Pro-Choice

Abortion is a contentious issue in modern society. Some individuals feel strongly about the issue from both poles of the spectrum regarding abortions. Many people feel abortions are equivalent to murder under any conditions. They typically believe that life begins at conception and thus taking life is a criminal act. However, the concept of "life" is rather ambiguous and under this definition many natural phenomenon could be considered murderous. For example, fresh fruit and vegetables are generally still technically alive when eaten because they are composed of living cells.

Thus eating a salad could be considered a murder. If the argument is about consciousness or pain then these can also be determined. Pain has been identified as only possible after a fetus reaches twenty-six weeks old and consciousness is even more complex. Even infants outside of the womb lack that self-awareness that is typically associated with being conscious.

When many of the standard objections to the practice of abortion being overcome by evidence and reason, the remaining objections often delve into the religious or moral realm and these objections further complicate the argument. This analysis will present some of the most common objections to abortion and argue against these with evidence and reason. Life Begins at Conception There is an assumption by many pro-life advocates that life begins at conception.

When a sperm and egg combine they create a unique genetic identity that represents a code with billions of genetic combinations. Jerome Lejeune, the French geneticist who discovered the chromosome abnormality that causes Down syndrome, stated that (ProCon, N.d.) "To accept the fact that after fertilization has taken place a new human has come into being is no longer a matter of taste or opinion..

The human nature of the human being from conception to old age is not a metaphysical contention, it is plain experimental evidence." If you accept the assumption that life begins at conception then it is easy to see why you could consider an abortion a murder. An abortion would basically represent the murder of a newly created human. However, the same assumption is only applied selectively. In some cases, women who have difficulty getting pregnant often utilize the advances of science and medicine to improve their odds.

Doctors can now combine sperm and eggs cells outside of the womb and inseminate the female artificially. They typically inject several fertilized eggs with the hopes that at least one will survive. If one fertilized egg survives then the woman can have a normal pregnancy in most cases. However, the fertilized eggs that do not survive would represent a form of murder to those who believe life begins at conception. The doctor and the aspiring parents could both be held responsible for colluding in the murder of countless living beings.

Another example arguing to the selectiveness of the assumption that human life begins at conception could be made with the natural and common occurrence of a miscarriage. If a woman was pregnant and was not in good health, whether from natural causes or self-inflicted ones, she could inadvertently commit murder under the assumption. The Mayo Clinic defines a miscarriage as (Mayo Clinic Staff, N.d.): "Miscarriage is the spontaneous loss of a pregnancy before the 20th week. About 10 to 20% of known pregnancies end in miscarriage.

But the actual number is probably much higher because many miscarriages occur so early in pregnancy that a woman doesn't even know she's pregnant." Therefore, under the assumption that life begins at conception, there are many women who could be considered murders. It could be argued that any woman who fails to take care of her body sufficiently enough to provide a nurturing environment for a fetus would be guilty of murder.

The Beginning of Personhood The debate surrounding the practice of abortion is only possible because there is such a large difference in opinion about when an individual officially becomes a person. Throughout much of Western history, abortion was not considered a criminal act as long as it was performed before "quickening" (the first detectable movement of the fetus, which can occur between 13-25 weeks of pregnancy) (BBC, 2014). It has only been relatively recently in history that people began perceiving a fetus as a viable person.

A fertilized egg or a zygote can be perceived as an organism that has the potential to be alive, but it is only on the very beginning of the journey to being fully alive. In fact, most people feel that consciousness and the ability to have self-awareness is one of the prerequisites for personhood. Consciousness is one of the reasons that people differentiate between different forms of life.

For example, most people do not feel guilt when killing a living mosquito, but the same is generally not true of killing a conscious being. As humans, we are required to eat things that are, or previously have been, living to sustain our bodies and all forms of life are not considered equal. One argument is that a viable fetus, one that could potentially survive outside the womb, should be considered as a person.

If the fetus could potentially survive outside their mother's womb, then it could be feasibly considered as a person that has matured enough to survive independently. However, most babies cannot survive naturally without their mother's without the assistance of the latest breakthroughs in science and medicine to support their development. Furthermore, as science and medicine continue to evolve, it is feasible that a zygote could actually survive after conception with medical advancements in an artificial womb.

Thus considering viability is a subjective and dynamic consideration that doesn't provide a concrete definition. The strongest argument, in my opinion, against abortion is that fetuses reach a point in which they can feel pain. According to Stuart W.G. Derbyshire, PhD, Senior Lecturer at the University of.