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Essay on Abortion
| Date: |
12-09-99 5:36am |
| Subject: |
Social Issues |
| Word Count: |
1574 |
| Page Count: |
6.3 |
Abortion
Abortion
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 availabilit y 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 t he 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.
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