There are many arguments concerning a fetus and their legal rights. The definition of personhood is having human characteristics and feelings (Dictionary: “Personhood”). A fetus contains human characteristics and feelings, which should give them legal personhood. The fetus also contains DNA and a soul. Soul is defined as the feeling (essence) and principle of life apart from the human or animal body (Dictionary; “Soul”). Once the egg is conceived, there is a human growing. That human will continue to grow until she or he is brought into this world. The fetus does not magically become a human once the child enters this world. Instead, the fetus is a human when it is first conceived. Many people believe that fertilized eggs should not be given …show more content…
At five weeks of pregnancy (or three weeks after conception) the baby’s heart starts beating and other organs and organ systems begin to grow and form (“Fetal Development: The 1st Trimester”). This is apart of the definition of personhood. The fetus possesses human characteristics. There are many animal activist that want animal rights. Why give animal rights when people won’t even give a fetus human rights? A fetus is just as important as an animal or even more important. Many people get upset when there are animals killed, but brush it off when millions of babies are killed from abortions every year. Instead of trying to worry about the animals right now, try worrying about the human population first. The fetus can start to feel pain at the gestation period of seven weeks (“Can Fetuses feel Pain?”). During an abortion, a fetus can feel pain. The doctors still decide that it’s okay to go through with the procedure. If the fetus can feel pain, that is another human characteristic/feeling that the fetus possesses. A fetus has every right to be given legal personhood like any other human
First I will prove premise 1, “Every fetus is a person,” true. The definition of person according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary is "a human being." Now surely no one would regard a fetus as anything other than human such as a primate or dog. But some still might say, "Well, it isn't aliv...
...t it is immoral. I also see that it may not be immoral for a woman to abort if she has made the most effort to avoid pregnancy using contraceptives. However, as Thompson states, I think in this situation a mother “ought” not to have an abortion. A fetus should have the right to life, however the mother should also have the right to determine how to use her own body. So I too find it difficult to determine a solid stance on this issue. I’ve always believe that a fetus is a person, but I’ve also always struggled to discern when it is that the fetus becomes a person. Regardless of whatever science can prove or not regarding when a fetus is a person or however much argumentation is done regarding the permissibility of abortion, this topic will forever be surrounded by debate. I don’t believe there will ever a unanimous opinion on whether or not abortion is moral.
According to St. Thomas Aquinas, Catholic priest and philosopher, a fetus is not a human being because it does not possess language or articulated thought - one of the defining aspects of human nature (qtd. in Eco 51). Theoretically speaking, a fetus is not a human until it can think and talk. With that being clarified, the rest of the essay will first include arguments for, and then arguments against, abortion. Karen Pazol, et al.
Abortions occur for all types of reasons, whether it is because the pregnancy was unplanned, rape-induced, or that it holds a life threatening capacity for the woman herself. Pro-lifers believe once one is conceived, he or she are entitled to a right to live. It does not matter whether or not the pro-lifers are able to prove that a fetus consists of personhood. The life of a potential person should not be able to override the right to one’s body. Judith Thomson presents a though experiment where personhood is granted to a fetus, but how that mere fact still fails to override the woman’s right to her body.
when a life begins for a human. If society is to assume that a fetus is a human
So is that essentially when a human life begins? Or is it when the sperm and egg meet, causing the conception of the baby? It is broadly believed, generally by the pro-life activists, that this is fundamentally when a human begins to form. Among women, approximately 50% of their fertilized eggs develop into babies, which are born, more or less, nine months later. The remnants are aborted or are lost due to a miscarriage.
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.
when the foetus is in side the womb it is not a person yet. Others say
Bodily autonomy is a concept that is considered to be a human right. Bodily autonomy means that a person has control over who or what uses their body, for what, and for how long. Bodily autonomy is why you cannot be forced to donate your blood, tissue, or organs, even if you’re dead, even in the circumstance that your blood, tissue, and organs would save fifteen lives. Bodily autonomy is why someone cannot touch you, have sex with you, or use your body in any way without your continuous consent. A fetus is using and surviving from somebody else’s body parts. Therefore, under bodily autonomy, the fetus is in that person’s body by permission, not by right, and requires a person’s continuous consent to remain in that position. If the person
It is saddening to see humans of the female gender, who find themselves in a situation that requires introducing a new life into the world; to abort such a precious gift. Many may wonder how these poor, innocent, unborn children are then discarded after the abortion procedure. One cannot fathom the reason of these gruesome murders that happens within these medical facilities. Babies are disposed in the red waste bins of these facilities, and later incinerated. Some may either be flushed down garbage disposals or even be sold off for research purposes. The issue of abortion is not just a social one, but also a human rights issue among the unborn children. I believe if the human rights of these children has been violated, then all other rights of humans are certainly meaningless.
The argument can be made that the fetus deserves the same level of personhood that children and adults do. This can be countered with the fact that children and adults are able to live without occupying the body of another person. The point at which personhood occurs may never be established because of the contrasting views for and against personhood and it would be very difficult to establish any kind of middle ground on personhood.
Those who are against abortion would state that it is a human being who is being murdered inside of the mother’s womb during the abortion process. Yet those who are not against the act of abortion would state that it is a fetus that cannot survive outside of the womb. Since they think that the baby could not survive outside of the womb and is not fully developed, it is not considered a human being. Even though a baby in a mother’s womb may not be completely formed does not mean that it is far from having the same traits as a living human being. Also, many who think abortion should be legal often use the term “fetus” to refer to the unborn child, which is a clinical term derived from a Latin word that means “offspring” or “newly delivered”.
Abortion has been one of the most talked about topics in society just about anywhere from television, magazines, whether or not it should be the right or wrong thing to do. Abortion is a very sensitive issue to discuss, because of its nature. Many people have said that abortion is a very bad thing to do and it should not even be choice whether or not to abort a living fetus. People think that abortion is committing murder as it is killing the human fetus. However, others feel that a woman should have a voice and have the right to choose to keep the child or not and that it is not murder until the baby is born. Majority of individuals who believe that abortion is bad say that the fetus is human who is partly being formed and to have an abortion is considered to be murder. For the people who think an abortion is ok, say that it’s not considered murder unless the child is born. I believe that abortion should be seen in which the stage the fetus is in. if the fetus is in an early stage of pregnancy it is not considered murder, but if the fetus has already began to develop into a larger fetus then it is indeed considered to be murder. There are times when abortion can be accepted, if the mother is having complications due to pregnancy. For example if the mother is enduring complications in her pregnancy that can harm her, because of the child in that case it is ok to perform an abortion to help save the mother’s life. It is also very important to understand this type of situation. The mother has the right to have an abortion and it is her decision because a mother knows best about her health conditions.
Abortions have always been a very controversial topic. Over the years we continue to fight for or against it. One can say that is one of the most talked and argued topic in the United States. An abortion is when a woman terminates her pregnancy before the fetus is viable using various of methods. Some argue that abortions should be illegal and considered murder, while others, from a religious point of view, say that no one has the right to take away the life of a person, in this case the fetus. However, others insist, that abortions are a basic women’s right.