Marisa Guzman
12/3/14
HDCS
Abortions
There will always be a debate over whether or not abortion should be a legal option. It continues to divide Americans very long after the US Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v. Wade. People, identifying themselves as pro-choice, say that choosing abortion is a right that should not be limited by the government or religious authority, and it outweighs any right claimed for a fetus or an embryo. It is said that pregnant women will resort to unsafe, illegal abortions if they do not get the option to do it the safer way, legally. Their opponents, identifying themselves as pro-life, say that a life begins at conception, and so abortion is the immoral killing of an innocent, helpless human being. They say
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I believe that there in so way of knowing specifically when human life begins. I think people just go by their own personal opinions or by their religious belief. “Human life is a continuum---sperm and eggs are also alive, and represent potential human beings, but virtually all sperm and eggs are wasted. Also, two-thirds of human conceptions are spontaneously aborted by nature” (About Abortion, 1988). My least favorite phrase to hear from pro-life supporters is that abortion is the murdering of a person. Personhood is not a biological fact, and I know this. It cannot be proven, it is not a certainty, and it is not a fact. Abortion actually has positive benefits on a woman’s health and life. When people say that the fetus has rights too, I get what they are saying, but if fetal rights were protected in the law then women 's bodies, health and rights would be subordinated to the defense of embryos. The legal consequences of this kind of a law would be disastrous. The best way to protect the fetus is to endorse the health and well-being of the …show more content…
If we are unable to decide at what point our life truly begins, can we actually decide at what point that our life ends? Doctors pronounce a patient dead when their brain officially stops sending pulse signals to their body. Do you know exactly when the brain starts to send your body signals? It is when a woman is eight weeks into her pregnancy. Since our lives end when our brain stops, should life not begin when the brain starts? People do not understand that pro-choice is not "pro-abortion". Obviously, it is an extremely tough decision to make, and no one who is pro-choice thinks abortion is all smiles and rainbows. But they also do realize that legal or not legal, there have always been pregnancies wanting to be terminated and a high demand for abortion, and when abortion is illegal it does not stop happening, it just becomes a lot more unsafe and sometimes deadly. Being pro-choice means wanting to keep abortion rare, legal and
What does it mean to be Pro-Life or Pro-Choice? Pro-Life means those who oppose abortion for any reason, In contrast, Pro-Choice means those who argue everybody has the right to decide if they wish to seek an abortion or not. Glenn I. Cohen, Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, argues that Pro-Life advocates firmly stand on the concept of, “Fetuses are persons and get some of the rights of persons from early on in their development, particularly the right of inviolability” (88). Christian and other religious groups confidently believe an embryo transforms into a human being as soon as conception occurs. What this means is that once the male sperm connects with the female egg, that is when the embryo becomes a living person and any abortion that takes place is killing a human being. In contrast, scientifically the newly founded embryo is not a human at all, but just a bunch of cells dividing. 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
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
Pro-life rhetoric concludes, that the unborn child is not human, or alive. According to Francis Beckwith, in “Politically Correct Death” “ One begs the question whenever one assumes what one is trying to prove. To cite an example, abortion advocates who argue that abortion is justified because a woman should have the right to "control her own body" are assuming that there is only one body involved in the abortion act that of the woman.” This is the point they are trying to prove. Or, the popular assertion, "No one knows when life begins, so abortion should remain legal." But to argue that no one knows when life begins, and that abortion must remain legal through all nine months of pregnancy, assumes that life does not begin before birth the exact point the abortion advocate is trying to make. Then, there is the well known "back alley" argument that asserts American women will die by the millions if abortion is restricted in any way. But unless you begin with the assumption that the unborn child is not human, this argument is more or less to saying, "Because some people are killed attempting to murder others, the state should make it safe and legal for them to do so."
“Overall, there have been well over a billion abortions performed around the world since 1980.” Isn’t murder unlawful? Aren’t you killing the fetus in you when you’re getting abortion? Isn’t it God’s decision to give or take life? However, many women still get abortion based on their situations. They aren’t doing something that is against the law, but still many people might not approve of it, because it may go against their golden rule or their “sense of injustice.” In the excerpt of “Who Needs God” by Harold Kushner, and the poem “First They Came for the Jews” by Martin Niemöller, both these authors talk about human nature, the golden rule and human “sense of injustice.” There are many things that may affect our human nature, our religion,
Abortion is a very controversial and sensitive topic in today’s society. Two different sides to this argument is pro-life and pro-choice. Pro-life proponents believe in the right to life for unborn fetuses saying that abortion should be considered murder regardless of how far along in the pregnancy the woman is. Pro-choice advocates people who believe the woman carrying the fetus should be able to make her own decision on aborting the fetus.
Twenty-one percent of all U.S. pregnancies end in abortion (“Induced ABortion in the United States). Abortion is murdering defenseless babies who would‘ve otherwise had a happy life with a couple that is unable to have their own child. Is killing an innocent person ever moral?
When human life becomes an option, that is when morality kicks in and the debates start. Human life is optional when abortion is in the scene, which is the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy. In 1973, abortion became legal in the United States, with each state having their specific guidelines to go along with it. Most states have restrictions on the time frame in which the termination can take place, normally between the first 6-28 weeks, while some have no time restrictions (Abortion Restrictions in States). Although this procedure is legalized, it is by no means close to being socially acceptable. Abortion is one of the most sensitive and controversial issues in today’s world because all lives are meant to be valued; when a
Pro-choice activists only focus on the positives of being able to choose whether a woman can keep her baby. They don’t look at the risks that come with abortion like “shame, guilt, and regret” (Chittom & Newton, 2015). Abortion doesn’t only effect a woman mentally, but also physically. There is a possibility of death or complications when having an abortion. Anything can go wrong even if it is rare for it to happen. I don’t believe a woman should put her physical health at risk in order to kill her own baby. It sound harsh saying the word “kill”, but that is the reality. Pro-choice supporters try to shy away from using phrases like “killing” and “baby” because of how harsh it sounds. They would rather use words like “fetus”, “embryo” and “annihilate”. Using those word make the reality of killing an innocent baby seem less harsh. They bring up reasons to support their stance like stating that “a woman must have the power to control a decision as significant as parenthood, and that individuals should be able to influence decisions to the same extent that those decisions affect their lives” (Anderson, 2015). Their reasoning isn 't good enough. A woman can have the power to make her own decisions at another time. She can decide many things for herself, but abortion shouldn 't be one of
In our society, there are many ethical dilemmas that we are faced with that are virtually impossible to solve. One of the most difficult and controversial issues that we are faced with is abortion. There are many strong arguments both for and against the right to have an abortion which are so complicated that it becomes impossible to resolve. The complexity of this issue lies in the different aspects of the argument. The essence of a person, rights, and who is entitled to these rights, are a few of the many aspects which are very difficult to define. There are also issues of what circumstances would justify abortion. Because the issue of abortion is virtually impossible to solve, all one can hope to do is understand the different aspects of the argument so that if he or she is faced with that issue in their own lives, they would be able to make educated and thoughtful decisions in dealing with it.
As many may know abortion is the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy. Abortion is one of the heaviest topics currently discussed in contemporary American politics. Also, it has always been a contentious issue. Even great philosophers like Plato and Aristotle weighed in on abortion, arguing its benefits and drawbacks in a democratic society. There are both pros and cons about abortion. In this quote it states,
One of the most debatable topics even in today’s society is the right to abortion. Some people believe that life starts at conception and that even an unborn child deserves the same legal protections as an adult. Pro-life advocates argue that ending its life is similar to murder (POLS210, n.d.). Mean while, others also known as Pro-Choice believe it begins at birth and that with laws that restrict abortion it gets in the way with the right of a woman to make a decision of what is in her own best interest (U.S. History, n.d.).
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.”
There has been a continuing debate about whether life begins in the womb or at birth. But it should be obvious to all people that life begins at the moment of conception. Dr. Alfred M. Bongioanni, a professor of pediatrics and obstetrics at the University of Pennsylvania, testifies against a U.S. Senate committee, “I am no more prepared to say that these early stages [of development in the womb] represent an incomplete human being than I would be to say that the child prior to the dramatic effects of puberty…is not a human being. This is human life at every stage,” (NAAPC). If, from the moment of conception and on, are the stages of a human life, then at every stage is a human being. Our laws protect us, stating that it is forbidden to kill another human being. But then why are Pro-Abortionists slowly, but surely influencing how we view a human life? “Our laws should protect the unborn just as they protect the born,” (Lyons). Abortion is murder and shouldn’t be thought as ...
...ause of it’s immoral and life begins at conception. Women have been given the right to have an abortion under the United States Consititution, but this right is still being protested by the people that fight for the unborn’s rights. Pro-life activists claim that its immoral because they simply defined it as murder. Life begins at conception another strong point brought up by pro-life activists. Before a child is born it is given all of it's necessities to survive. Before birth the child heart beats, the gastric juices flow in the stomach, and all it's necessary organs are intact. The unborn child thinks, dreams, and feels pain.(1) The abortion issue is a constant debate in our society and it is amazing that faith and reason can determine the life of a child. Maybe soon the abortion issue will reverse, and people will see the rights of the unborn as a great importance.
The abortion issue is argued from two different views, however, from a moral perspective, it is wrong to terminate a human life. For generations, society has tried to uncover an answer to whether the human life begins at conception or when an infant takes its first breath. The human life is a fascinating topic that fills a person with questions and hypothesizes. Science has mostly proven and answered the vast majority of questions about the human body. Although, there is one question no one can seem to answer. When does the human life begin? If an answer were to arise, would it really matter in the abortion debate? Even if it were proven, abortion would still be wrong and society would need to end the terminating of fetuses.