Abortion Essay, Research Paper

Abortion: Just Another Word For Murder

On January 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court, in two separate decisions, Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, declared that Congress and the states had to adopt a policy on abortion. Since then, abortion has been one of the most controversial issues in our country today. Every time the subject of abortion is raised, the same question always comes up: should people have the right to terminate an unborn child? The answer is no. No person should have the right to terminate an unborn child which has not yet had the chance to live, no matter what the reason is. Abortion is the termination of an alive, unborn child, which can experience pain through the process of an abortion. There is no need to have an abortion when these children could be put up for adoption instead of being aborted.

Abortion is the termination of alive, unborn children. How can a person decide just when an unborn fetus becomes a person with constitutional rights. Many people disagree when a fetus becomes an actual person, but the truth is that a fetus becomes a person at the time of conception. An article entitled Pro-lofe and pro-choice? Yes says that, From the moment of conception, the fetus is endowed with all the genetic information that will enable its development into a full human person (Church 108). Technology has advanced very much in the past twenty years and now with the aid of medical technology and the science of fetology, doctors can prove that a fetus is an actual person as early as thirteen weeks of growth (Meyer 62-64). These facts only help to prove that a fetus is an actual person, who deserves the chance to be born.

Contrary to belief, a fetus can actually feel pain. The observation of abortions on ultrasound have been very disturbing. So disturbing, that many abortion doctors who have seen the procedure, refuse to participate in abortions again (Meyer 62-64). An article entitled Fetal positions: Making Abortion rare reports that, Bernard Nathanson, a former director of the National Abortion Rights Action League, who performed thousands of abortions, repudiated the practice in the early 1980’s after observing the apparent agony of a fetus subjected to a suction-tip abortion (Meyer 62-64). Modern neurology supports the claim that the fetus can experience pain, not just reflex. Reflexive reactions stimulate only the spinal column, but the more complex reactions that stimulate pain occur in the tiny portion of the brain called the thalamus. Neurologists can detect the thalamus and the central-nervous-system functions in the human fetus as early as the eighth week of growth (Meyer 62-64). So, how can people justify abortion by saying that a fetus is not a person until the time of birth?

There are currently one million five hundred thousand parents who are waiting to adopt a child. These parents could give unwanted children love and a place in which to grow up. Every year, nearly one million six hundred thousand unborn children are aborted. According to the article Fetal positions: Making abortin rare, Women wanting to rid themselves of viable infants can generally do so as easily by delivering them and then turning them over to adoptive parents as by aborting them (Meyer 62-64). These unwanted children would be given to someone who would care for them as their own, and the mothers of these unborn children would not have to worry about the responsibility of raising them. Everyone would come out ahead, especially the unborn child.

Abortionists claim that unborn children are not human people. The article Pro-life and pro-choice? Yes claims that, A potential human person is not yet an actual human person. Thus abortion, if repellent, is not exactly murder (Church 108). But on what possible justification can there be for the termination of a seven month old unborn child, when heroic medical measures are often taken to save an even younger childs life at a mothers wish (Meyer 62-64). There is no way to say that an unborn fetus is not a human person when there are plenty of facts to claim that it is. Once a child is conceived, it is on its way to becoming a human person. There is no way to stop the process of growth from happening, unless the fetus is aborted.

Abortionists also claim that it is the right of a woman to be able to choose if she wants to have an abortion. Jessica Feierman, whose mother is an abortion doctor, says, Im pro-choice because I believe that as women, we must be the ones to make decisions about our bodies and we should have the right to be safe with whatever choices we make (82). In the Roe v. Wade decision, the Supreme Court declared that the rights of the fetus never eclipsed those of the mother (Meyer 62-64). But what of the rights of the unborn child? An unborn child is incapable of protecting itself and needs someone to protect it from harm. This someone should be its mother, but sadly, it is usually the mother that the unborn child needs protection from. There needs to be some sort of law which protects these unborn children from needless death. There have been a few court cases in which unborn children have been protected. In 1981, the state of Georgia obtained the right to make a mother have a caesarean section, against her will, to save her unborn childs life. More of these types of cases should be enforced to save the needless deaths of unborn children.

Abortion is a subject throughout the world that desperately needs to be addressed. The countless abolishing of unborn children needs to end. If people would just look at all of the facts on abortion and realize that it is senseless, then maybe some of these potential human lives could be saved. Everyone deserves the right to be born, regardless of sex, color, or physical handicaps. These unborn children deserve the right to grow up and become someone in this world, not be terminated even before they get the chance to begin life.

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Church, George J. Pro-life and pro-choice? Yes. Time 6 March 1995: 108.

Feierman, Jessica. Stand by your mom. Seventeen December 1994: 82.

Larson, Edward J. Personhood: current legal views. Second Opinion July 1990: 40.

Meyer, Stephen C. Fetal positions: Making abortion rare. National Review 20 March 1995: 62-64.