to call a baby a parasite based on some of the characteristics. Further, calling a baby a parasite, or anyone for that matter, is an attempt to dehumanize them; dehumanization has been followed by violence in a number of horrific tragedies, but the violence is committed by people who find it justified, because whoever they are killing aren't really people.

you took the bate and missed the joke mon ami, and are now launching into unrelated screeds about slavery. you're not making things better.

you might be right, you should collect more data points, try this class of jokes out on more people and see how funny they find it, you could call women walking birth canals. It should be easy to formulate this comedy; take a broad category of people based on some immutable quality, like skin color, find the least charitable insult you could possibly imagine, like parasite, and see how funny they find it.

I'm ~60% sure they themselves are trying to bait someone, into an anti-abortion argument. They're definitely deliberately taking the most provocative stance possible, and trying to provoke more people along with them.

edit: re-reading their comments, I'm at least 80% sure.

Possibly. People tend to speak more callously on the internet than in real life, but I asked a few coworkers about this, all were uncomfortable and one was visibly distressed; I guess thats what happens when someone that hasnt experienced this kind of behavior growing, then suddenly gets a full dose. Its hard to imagine winning anyone over leading with that.

Though, the strategy isnt so much about winning in that arguement, but just trying to get an ugly response, so you are probably right.

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