As an example, if you were given an option to have a 4" cut - or - the loss of another person's life, I personally feel it is morally wrong to value your minor suffering to another person's life. (Please note I am not trying to minimize the risks and results of a c-section, but it is significantly safer for the woman than abortion is for the fetus).
Okay. Well prepare to be startled: I wouldn't support legislation that forced someone to be cut in order to save someone else's life.
I think we understand each other's position, it just seems like you don't believe people can think so differently from you, or value things differently than you do. I can assure you that this is, in fact, the case.
I wouldn't support the forced cut to save a person's life either. I bet when it comes down to it you don't really think that either. Let me put it this way - have you donated your kidney? Almost 100,000 people are waiting for one, for anywhere from 5-10 years. Are you on the list to donate one? It can save someone's life you do, after all. Have you donated your bone marrow? Yes, this is pushing a your "minor" suffering example further, but it's a logical extension of the question of how much we force people to do things for the good of society. (And who is to say a cut that scars is minor suffering? To someone who relies on their looks for a living, such as a model, it's not minor at all.). It's only by pushing the examples further that you can see the flaw in these utilitarian type examples.
In only two states do we *force* people without a duty (e.g. your child is in trouble, your job is to help this type of situation, you caused the situation) to help in the situation of an accident. People may be horrified if you walk past a child drowning in a pool, but you have no obligation to jump in and save them. There's lot of reasons why not - it could make the situation worse, we don't know if you can swim/you are terrified of water - but ultimately it comes down in our society to believing that people have the right to their own choices and we don't force their actions, even to save a life.
Personal autonomy and bodily privacy/integrity is critical in our society. I'm just unclear why it's so highly prized all of the time, until you are pregnant. Then all of the sudden, it's ok for complete strangers to start touching your belly and rubbing it (when they'd never do so otherwise), to tell you what you can't eat, drink or do, and to prevent you from terminating, restricting even early on in some places. For those worried about a societal breakdown if we permit later termination, know that regardless of whether there are legal restrictions, there are still stops in place on later term terminations - the decreasing number of people who will perform them, societal condemnation, etc. It's not a choice a woman makes willy nilly at that point - you're more likely to have an impact by examining the reasons for why people would choose to do such and thing and trying to figure out how to provide support to resolve those underlying issues, than by fighting to prohibit it.