Common Arguments Against Abortion Examined with Reason

Introduction

Abortion is a contentious issue in modern society. People feel strongly about the issue from both ends of the spectrum. Many believe that abortion is equivalent to murder under any conditions, typically holding that life begins at conception and that taking that life is therefore a criminal act. However, the concept of "life" is rather ambiguous, and under this definition many natural phenomena could be considered murderous. For example, fresh fruit and vegetables are generally still technically alive when eaten because they are composed of living cells — meaning that, by this logic, eating a salad could constitute murder.

If the objection is instead about consciousness or the capacity for pain, these too can be examined empirically. Pain has been identified as only possible after a fetus reaches twenty-six weeks of development, and consciousness is an even more complex threshold — even infants outside the womb lack the self-awareness typically associated with being conscious. When the standard objections to abortion are weighed against evidence and reason, the remaining objections often retreat into the religious or moral realm, further complicating the argument. This paper presents some of the most common objections to abortion and argues against each with evidence and reason.

Life Begins at Conception

Many pro-life advocates hold that life begins at conception. When a sperm and egg combine, they create a unique genetic identity representing a code with billions of possible genetic combinations. Jerome Lejeune, the French geneticist who discovered the chromosomal abnormality that causes Down syndrome, stated:

"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." (ProCon, n.d.)

If one accepts the assumption that life begins at conception, it is easy to see why abortion could be characterized as murder — it would represent the termination of a newly created human being.

However, this assumption is applied selectively. Women who have difficulty conceiving often utilize advances in science and medicine to improve their odds. Doctors can combine sperm and egg cells outside the womb and inseminate the female artificially, typically implanting several fertilized eggs in the hope that at least one will survive. If one fertilized egg survives, the woman can carry a normal pregnancy in most cases. Yet the fertilized eggs that do not survive would represent a form of murder to those who believe life begins at conception — meaning the doctor and the aspiring parents could both be held responsible for colluding in the deaths of countless living beings.

Another example illustrating the selective application of this assumption involves the natural and common occurrence of miscarriage. If a woman in poor health — whether from natural causes or self-inflicted ones — inadvertently lost a pregnancy, she could be considered guilty of murder under this assumption. The Mayo Clinic defines miscarriage as follows:

"Miscarriage is the spontaneous loss of a pregnancy before the 20th week. About 10 to 20 percent 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." (Mayo Clinic Staff, n.d.)

Therefore, under the assumption that life begins at conception, a significant number of women could be considered murderers. It could be argued that any woman who fails to care sufficiently for her body — and thereby fails to provide a nurturing environment for a fetus — would be guilty of murder. The logical consequences of this position are rarely acknowledged by those who hold it.

The Beginning of Personhood

The debate surrounding abortion is possible in large part because of the profound disagreement over 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 and 25 weeks of pregnancy (BBC, 2014). It has only been relatively recently in history that people began perceiving a fetus as a viable person deserving full legal protection.

A fertilized egg or zygote can be understood as an organism with the potential to become fully alive, but it stands only at the very beginning of that journey. Most people regard consciousness and the capacity for self-awareness as among the prerequisites for personhood. Consciousness is one of the key reasons people differentiate between forms of life. Most people feel no guilt when killing a mosquito, for instance, but the same is generally not true of killing a conscious being. As humans, we must consume things that are, or previously were, living in order to sustain our bodies, and not all forms of life are considered equal under any consistent moral framework.

Conclusion

Although the ability to experience pain does not necessarily equate to the development of personhood, the avoidance of pain is a reasonable objection to the practice of abortion. However, there are roughly twenty-six weeks in which a termination can be performed without the concern of fetal pain, which represents an adequate window of opportunity for the pregnant person to make a decision. When the primary objections to abortion — the claim that life begins at conception, the question of personhood, and the issue of viability — are examined against evidence and reasoned argument, they are found to rest on selective and inconsistent applications of their own premises. The strongest remaining concern, fetal pain, is real but bounded, and must be weighed against the full range of circumstances a pregnant person may face.

Works Cited

BBC. (2014). Historical Attitudes to Abortion. Retrieved from BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/legal/history_1.shtml

Derbyshire, S. (2006). Can Fetuses Feel Pain? British Medical Journal.

Mayo Clinic Staff. (n.d.). Definition. Retrieved from Mayo Clinic: http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/pregnancy-loss-miscarriage/basics/definition/con-20033827

ProCon. (n.d.). Should Abortion Be Legal? Retrieved from ProCon: http://abortion.procon.org/