Abortion Debate Essay, Research Paper
The Abortion Debate
Many have pondered upon the meaning of abortion. The argument
being that every child born should be wanted, and others who believe
that every child conceived should be born (Sass vii). This has been a
controversial topic for years. Many people want to be able to decide
the destiny of others. Everyone in the United States is covered under
the United States constitution, and under the 14th Amendment women
have been given the choice of abortion. In 1973, Harry A. Blackmun
wrote the majority opinion that it’s a women’s right to have an
abortion. Roe v. Wade legalized abortion. Even though these people
have been given the right, the case is not closed. Pro-life activists
carry a strong argument, and continue to push their beliefs. They
feel so strongly about these beliefs that violence has broken out in
some known instances. Pro-choice activists, on the other hand, also
carry very strong points. They believe that the child inside them is
their property and it’s life doesn’t be until birth. In 1973, the
United States Supreme Court decided that as long as the baby lived in
the womb, he or she would be the property of the mother. Because of
this decision almost every third baby conceived in America is killed
by abortion, over one and a half million babies a year (Willke vii).
Many countries have followed our decision on the abortion issue and
some of these include Canada, England, and France. Other countries
still believe abortion should be illegal, they include Germany,
Ireland, and New Zealand. Although many believe that abortion is a
women’s choice, abortion should be banned because its immoral and life
begins at conception.
Abortion is the choice of a women whether or not she want’s to
receive one. Under the 14th Amendment’s “personal liberty” women are
given the right to receive an abortion. The 14th Amendment’s concept
of “personal liberty” and restrictions on state action is enough to
allow a women’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.
The right to choose to have an abortion is so personal and essential
to women’s lives that without this right women cannot exercise other
fundamental rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution
(Paltrow 72). The state can’t interfere in the private lives of a
citizen. Without the right to choose an abortion the 14th Amendment’s
guarantee of liberty has little meaning for women. With the right to
choose abortion, women are able to enjoy, like men, the rights to
fully use the powers of their minds and bodies (Paltrow 73). A man
can withdraw from a relationship as soon as he finds out about a
pregnancy. There is no question of his involve t after that, he has
made his choice. It is only fair to say that women should be given the
same choice. If one doesn’t want to hold the responsibilities of a
child than she should be able to have the choice of abortion in her
options. ” Because contraceptives fail, and because they are not
always available or possible to use, abortion is necessary if people
are to be able to determine whether and when to “bear or beget a
child”(Paltrow 72). Couples choose the alternative of abortion so they
can start or expand their families when they feel most ready and able
to care for them. Women choose to have an abortion because pregnancy
and childbirth can prevent them from keeping their jobs, from feeding
their families, and from serving others in ways they consider
necessary and appropriate. Pregnancy and child birth may determine
whether a women ever gets to start or complete her education, which
will significantly influence her ability to support herself and her
family. The availability of abortion makes it possible for people not
only to choose the number of children they want, but also to create
the kind of family life they have always wanted for themselves, to
meet their responsibilities. If a women cannot choose to terminate an
unwanted pregnancy, she is denied the right to the “possession and
control” of her own body. One of the most sacred rights of common
law is to choose and if a women can’t do this than their most
important possession is taken away. Abortion isn’t only a women’s
right, it’s a women’s choice.
However, allowing abortion to be legal is immoral. A pre-born
child is given the status of a “product of pregnancy” and never seen
as the miracle only a women can create. Compassion for the small one
is drowned out under a demand for “rights”, but what about the rights
for the unborn. “A women has a right to her own body” is an idea more
and more women are realizing, but that idea ignores the unborn child’s
right to his or her body. Never, in modern times, has the state
granted to one citizen the right to have another killed in order to
solve their personal, social, or economic problems. the embryo is its
own being that should have it’s own rights to protect it. The zygote
is a unique genetic being (Zindler 27). If one was to abort an embryo
than that embryo, that human life would never be duplicated. A
scientist that may have found the cure to A.I.D.S. would be killed.
There is a better way to solve our problems than by killing children.
A fertilized egg is the most beauti, most innocent being that we
could ever create, and can redeem even the worst of our mistakes. This
fertilized egg is not just a mass of tissue, for if it were than there
would be no debate. A fetus feels pain. Ultra sound, fetoscopy, study
of the fetal EKG (electrocardiogram) and fetal EEG
(electroencephalogram) have demonstrated the remarkable responsiveness
of the human fetus to pain, touch and sound (willke 64). The fetus
responds to light, heat, cold, and taste. Observations of the fetal
movements in saline abortions indicates that the fetus experiences
discomfort as it dies. One doctor who, the New York Times, wrote
“conscientiously performs” saline abortions stated, “when he injected
the saline, he often saw an increase in fetal movements” (Willke 64).
In another case, a film using mew sonographic techniques, shows the
outline of the child in the womb thrashing to resist the suction
device before it tears off the head. Then you see the dead child
dismembered child and the head crushed (Edwards 40). This is murder.
Nobody who sees this film will speak again of “painless” abortion.
After the doctor who performed this procedure saw this film, he never
performed another abortion again. But, many doctors still do perform
abortion, and in some instances a live child is killed. “About once a
day, somewhere in the United States, something goes wrong and an
abortion results in a live baby” (Willke 76). Forty five out of six
hundred and seven mid trimester abortions done in Connecticut in
1974-1976 resulted in live births (Willke 76). In these cases the
child was killed in cold blooded murder. It is immoral to kill,
therefore abortion is immoral.
Finally, abortion should be banned because life begins at
conception. The individual sex cell consists of 23 chromosomes. It is
only through combination, however, that the sex cells contain the full
complement of heredity units that defines a human being (Shettles 17).
This procedure of combination defines conception. After the merger of
the two sex cells 46 chromosomes are present. This is what makes a
human being. The merger is complete within twelve hours, at which time
the egg is fertilized and becomes known technically as the “zygote”.
The inherited characteristics of a unique human being has been
established, and in no circumstances will it change (Shettles 17).
Nothing from this time on, until death, will anything be added. The
definition of alive is that a being is growing, developing, maturing,
and replacing its own dying cells. It means not being dead. At the
very time conception begins the zygote is growing, developing,
maturing, and replacing its own dying cel It’s alive. The
single-celled fertilized ovum cannot by any stretch of the imagination
be considered part of a women’s body. This new living being has a
genetic set up unlike anyone else’s, totally different from the cells
of the mother’s body. It makes no difference to assume that human life
is more human post-born than pre-born. What is critical to figure out
is if it is or isn’t human life, and of coarse it is human life. At 18
days the heart is pumping through a closed circulatory system, with
blood whose type is different from that of the mother. At 40 days the
brain begins to function. In the 16th week motion has been detected.
At 6 and 1/2 weeks all twenty milk-teeth buds are present. During the
eighth week the baby’s stomach secretes gastric juice, and all it’s
body system is present. The baby dreams, thinks, and feels pain. This
is definitely a child, and no one on the face of this earth would be
here if they weren’t conceived.
In summary, abortion can be justified by a women’s right to
choose, but it should be banned because it’s immoral and life begins
at conception. Women have been given the right to have an abortion
under the United States Constitution, 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 it is simply defined as
murder. Life begins at conception is another strong point brought up
by pro-life activists. Before a child is born it is given all it’s
necessities to survive. Notice the operative word is before. Before
birth the childs heart beats, the gastric juices flow in the stomach,
and all its necessary organs have been made present. This is a child
that thinks, dreams, and feels pain. Yes, some women may look at
having an abortion to solve her personal problems, but in all, women
are abandoning the abortion because it weakens their great strengths:
creation, compassion and the ability to loo eneath the surface of
appearance of things. Maybe soon the abortion issue will reverse, and
people will see the rights of the unborn as greater importance than
that of a personal right.