A Rational Look at the Abortion Controversy
One of the most hotly contested issues inside and outside of biomedical ethics today is abortion. The discussion received a new impetus at the release of the controversial abortion drug RU-486, "a pill to increase access to abortions and let women get them privately from their own doctor instead of facing shouting protesters at clinics."2 As is the case with all controversial issues, there are very passionate people on both sides of the fence. Unfortunately, a heated discussion on abortion can easily and quickly turn into a battle of rhetoric rather than a dialectic of reason. But the guiding light in such a discussion must always be reason, not rhetoric or other fallacies, for only reason can solve this issue and judge which side is correct.
In this brief essay, I shall attempt to clear away some of the confusion present in typical abortion debates by cooling the rhetoric with reason enlightened by scientific facts. Specifically, I will examine two common pro-abortion arguments made by Mary Anne Warren and Judith Jarvis Thomson and demonstrate that they cannot stand up to rational scrutiny and therefore fail to justify abortion. I shall also use a
"quadrilemma" argument similar to that of Peter Kreeft's to show that, aside from all specific argumentation, abortion cannot be morally justified.
Before even beginning to discuss the issue of abortion, it is imperative to agree upon a starting point from which to reason. The fact that some people differ even about this very point tends to render the pro-abortion and the anti-abortion paradigms somewhat "incommensurable," and this is probably one major reason why people are tempted to arrive at different conclusions about this ...
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...ilure is equal to an unwanted pregnancy due to rape is nothing short of ridiculous. The sexual act by nature tends towards pregnancy, i.e., that is the natural purpose of the sexual act, and any woman who engages in this act voluntarily, with or without contraception, thereby willingly opens herself to pregnancy.
20 Wilcox, "Nature as Demonic," 468.
21 Wilcox, "Nature as Demonic," 468f.
22 M. LeRoy Sprang and Mark G. Neerhof, "Rationale for Banning Abortions Late in Pregnancy," Journal of the American Medical Association 280, no. 8 (1998): 745.
23 Sprang and Neerhof, "Banning Abortions," 745.
24 Cf. Peter Kreeft, Making Choices: Practical Wisdom for Everyday Moral Decisions (Ann Arbor, MI: Servant Publications, 1990), 119-21.
25 One might object that "abortion is morally neutral" is another possibility, but that which is morally neutral is morally permissible.
The beginning of the population was predominately white. In 1800 the population of Cleaveland was what now would be an unheard of 7. In 10 years however the population grew to 57, 10 years following that increasing by almost %1100! What did 1840 now spell, as “Cleveland” was the 45th largest city in the nation at 6,071 people. Decade by decade Cleveland grew, becoming more of a populated city then others. Just 40 years after being the 45th largest city in the nation it was the 12th. When the 20th century came around Cleveland was proud to be the 7th largest city in the nation with 381,768 people. Although Cleveland never became the largest city in the nation, the closest they got was 5th with 900,429 people. Interesting enough, even though that was the highest position Cleveland ever got, that wasn’t the highest the population ever was. In 1950 the population was 914,808 which put them in 7th place.
Similar to the psychoanalysts’ perspective of secondary gain, behaviorists feel that if a person is allowed to escape or avoid the physical symptoms are reinforced.
One of the most disputed subjects into day’s society is abortion. Children have been sacrificed by millions of women all across the world. There’s always a powerful urge to vindicate the suffering, emotional pain, and deprivation by the mother and her significant other. Therefore, in any debate, you will run up against an invisible brick wall. Which means even the greatest Knowledge will neglect to influence. When it comes to abortion the best way to tackle the subject is through facts. Some of the wondrous arguments stem from the law, science, and the rights women have to aid the pro-life case opposed to abortion.
... Religious Customs, History, Legends, and Symbols from around the World; Supplemented by a Bibliography and Lists of Christmas Web Sites and Associations. Detroit, Mich: Omnigraphics, 2003. Print.
Boonin, David. A Defense of Abortion. Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Public Policy. Boulder: University of Colorado, 2003. Print.
Abortion is the termination of the unborn as a result of its physical destruction. The three types of abortion consist of therapeutic abortion, spontaneous abortion and elective abortion. Therapeutic abortion is an abortion done for reasons regarding the health of the mother. A spontaneous abortion is a miscarriage, a fetus being expelled before it is physically able to live under normal conditions outside the uterus on its own. This especially happens between the third and seventh months of pregnancy. Elective abortion a voluntary termination of the unborn before viability at the request of the mother. In an elective abortion, reasons are not related to the concerns of the health of the mother or fetus.
Anger and heated debate have long fueled the controversy over abortion. Whether pro-life or pro-choice, both sides of the argument are convinced of the righteousness of their beliefs. There is, however, some confusion surrounding the term “pro-choice” – it does not directly pertain to the spread and use of abortion, but rather, “pro-choicers” advocate the continued legalization of abortion in order to make the choice available and to ensure that women’s fundamental rights are not subjugated. The stance that abortion should be available has its roots in economic concerns, psychological evidence, moral dilemmas, and the Constitution.
Abortion laws and arguments have been continuous since the 1820s when abortion was forbidden after the fourth month of pregnancy. Early feminists such as Susan B. Anthony promoted prevention. They believed that men drove women to aborting the baby. Later on down the road, femi...
Many people in American society assume that the main purpose of Christmas is the supposed coming of Santa Claus. Their assumption however is far from the truth. The origins of Christmas, which literally means "Christ mass," actually lie in Christianity-not in the fat man with a stomach that jiggles like a bowl full of jelly. Centuries ago, Christians developed a tradition of celebrating Jesus Christ's birthday. Although Christians were unsure of the exact date of Christ's birth, they officially declared December 25th as the day they would celebrate it. The holiday began simply as a day in which families would spend quality time together, reflecting on Jesus' life, giving thanks to God for sending his "one and only son."
One of the most controversial issues in this day and age is the stance people take on abortion. The two main positions that people take are either of pro-choice or pro-life; both sides, although polar opposites, tend to refer to both the issue of morality and logical rationale. The pro-life side of the debate believes that abortion is an utterly immoral practice that should be abolished. On the contrary, abortion should remain a legal procedure because it is a reproductive right; its eradication would not only take away the pregnant person’s autonomy, but would also put more children in financially unstable homes and the adoption system, and would cause an increase in potentially fatal, unsafe abortions.
It's thought that Jesus of Nazareth was born in springtime. A Pope, Julius I, chose December 25th for the celebration of his birth in the 4th century -- to include a Christian element in the long-established mid-winter festivals.
“…With the advent of everyday use of elaborate calculations, speed has become paramount to such a high degree that there is no machine on the market today capable of satisfying the full demand of modern computational methods. The most advanced machines have greatly reduced the time required for arriving at solutions to problems which might have required months or days by older procedures. This advance, however, is not adequate for many problems encountered in modern scientific work and the present invention is intended to reduce to seconds such lengthy computations…” From the ENIAC patent (No. 3,120,606), filed 26 June 1947.
“In 1946, John Mauchly and J Presper Eckert developed the fastest computer at that time, the ENIAC I. It was built under the assistance of the US army, and it was used on military researches. The ENIAC I contained 17468 vacuum tubes, along with 70000 resistors, 10000 capacitors, 1500 relays, 6000 manual switches and 5 million soldered joints. It covered 1800 square feet of floor space, weighed 3 tons, consumed 160 kilowatts of electrical power.”(Bellis, Inventors of Modern Computer)
The history of the computer dates back all the way to the prehistoric times. The first step towards the development of the computer, the abacus, was developed in Babylonia in 500 B.C. and functioned as a simple counting tool. It was not until thousands of years later that the first calculator was produced. In 1623, the first mechanical calculator was invented by Wilhelm Schikard, the “Calculating Clock,” as it was often referred to as, “performed it’s operations by wheels, which worked similar to a car’s odometer” (Evolution, 1). Still, there had not yet been anything invented that could even be characterized as a computer. Finally, in 1625 the slide rule was created becoming “the first analog computer of the modern ages” (Evolution, 1). One of the biggest breakthroughs came from by Blaise Pascal in 1642, who invented a mechanical calculator whose main function was adding and subtracting numbers. Years later, Gottfried Leibnez improved Pascal’s model by allowing it to also perform such operations as multiplying, dividing, taking the square root.