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Gcse essay debate abortion is murder
Abortion is murder argument
Positive and negative arguments about abortion
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Suppose your mother was not planning on having a child when she was pregnant with you. Suppose your father was abusive to her. Suppose she was not even ready to be a mother or prepared to have a baby. Aren’t you still glad that she didn’t put her right to choose what goes on within her body before your right to life? Ronald Reagan once said, “I've noticed that everybody that is for abortion has already been born” (qtd. “Quotations about Abortion”). Because a fetus is a human being from the moment of conception, aborting is murder and therefore it should be just as illegal as taking the life of a grown human is. Most abortion advocates do not argue that the fetus is not human. David Noonin, author of A Defense of Abortion, is quoted saying “there is no doubt in my mind that this picture, too, shows [my son] at a very early stage in his physical development. And there is no question that the position I defend in this book entails that it would have been morally permissible to end his life at this point” (“Medical Testimony”). While he doesn’t even try to refute that it is not a life, he still believes that it would be all right to kill his son at that age. Another advocate, Naomi Wolf, concedes enough to say that those who are for abortion need to “contextualize the fight to defend abortion rights within a moral framework that admits that the death of a fetus is a real death” (“Medical Testimony”). Both of these abortion supporters admit that abortion is killing, and Wolf even urges others to admit that. When the Supreme Court made it’s decision in 1973, the majority opinion was “the judiciary, at this point in the development of man’s knowledge, is not in a position to… resolve the difficult question of when life begins… since th... ... middle of paper ... ...e, though both are acceptable in some beliefs. These things are programmed into the human nature and as soon as society realizes that a person is still a person no matter what race, age, or gender, it will realize that any killing is killing no matter what race, age, or gender. From the moment of conception, the fetus has a right to life. It is also innocent regardless of the guilt of the father. The majority opinion of the Supreme Court in 1973 was because no one could determine when life started, but now that scientists have resolved that issue, Roe v. Wade should be reexamined and abortion should be made illegal. Our society has progressed from women inferiority and slavery to equal rights for men and women, no matter what race or gender. We now need to progress from allowing some murders because the victim is young to a society where every life is protected.
In her essay, “A Defense of Abortion,” Judith Jarvis Thompson outlines the most common arguments that people defend, and explains her views regarding each of these. She shares numerous examples and situations that she believes will support her views. One of her most prominent arguments is that of whether or not a fetus has moral standing as a “person.” She highlights the so called “battle” between an innocent life, the fetus, and the bodily rights of the mother. Within this argument, Judith outlines for us several situations which can provide people with a different outlook regarding abortion. Throughout Judith’s essay, she does not truly give a clear stance, but rather allows her readers to choose for themselves.
As to any argument, there are two opposing sides when it comes to the matter of abortions. These two opposers usually refer to themselves as “pro-life” and “pro choice”. Pro-life supporters maintain that abortion is wrong and pro-choice believe that it is a woman’s freedom to choose her pregnancy decisions. When it comes to the topic of abortions, most of us will readily agree that it’s a woman’s choice to decide what her reproductive decisions are, i.e. pro-choice. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is in the question of whether or not abortion is a fundamental right granted to women by the Constitution. Whereas some are convinced that a fetus is considered alive at conception, usually citing the word of God, others maintain that
The standard argument against abortion claims that the fetus is a person and therefore has a right to life. Thomson shows why this standard argument against abortion is a somewhat inadequate account of the morality of abortion.
The idea of whether abortion should be illegal or allowed is a controversial one since everyone seems to have different ideologies. Judith Thomson, who is in support of pro-choice argues in her article “A Defense of Abortion” main idea towards abortion is stating women should have the right to choose because they have the moral right to decide whether they have to hold life in their body. This idea is presented from her first analogy using the violinist who has a failing kidney and will perish if he does not have someone give him blood immediately. They take you without your permission and plug you into him. She connects this to the idea of the fetus by saying everyone has the right to life and if the fetus is considered a person then it would be wrong to kill an innocent human being, but then says that if the child is harming you then you should not wait until you are dead, he body is the home of the women so she should be allowed to defend herself against
The drawback, however, is that there is no agreement upon when life begins and at which point one crosses the line from unalienable rights to murder. In 1973, in what has become a landmark ruling for women’s rights, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a woman’s right to an abortion. Ever since, individual states have adopted, altered, and/or mutilated the edict to fit their agendas – Texas included. However, the decision made by the justices in Roe v. Wade didn’t set clear cut, inarguable demarcation lines, which has allowed the fiery debate to consume the nation. Rather than establishing a legal ruling on what life is, or is not, the Supreme Court has remained silent on the issue.
In America abortion is one of the most heavily debated topics in recent years. Pro-life or pro-choice? Many people believe it is immoral and even consider abortion to be murder. The definition of abortion states “The termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to being capable of normal growth” Did you know that 1 in 3 women in the U.S. will have an abortion in their lifetime? (Baker, Aspen. "A Better Way to Talk about Abortion." Aspen Baker:. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Aug. 2016.) When first researching this topic I wondered, “What’s the big deal? Why would it matter if someone who was never even born, died?” And I realized that babies that would have been born due to abortion,
Abortion cannot be discussed unless you know the origin of the debate. In December 13, 1971, the argument of abortion surfaced (“Roe v. wade,”). The class action suit was brought by a pregnant single woman who challenged the constitutionality of the Texas criminal abortion laws, which proscribe or attempting an abortion except on medical advice for the purpose of saving the mother’s life (“Roe v. wade,”). Proceeding Roe v. Wade, abortion was illegal in almost every State. In 1973, the courts ruled and abortion became legal again.
In order for the pro-life argument to be valid, it must have both a true premise and true conclusion. It falls short of validity by assuming that a fetus up to 22 weeks old is a person, and has its own rights independent of its host, or what we often refer to as its mother. First we must recognize the subtle, yet extremely important distinction between a human being and a person. It is obvious that a fetus is a member of the human ...
But, there are many differences between an actual person and a fetus. First of all, a fetus is completely dependent on the mother. Fetus’s need their mothers in order to be fed correctly, to live in a stable environment, and to grow and expand among many other things. Because the fetus cannot survive on its own, then it does not qualify as a human being. In addition, a fetus that is still inside the womb is only a potential person. The fetus resides inside of the mother, and thus is part of the mother herself until it is born. Another difference between a fetus and a person is that a person can feel pain. Anti abortionist commonly argue that abortion is wrong because it would cause pain to the fetus. But, according to Mark Rosen, an obstetrical anesthesiologist at the University of California at San Francisco, “the wiring at the point where you feel pain, such as the skin, doesn’t reach the emotional part where you feel pain, in the brain.” Furthermore, the thalamus does not form until week 28 of the pregnancy. So, no information, including pain, can reach the cortex in the brain for processing. These facts prove that a fetus would not be affected by the mother’s choice of having an abortion, thus proving Marquis and all other anti-abortionists wrong.
The permissibility of abortion has been a crucial topic for debates for many years. People have yet to agree upon a stance on whether abortion is morally just. This country is divided into two groups, believers in a woman’s choice to have an abortion and those who stand for the fetus’s right to live. More commonly these stances are labeled as pro-choice and pro-life. The traditional argument for each side is based upon whether a fetus has a right to life. Complications occur because the qualifications of what gives something a right to life is not agreed upon. The pro-choice argument asserts that only people, not fetuses, have a right to life. The pro-life argument claims that fetuses are human beings and therefore they have a right to life. Philosopher, Judith Jarvis Thomson, rejects this traditional reasoning because the right of the mother is not brought into consideration. Thomson prepares two theses to explain her reasoning for being pro-choice; “A right to life does not entail the right to use your body to stay alive” and “In the majority of cases it is not morally required that you carry a fetus to term.”
In 1973, the United States Supreme Court ruled that under the 14th Amendment, abortion is a woman’s decision. The ruling, in the case of “Roe vs. Wade”, further states a woman has a right to an abortion until “viability” which is defined as being able to live outside of the mother’s womb. Viability usually occurs around 28 weeks or 7 months. This means that a woman can abort a baby just two months before it is born. I strongly disagree with this ruling because this is killing innocent babies. Furthermore, many medical doctors confirm the fetus can feel pain as early as 18 weeks. Dr. Emidio Novembre spoke before the U.S. House Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee. According to Dr. Novembre, “The fetus can perceive the pain, feel the pain and tries to avoid the pain. The fetus is a person and the person wants to live” (Reinhard). The fetus pain debate goes back at least as far as 1984, when President Ronald Reagan said, “Medical-science doctors confirm that when the lives of the unborn are snuffed out, they often feel pain, pain that is long and agonizing” (Yarrow). This evidence proves the fetus is a person and the attempts to kil...
In A Defense of Abortion (Cahn and Markie), Judith Thomson presents an argument that abortion can be morally permissible even if the fetus is considered to be a person. Her primary reason for presenting an argument of this nature is that the abortion argument at the time had effectively come to a standstill. The typical anti-abortion argument was based on the idea that a fetus is a person and since killing a person is wrong, abortion is wrong. The pro-abortion adopts the opposite view: namely, that a fetus is not a person and is thus not entitled to the rights of people and so killing it couldn’t possibly be wrong.
According to pro-life arguments, some of the reasons people are against abortion is because they view abortion as murder because life begins at conception, which means unborn babies are human beings from the beginning. Another argument is that the fetus can feel pain during an abortion and there are plenty of arguments against abortion regarding religion. The abortion is murder opinion is a popular one, individuals justify it by saying the fetus and mother are two different individuals; with that being said, the mother should not have a choice to abort the baby, because it is a separate being. Although science shows the fetus develops features fairly early in the pregnancy that make it seem more human, the fetus is still inside the woman’s body and what she wants to do with that fetus should be her choice.
It’s no doubt that our world today is full of unsolved, contentious and controversial issues. Most of them relate to morals, religions or ethics thus create many strong opinions in “yes” and “no” or “good” and “bad” sides. Abortion is one of those sensitive issues. There are numerous proponents and opponents of abortions in the US. Proponents of abortion believe that unwanted pregnancies can be very stressful for women and they should have the right to make decisions about their bodies. However, abortion is seriously wrong because killing a fetus is killing a person. And obviously, death is the end of life for the fetus when the fetus should have the right to have a life just like ours.
There are so many different viewpoints on abortion, it isn’t even funny. Someone could say that abortion is morally acceptable because a woman was raped or the pregnancy could interfere with her health. Other people might say that it is murder and immorally unacceptable because the child obviously does not have a say in the abortion. The problem with abortions is that there is no real conclusion to the problem, whether it is legal or illegal. And this argument is only getting worse and worse.