An Ethical Argument Against Abortion

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Each day throughout our world, medical professionals suction thousands of babies from their mothers’ wombs through a procedure called abortion. The law protects and provides consent to both the mother and the medical professionals for these procedures. However, the babies seemingly have no right to protection or life themselves because of the argument regarding when a fetus is determined be human and have life. Pro-life author, Sarah Terzo, in a LifeSiteNews.com article, relays the following testimony supporting this from a medical student upon witnessing his first abortion, “Rejected by their mothers and regarded as medical waste by their killers, society allows these babies to die silently, with no recognition or acknowledgment of their humanity” (Terzo). As previously stated, the point at which humanity determines a fetus becomes a human or a person is a tremendous source of argument between the pro-life and pro-choice movements. This argument centers around the point does a person become a human – at conception or birth? Thomson expands on this argument by stating that “we shall probably have to agree that the fetus has already become human person well before birth”(Thomson, 352). She exemplifies this with the following facts: “by the tenth week...it already has a face, arms, and legs, fingers and toes; it has internal organs, and brain activity is Once a person chooses the pro-life argument that “life is present from the moment of conception” (Marquis, 365), or the pro-choice argument that “fetuses are not persons” (Marquis, 365) and cannot live outside the mother’s body, the next focal point of the argument concerns whether or not the mother has a moral obligation to sustain the life of this child. What criteria dictate... ... middle of paper ... ...hical Life: Fundamental Readings in Ethics and Moral Problems. Ed. Russ Shafer Landau. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. 364-374. Print. Riler, Keith. "Thirty-Six Couples Wait for Every One Baby Who is Adopted." LifeNews.com. LifeNews, 9 July 2012. Web. 15 Nov. 2013. . Terzo, Sarah. "LifeSiteNews Mobile | Medical student becomes pro-life after seeing baby’s limbs torn off in suction abortion." LifeSiteNews. LifeSite News, 17 Oct. 2013. Web. 16 Nov. 2013. . Thomson, Judith Jarvis. "A Defense of Abortion." The Ethical Life: Fundamental Readings in Ethics and Moral Problems. Ed. Russ Shafer Landau. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. 351-363. Print.

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