The Legalization Of Abortion

Many Supreme Court rulings have been pivotal throughout the history of the judicial system of the United States of America. One of the most famous and controversial cases in U.S. history, Roe v. Wade, legalized the act of a woman aborting her unborn child. Since its legalization in 1973, abortion has been a very passionate topic amongst its opposers with protests annually, numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Abortion is a major issue in terms of ethics and human values. A living being has intrinsic moral value and rights regardless of location or stage in development. Abortion promotes a culture in which human life is disposable. The question that should then be asked is: On what moral grounds does the mother alone decide a fetus’s worth?

The first, and very common pro-choice argument that can easily be defeated is in regards to the humanity and personhood of a fetus. Those who support the legalization of abortion often argue that a fetus is not a human or that they lack personhood: the state or fact of being an individual or having human characteristics and feelings (Personhood). The humanity of a fetus is unmistakably present. At the moment of conception the unborn child is unique from its mother and father and possesses all necessary instructions for development. This uniqueness from the mother includes not only DNA, but in some cases even blood type, hair color, and eye color. All development onwards is simply replication of what already exists. The fetus is a homo sapien and, while attached to the mother, is a unique individual. People ask pregnant women, “How’s the baby?” not, “How’s your body?” A fetus is just a human being that has not been born yet; nothing more, nothing

The logical fallacy in this argument is that the attributes that some would propose prevent a fetus from being a person would also apply to certain people who have already been born. Unborn persons are dependent on their mothers for survival just as newborn babies and young children are, and indeed, as many elderly and ill persons are. Being dependent does not invalidate personhood. Another defense would be that fetuses are incapable of rational thought or self awareness therefore they are not a person. Using this rationale, coma patients and individuals with certain mental disabilities would not be considered a person. There are obvious faults to all of these arguments. Pro-choice advocates apply different standards to unborn babies than to infants in an attempt to push their