Abortion Pros and Cons

Running Head: ABORTION PROS AND CONS

Critical Issue Analysis Paper (Pros& Cons)

Mandy Diaz

University of Phoenix

Oscar Gonzalez, M.A.

RES 110/ Introduction to Research and Information Utilization

August 13, 2007

Abstract

When people think of abortion some people think of killing a human while others think different. When you talk to people about abortion some people are against it and some are for abortion.

Abortion Pros and Cons

Abortion to people takes a life of a human. It is "the expulsion of a human fetus within the first twelve weeks of pregnancy, before viable." (Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, 1992, p.4). People also think that abortion violates human rights, and is immoral. Abortion should be illegal and restricted. On the other hand, some people think abortion should be legal and should not be restricted. They think it is a moral choice and that abortion is safe.

Abortion violates human rights, it is wrong when it brings a necessary consequence of killing an innocent human life. When human life begins it is the union of the sperm and egg. It creates an individual with a complete genetic code. Since the unborn child has a completely different genetic makeup than the mother, its life should be seen as being separate from the mother. Therefore an unborn child should have a right to have there life protected (Gargaro, 2002).

Over thirty million legal abortions have taken place in the United States since legalization of abortion over twenty seven years ago. This is a matter of life and death to an innocent human being which now have women controlling their own lives and bodies. Some people right away will tell you that abortion is not a matter of life and death. They will argue that a fetus is not a person or human being (Gargaro, 2002).

A three-week old fetus has human rights, but medical research proves that a fetus is living from the moment of conception. It will still be argued that a fetus is not a person but it may seem to be nothing but a human being (Gargaro, 2002).

The way to best explain it is to go back to the beginning with the sperm and egg. A sperm has twenty-three chromosomes and an egg has twenty-three chromosomes. Even though the sperm is alive and can fertilize an egg it can not make another sperm and an egg can not make another egg. When the sperm and egg are then brought together then there are the 46 chromosomes that are needed to make a human life. When the human life is started the only thing the mother needs to add is nutrition so that the unborn child can grow. This new life is not a combination of a sperm or an egg. It has a life of its own now and the development is self directed (Gargaro, 2002).

It is interesting when an unborn child can be denied a life to live and still have other rights. The unborn child can be hurt in a car accident and then after the unborn child is born they can sue the people or person who hurt them. Then when a fetus is born they even have the right to take over a person who was born before them. "In addition, the US Congress voted unanimously in 1974 to delay the capital punishment of pregnant women until after they have given birth" (Gargaro, 2002).

Abortion is also immoral. A human being has a right to life weather it being a sacred or inviolable. The moment an ovum is fertilized a human life begins. Abortion is a crime that is a killing of an innocent life that has not yet been born. If abortion is recognized for dealing with murder it is apparent in all truth of a human being at the beginning of life (John Paul II, 1997).

An unborn child is weak and defenseless. The unborn child depends on its mother that is carrying him or her to totally protect and care for him or her. The decision to have an abortion is a painful decision to get rid of an unborn child. Reasons for abortion can never explain the reason of killing an unborn child (John Paul II).

There are other people as well as the mother that bear responsibility. There is the father of the unborn child if he is the one to blame, if he is directly pressuring the mother to have an abortion. He is also to blame if he leaves the mother to take care of the problems of pregnancy herself. With strong pressure the mother might feel subjected or forced to have an abortion. Who ever has directly or indirectly pressured the mother the moral responsibility particularly lies with them. The responsibility should also fall on the administrators of the health care centers where abortion is done and the legislators who made abortion legal (John Paul II).

People think it takes up to a certain number of days for an unborn child to be called a human being from the result of conception. As John Paul II says "abortion proclaims from the time that the ovum is fertilized, a life is begun which is neither that of the father nor the mother; it is rather the life of a new human being with his own growth (John Paul II).

When abortion got legalized the U.S. Supreme Court on January 22, 1973 handed down its decision though out the country. Abortion was illegal in almost all states until the day before Roe v. Wade though few had recently relaxed their laws. Then all of a sudden women had a constitutional right that gave them the right to have an abortion any time between the nine month terms of pregnancy the day after Roe. The number of abortions quickly rose to nearly 1.5 million every year, which is about 30 % of all pregnancies. Unless the mothers' health was at harm the states still could ban abortion in the last three months (McConnell, 2002).

When Roe v. Wade was made it was suppose to be an embarrassment for those who took constitutional law seriously, even too many supporters the outcome of the case. Even though Roe gives almost no sense of a binding legal agreement to try to be a law so it is not a constitutional law (McConnell, 2002).

It has been said that agreement or compromise defies the abortion issue. If you look at the poll data and it is correct, there has been a surprisingly stable majority of opinion with the American people within the past 30 years that rejects the free of compromise positions with both sides of abortion, people who speak or write in support of the argument. There are big majorities that think abortion should be available and legal during the early months of pregnancy. They think it should be legal when the reasons are weighted on "rape, incest, probability of serious birth defect, or serious danger to the mother's