Abortion has always been a case of debate in history, because of the numerous implications this issue has. It relates not only to the rights of the mother, but, even more important, to the rights of the unborn child. Additionally, abortion provides an unwanted means of late contraception. Due to this available, last minute solutions, teens tend to pay less attention to normal contraception means, which encourages not only promiscuity, but the spreading of sexually transmitted diseases and especially AIDS.
The most important argument that the pro-choice and the pro-life groups use is the morality argumentation. A simple syllogism applies in this case. The conceived fetus is a member of the human specie and ending its existence is murder. Murder is immoral and unethical
. However, this argumentation stands only after we deliberate over the condition of the fetus. Can the fetus be considered a human being, entitled with the same rights we all have?
The pro-choice argumentative group will always state that the fetus is not biologically sufficiently developed to be able to assert that he is a human being. This is dubitative. In the moment that the fetus is conceived, he begins a life of his own, a life where he feeds himself and bears all of the physiological characteristics of human life.
Asserting that the fetus is not yet a human being seems completely off the path, mainly because there is no proper and no real argumentation in this sense. If this were to be true, one could, for example, consider that the child doesn't have rights until he is three years old, which would practically encourage infanticide as well. This example may be rather strong, but it was used in order to prove that one cannot draw the line that separates a child with rights from a fetus without rights. The only solution is to consider the conceiving as the moment from which the child begins to have rights and, especially the moment from which these rights need to be protected.
We need to point out here that Christian morality has introduced some actions which lead to murder and are considered to be legitimate. In the medieval period, there were the crusades, where the Christians were not only allowed, but encouraged to slaughter Muslims for a holy cause. Nowadays, war still remains one of the 'legitimate' murders. In this sense, utilitarian defense is sometimes used by the pro-choice groups as an argument for abortion
The idea is that abortion "might reduce the number of unwanted children" and "increase the freedom and autonomy of women"
. This, related with the avoidance or minimization of the social care problems that often appear in the case of unwanted children, may encourage women to be able to make a choice and avoid child birth and child caring if they want.
As someone has mentioned, the right of choice that each one of us has "does not extend to the decision to make immoral choices that adversely affect others"
. This is a very important argument we are to use when arguing against abortion. Abortion is immoral intrinsically because it affects other people. Democracy and the right to chose does not exonerate someone from respecting the other individuals that live in the same world.
The fact that a fetus is already an individual has already been previously argued for. As an individual, the fetus has rights. His most important right is the right of being protected against other people choices. This is a right that is generally conferred to us both by morality and by legality. In this case, only in some situations and some states do we have it confirmed by legal actions.
The morality argumentation revolving very much around the rights of the fetus and it may be concluded that this is very much determined by the moment...
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