Pro-Life Payments - Christian Merchant Services

Is it Justifiable to Kill You or Others Who Are?

Most don’t know that the abortion-parasite analogy fails scientifically: HUMAN pregnancy is a species-typical, largely cooperative symbiosis between two HUMANS, a mother and child, not biological parasitism. The central claim in some abortion defenses asserts that “a fetus is a parasite, so killing it is permissible.” Since it’s not scientific, your definition of “parasitism” really means to “live off another.” That means then most infants, children, and many fully-grown adults would also meet that definition at various times. Yet no one believes that makes it just to kill them no matter how many angry comments they make on social media in the middle of the day. We’ll show you why the “parasite” argument is fallacious according to biology, then shows how the same criteria—misapplied to fetuses—would equally implicate many born humans.

What Biological Parasitism Actually Is

Standard parasitology defines parasitism as a long-term relationship in which an organism lives in or on a host of a different species, extracting resources at the host’s expense and conferring no net benefit to the host. Core features include: dependence on the host for nutrients, harm to the host’s fitness, absence of reciprocal benefit, and species difference in most conventional definitions. Parasitism is one of several symbioses, distinct from mutualism and commensalism.

Definitions and features of parasitism, host expense, harm, and symbiosis are outlined in peer-reviewed and reference sources.

How Many Babies Can You Effortlessly Save This Year?

Take 30 Seconds to find out. Go to the Baby Saving Calculator at Pro Life Payments. Pro Life Payments is the for-profit arm of the pro-life movement. Pro-Life Payments is reducing abortion in America by turning customer financial transactions into pro-life funding. We give 15% of gross revenue to Pro-Life organizations. Payments is transitioning donation platforms, credit card processing and peer to peer payments into a funding engine for the pro-life community. Pro-Life Payments is providing customers with the alternative to the abortion-supporting financial institutions and payment processors they are supporting today.

Why the “Fetus = Parasite” Argument Is Scientifically Fallacious

First, human pregnancy is a species-typical reproductive process in placental mammals, sustained by a specialized fetal–maternal interface that balances exchange and immune tolerance between two humans. The maternal–fetal relationship exhibits forms of cooperation and mutual benefit, not pure exploitation. Fetal microchimeric cells can persist in the mother for decades and sometimes contribute to tissue repair and healing, while also sometimes competing—evidence of a complex cooperative–conflict dynamic rather than parasitism. Public-health and educational discussions likewise describe the mother–newborn relationship post-birth as symbiotic, with mutual physiological and psychological benefits (e.g., hormonal regulation, uterine involution, bonding).

Pre-Born Babies are Human

Second, most textbook-level descriptions of parasitism assume different species; humans carry human offspring, not an alien organism. While a few argue for “same-species” parasitism in specific edge cases elsewhere in nature, the pregnancy relationship fails additional parasitic criteria: it is species-typical reproduction with bidirectional signaling, regulated placentation, and recurring maternal benefits, not an accidental pathogen invasion designed to exploit and harm the host. Even sources critiquing simplistic counters agree that focusing solely on species difference is less persuasive than the broader failure of the relationship to meet parasitism’s harm-only, no-benefit profile.

Third, philosophical uses of “parasite” in abortion debates are analogical and rhetorical, not scientific; even pro-choice presentations typically shift to “right to refuse bodily use,” which is a different argument entirely and should not be smuggled in under misapplied biology.

Conclusion: Descriptively, the maternal–fetal dyad is best characterized as a specialized, largely cooperative symbiosis with mixed cooperative–conflict dynamics, not parasitism. Therefore, justifying abortion by calling the fetus a parasite is a category error in biology.

If “Dependency = Parasitism,” Then Many Adults Qualify

The same “resource extraction without reciprocity” frame is commonly applied to fully-grown adults. Literature on social dependence identifies “social parasitism” as a pathological pattern wherein capable adults choose chronic dependence on others’ labor and resources. Policy analyses and debates about welfare design and incentives frequently cite large-scale resource transfers to working taxpayers supporting able-bodied nonworkers, though scholars dispute causality and magnitude. Family-level accounts document “parasite kids,” adult children who indefinitely drain parental resources while refusing reciprocal contribution.

U.S. federal and think-tank reports debate rising dependence on transfers vs. work, illustrating how the descriptor “parasitic” is applied to adults in policy contexts.
Clinical and sociological discourse defines “social parasitism” as chronic dependence by those with capacity for self-sufficiency.

These sources do not prove moral parasitism but show that if mere dependency justified killing, vast swaths of society would be at risk. That reductio highlights the moral and scientific incoherence of the original claim.

Christian Merchant Card Services

Pro Life Payments is the for-profit arm of the pro-life movement. Pro-Life Payments is reducing abortion in America by turning customer financial transactions into pro-life funding. We give 15% of gross revenue to Pro-Life organizations. Payments is transitioning donation platforms, credit card processing and peer to peer payments into a funding engine for the pro-life community. Pro-Life Payments is providing customers with the alternative to the abortion-supporting financial institutions and payment processors they are supporting today.

Infants and Children: When Does “Parasitism” No Longer Apply?

Applying biological parasitism to human development is misguided; however, assessing the transition from pure dependency to reciprocal contribution clarifies why children are not “parasites.”

Child development research shows progressive growth in autonomy, self-help, and reciprocal contribution:

Social-emotional development advances from attachment and joint attention in infancy (6–12 months) to autonomy and cooperative play by preschool, with increasing rule understanding and responsibility through ages 5–10.
Functional independence milestones include dressing, toileting, personal hygiene, and chores, with marked autonomy gains by 4–6 and substantial household contributions by 7–10.
Practical guidance converges: ages 4–6 mark a transition where children begin significant self-care and helpfulness; ages 7–10 show substantial reciprocity, responsibility, and organized contributions.

Developmental synthesis:

0–2 years: Complete to heavy dependency; mutual bonding and social value emerge but little practical reciprocity.
2–4.5 years: Rising autonomy; toileting, dressing assistance, cooperative play, basic household help.
4–6 years: Transition point—meaningful self-care, school routines, consistent contributions that begin to balance costs.
7–10 years: Clear non-parasitic status under any reasonable reciprocity standard—substantial chores, responsibility, peer cooperation, and family partnership.

Bottom line: Under any fair reciprocity test, children cease to resemble “parasites” by approximately ages 4–6 (transition) and certainly by 7–10 (clear non-parasitic status), while infants’ complete dependence is a natural, expected, and mutually beneficial stage in human reproduction—not parasitism.

Biological Symbiosis of Pregnancy and Early Infancy

The fetal–maternal interface is a highly regulated system with immune tolerance and resource exchange—distinct from pathogen exploitation.
Fetal microchimerism demonstrates durable two-way biological effects, including potential maternal tissue repair and long-term health modulation, indicating mixed cooperation and conflict—not pure harm.
Postnatal “fourth trimester” emphasizes symbiosis: breastfeeding promotes uterine involution, reduces hemorrhage risk, and supports maternal endocrine balance, while infants transition from one symbiotic association to another across the life-course as “holobionts”.

These dynamics contradict the essential “host harm/no benefit” axis of parasitism and align instead with reproductive symbiosis.

Adult “Parasitism” Criteria Applied

When biological parasite features are translated to social behavior, adults can mirror those traits if they:

Depend economically on others despite capacity for self-sufficiency.
Extract resources while harming supporters’ economic fitness.
Provide no reciprocal contribution.
Maintain these dynamics long-term by choice rather than necessity.

Nevertheless, societies rightly reject killing such adults. The appropriate responses are moral suasion, incentives for work, reform of perverse program design, and boundaries in families—not lethal harm.

Clear Statement: Scientifically, calling fetuses “parasites” is false

Scientifically, calling fetuses “parasites” is false: pregnancy is a regulated, largely cooperative reproductive symbiosis with documented maternal benefits and complex bidirectional cell exchange.
Morally, if mere dependency justified killing, infants, children, and many adults would qualify—an obviously abhorrent conclusion undermining the abortion-parasite argument.
Developmentally, children move from total dependence to meaningful reciprocity by about ages 4–6, and clearly by 7–10, further discrediting any “parasitism” label for natural human dependency stages.

Citations