Assert individualism as correct. That society is a mere label applied in social situations to account for an entity that has no rights in itself. Rather, the individuals carry the rights and responsibilities in their actions. They alone are the arbiters of their productive and worthwhile futures based on the choices they make. How then are members of the family unit treated? Are children treated as property until a certain age? Or are they immediately treated as individuals capable of their own decisions? Or does this only happen at a certain period (varying from individual from individual) when that person learns to think for him or herself?
If children are viewed as property until a certain age before they become rationally acting beings, wouldn’t abortion be permissible up until that point? How would libertarian justify this either way? If a pro-life advocate wanted to defend abortion, wouldn’t they merely say that they had self-ownership of her own body and that any violation of this would be aggression against her freedoms of self, assuming that the fetus within her is merely property until becoming a rational being in itself with the rights of self-ownership. If that is not the case and both beings are entities with self-ownership abilities how would one even attempt to make a case for or against abortion?
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Remember, the right to life is a function of a human being's *nature*, not his or her maturity of mind or body. A child is a developing human being, but a human being nonetheless. Cultures vary on the "age of maturity", but in ancient cultures it was not unheard of for a boy to become a man as early as 13, or for a girl to become a woman and bear a child at 12. In our culture, we have pushed the developmental envelope to age 21 -- almost *twice* that of some ancient cultures. Because of this developmental process, we "limit" the world in which a child can exercise his basic rights because he or she has neither the abilities, knowledge, or experience to understand the ramifications of their actions. These children are raised, however, to become independent and to exercise their rights to the fullest.
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