AKALINDER SINGH KAPOOR

ENG111

SARAH B HUGHES

WRITING TO EXPLORE

'ABORTION' is one of hot topic going on these days. It comes under one of the most heated

debates. Abortion is the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy before birth that results

in the death of an embryo or a fetus. Most of people consider this act of abortion as cruel as

murder (http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~unger/articles/lifeRule-2.html). Two broad form of

abortion are spontaneous and purposeful abortion.

People have different types of prospective views related to this act, as I mentioned

above many of them think it as brutal act and are in favor of stopping it as it is consider

equivalent to murder. Other feel 'Right to Choose' must be provided in parents. Former one

comes under Pro - Life and the latter one under Pro - choice.

Pro Life comprises someone having conservative view and they consider fetus as

alive, partly formed human being and performing this act is to kill it and commit murder. Pro

Choice comprises someone having liberal view and they consider this act not term as

murder until and unless the child is not born. According to my point of view, according to my

point of view, it is crucial that these two extremes come to a compromise in order to protect

the autonomy and safety of women and lives of fully-formed fetuses; therefore, the stage the

fetus is in one must be emphasized on at. If the person is applying this act when the fetus is in

very early stage then it should not be consider as murder whereas if it has already developed

in large fetus, it should definitely consider as murder.

 There also exist many situations when one have to perform this act to save someone

life, such as when there is complexity in pregnancy and there is risk to mother's life due to

child. In this type of situation, it is absolutely fine to perform this act of abortion. All that

matter is one should be conscious about the various ideas that go behind abortion. The right

abortion should be given in hands of mother as she know best about her condition and it is

her body which is going to become host for a baby for coming nine months and according to

"A Defense of Abortion" a philosophy paper by Thomson, that mother should have the right

to decide if she want to nurture the baby and go through all this trauma.

In early stage, i.e. first ten to twelve weeks; Abortion should not be term as murder.

According to medical studies, at that stage the fetus is connected by placenta and umbilical

cord to the mother. Under such condition, its health is completely reliant on her health and

thats why, not at all considered as separate entity until it not exist outside the womb.

According to medical studies, although by the tenth week fetus starts to develop body parts

like face, leg, arms etc but still it does not have consciousness and it does not consider as

human being. According to pro-choice advocates Concept of human life and personhood

has vast difference. Human life arises at conception, but in vitro fertilization the fertilized egg

used is also considered as human lives and those not implanted are thrown away. This should

also be considered as murder, and if not why abortion is consider as murder? Pro- Choice

believes planned children often have better upbringing in life as they not face ignorance and

their life is full of care and love given by parents according to (Pro-Choice, Pro-Life, &

American Law). Parents are better prepared to give their child physical, emotional and

financial support. They have strong argument with point i.e. in case of rape and incest. Here

the child could face higher risk of abusive nature, negligence and emotional torture from their

surroundings. A baby could be considered as a thing which is constantly pointing women as a

reminder about the trauma she experienced throughout her life. This violent act would cause

psychological harm to both the victim mother and the baby.

In all such cases the babies are disowned by their parents and given to foster houses

and orphanages, which already are in less in numbers and adding number put more weigh on

already limited resources. Also adoption is not an alternative to this act as it is made clear by

statistic data that less than 3 percent of white unmarried women and less than 2 percent of

black unmarried women who give birth choose to give their baby for adoption. Pro - choice

claims that abortion is overall a very safe procedure under legal hands. According to statistics

less than one percent of abortions before 21 weeks result major complexities like infection

and heavy bleeding. Illegal abortion cause thousands of women to die all over world just

because they are forced to opt the way in which she keep pregnancy in confidentiality and

neglect the sanitary condition and professional care according to (Pro-Choice, Pro-Life, &

American Law). Pro Choice feel abortion create an environment of stress and also

according to American Psychological Association stress is greater prior to abortion rather

than post. Most of teenager who have become mother have depressing future, having bad

impact on their school life, disowned by parents, for raising their child rely on public

assistance and health problems and end up divorced.

Pro-life arguments are based on their views that consider abortion is akin to murder as

it is the deed of taking human life. They treat fetus as human live, the day it conceived. In

other words, Pro Life activists claim that at any stage of pregnancy aborting a child is an

absolute crime. They claim that due to carelessness of mother pregnancy took place. It's all

her fault like she fails to take proper precaution that completely prevent an unwanted

pregnancy, so she should herself deal with the consequences and it is completely her

responsibility. If it is given into legal permission, then abortion will become the regular form

of birth control which is wrong. Or other words we can say, it should not be consider as
another form of contraception. Pro Life view over rape and incest is that with proper care

the women can be ensured from not getting pregnant. By adopting abortion in this case

punishes the children, who have no involvement in such a brutal crime.

Pro Life consider babies as an asset for society, so aborting a fetus not only kill the

human but also have harmful effect on countries potential. Also under many religions

terminating a Child of God is a moral sin, as they believe children conceived within a

marriage are children of God. Also, they have strong opinion considering Adoption as an

feasible alternative to abortion. Over viewing statistics of now a days, 'Unwanted Child' does

not exist anymore as there are 1.5 million American families who desperately want to adopt a

child. Medical complication and complexities in later life are also considered as one of an

argument issue for Pro Life over Pro-choice. Such as it doubles the risk of ectopic

pregnancies, also increases chance of miscarriages and pelvic inflammatory disease. They

argue on the Pre Choice statement that women, who demand complete control on their

body, should first control the risk of unwanted pregnancy through being responsible in using

contraception. Abortion is strongly opposed by tax payer, as they want that their tax dollar

should not be used to fund abortion. This act is responsible in causing deep psychological

imbalance, stress and pain. Most of abortion cases are of young women with insufficient life

experience and they also suffered afterwards lifelong regret.

Altogether, for the whole of many years of American history, a continuous debate has

been going on to find out whether abortion is right or wrong decision. They have been

debating for very prolonged period and involved in strong protest. In past i.e. 2003, a law to

prevent abortion all over country was signed by President of America (https://georgewbush-

whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/11/20031105-1.html). This gives rise to many

controversy and is strongly opposed by many organizations, one of which is National

Organization for Women. They put their favor in support of legal abortion and its
accessibility. Found this law as violating the rights of women. According to their perspective

everyone should have right to choose whether they want to keep the baby or kill it.

Overall; many people want abortion rest of them don't., there is a persistent debate

over whether abortion should be legal in the United States. Nobody have clear cut, conclusive

definition on when the abortion is called murder and when should it be allowed to perform.

All the decision about abortion should be given in hands of father and mother until the

embryo has developed to a stage where it achieves human traits. It should be legal when fetus

is in early stage of 10 to 12 week after that it's should be punishable to both parents and

doctor performing this act. Such law must be applicable in all countries and state and treated

on equal basis.

Work Cited

Niebuhr, Reinhold. Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics. Charles

Scribner's Sons. 1932.

Thompson, Judith Jarvis. A Defense of Abortion. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 1, (1).

1971

LeVay, Simon, Janice Baldwin, and John Baldwin. Discovering Human Sexuality.

SinauerAssociates,Inc., 2009

http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/sexinfo/article/arguments-and-against-abortion

Articles of Faith: A Frontline History of the Abortion Wars: Cynthia Gorney. Trade

Paperback, 2000.
 A history of the "two sides" and how their proponents developed deepening

commitments during the years abortions were illegal and then after the Roe v.

Wade decision.

Abortion: The Clash of Absolutes: Laurence H. Tribe. Trade Paperback, 1992.

Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard, Tribe attempts to outline the difficult

issues and why legal resolution is so difficult.

Abortion Controversy: 25 Years After Roe vs. Wade, A Reader: Louis J. Pojman and Francis

J. Beckwith. Trade Paperback, 1998.

Abortion & Dialogue: Pro-Choice, Pro-Life, & American Law: Ruth Colker. Trade

Paperback, 1992