Abortion
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Since unborn fetuses are both human and alive, no one has the moral right to reject their human identity or deny them life. Abortion is generally defined as a medical or clinical procedure which results in the termination of the existence of a human fetus. In the United States, an impassioned debate has been waged for decades between pro-life advocates and pro-choice advocates concerning the morality of abortion.
In response, pro-choice groups have responded with a variety of arguments over the years, ranging from defending a womans right to control her own body to arguing that aborting a human fetus before it reaches a certain stage of development is morally acceptable because the fetus isnt really human yet. Subsequently, the ongoing debate over abortion has yet to be fully resolved because of the difficulty in determining to everyones satisfaction whose rights should take precedence–the mothers rights or
the babys rights.
Unfortunately, pro-choice advocates refuse to accept that abortion is morally wrong because it deprives the aborted human victim of life. To objective observers, it seems quite evident that even though women have the secondary right to control their own bodies, the right to life of a human fetus supercedes the right of a woman to control her own body. Because a fetus is human, because it is alive, and because its right to life is a greater moral consideration than a womans right to choose, abortion is morally wrong, and should be illegal.
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The first compelling reason why abortion is morally wrong is that fetuses are human. A human fetus was conceived by human parents, so it stands to logic that if it is not human, then none of us are human. A fetus consists of human tissue and human DNA, and has a unique set of chromosomes that makes it a separate human being. Pro-choice advocates, who claim that abortion is morally acceptable until a fetus reaches a certain stage of development because it is not really human until that point, are indulging in flawed logic.
For example, if it is permissible on moral grounds to kill a human fetus because it is not six months old yet, or nine months old, or one year old, then it is also permissible on moral grounds to kill a seven-year-old human being because he or she has not reached the stage of human development of a thirty-year-old human being. By the same flawed logic, society would have to accept that it is morally permissible to kill a fifty-year-old human being because he or she has not yet reached the stage of human development of a seventy-year-old human being.
These comparisons expose the serious logical flaws of pro-choice arguments that fetuses arent really human until they reach a certain age, for human status is conferred upon a fetus by human parenthood, and is attained by the fetus at the moment of conception. One doesnt have to be born to be human. A thirty-year-old is not more human than a twenty-year-old and a twenty-year-old is not more human than a ten-year-old. Terminating the existence of any human being is immoral regardless of how
old they are.
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The second primary reason why abortion is morally wrong is that fetuses are alive. Fetuses have heartbeats and brainwaves at very early stages of physical development. They are living organisms by any definition, and because they were conceived by human parents and have human DNA, they must be considered living human organisms. The heartbeats and brainwaves detected in a mothers womb are undeniable proofs that human life exists there.
The pro-choice argument that babies in a mothers womb arent really alive until
they are physically capable of surviving on their own is ludicrous, for by that flawed definition, a two-year old isnt alive either, since a two-year old certainly wouldnt be able to survive for long on its own without its mother or father. Pro-choice arguments that life doesnt begin until birth are equally problematic, for no one has been able identify a single physiological difference between a baby halfway out of the birth canal and a baby one minute old. Also, with modern technology, premature babies can and do survive.
Subsequently, life has to begin before birth. The development of fetuses past conception is evolutionary and is manifested by a gradual change, not by an ambiguous and indefinable instant when life is achieved. Because of this gradual development of a human fetus, life must be recognized as beginning upon conception, for this is a definable moment of massive and total change, when a sperm and an egg become a miniature, living human being.
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Focusing upon the third primary reason why abortion is wrong, I submit that a womans right to use her own body does not entail her right to end someone elses human life in order for her to do what she wants with her body. Her body isnt the only
body that must be considered, and the pro-choice argument that a human fetus is just a part of its mother and that her rights should therefore take precedence over her babys rights doesnt take into account the fact that fetuses have separate bodies from their mothers. Assuming the mother did have the right to abort the baby under certain conditions, which may entail medical threat, the majority of abortions are performed out of convenience.
As Gold (1990) notes, fetuses in the womb have their own heartbeats, their own brainwaves, their own blood, their own organs, and feel pain independent of the mother, just like the mother feels pain independent of the fetus. Because a fetus is alive, its right to life is a stronger right than a womans right to control her own body in cases of abortion,