Abortion And Murder
On January 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court, in
two separate decisions, Roe v.
Wade and Doe v. Bolton, declared that Congress
and the states had to adopt a
policy on abortion. Since then, abortion has
been one of the most controversial
issues in our country today. Every time
the subject of abortion is raised, the
same question always comes up: should
people have the right to terminate an
unborn child? The answer is no. No
person should have the right to terminate an
unborn child which has not yet
had the chance to live, no matter what the reason
is. Abortion is the
termination of an alive, unborn child, which can experience
pain through the
process of an abortion. There is no need to have an abortion
when these
children could be put up for adoption instead of being
?aborted.? Abortion is
the termination of alive, unborn children.
How can a person decide just
when an unborn fetus becomes a person with
constitutional rights. Many people
disagree when a fetus becomes an actual
person, but the truth is that a fetus
becomes a person at the time of
conception. An article entitled ?Pro-lofe and
pro-choice? Yes?
says that, ?From the moment of conception, the fetus is
endowed with all
the genetic information that will enable its development
into a full human
person? (Church 108). Technology has advanced very much in
the past
twenty years and now with the aid of medical technology and the
science of
fetology, doctors can prove that a fetus is an actual person as
early as
thirteen weeks of growth (Meyer 62-64). These facts only help to
prove that a
fetus is an actual person, who deserves the chance to be born.
Contrary to
belief, a fetus can actually feel pain. The observation of
abortions on
ultrasound have been very disturbing. So disturbing, that many
abortion doctors
who have seen the procedure, refuse to participate in
abortions again (Meyer
62-64). An article entitled ?Fetal positions:
Making Abortion
rare? reports that, ?Bernard Nathanson, a former director of
the
National Abortion Rights Action League, who performed thousands of
abortions,
repudiated the practice in the early 1980's after observing the
apparent agony
of a fetus subjected to a suction-tip abortion? (Meyer 62-64).
Modern
neurology supports the claim that the fetus can experience pain, not
just
reflex. Reflexive reactions stimulate only the spinal column, but the
more
complex reactions that stimulate pain occur in the tiny portion of the
brain
called the thalamus. Neurologists can detect the thalamus and
the
central-nervous-system functions in the human fetus as early as the
eighth week
of growth (Meyer 62-64). So, how can people justify abortion by
saying that a
fetus is not a person until the time of birth? There are
currently one million
five hundred thousand parents who are waiting to adopt
a child. These parents
could give unwanted children love and a place in which
to grow up. Every year,
nearly one million six hundred thousand unborn
children are aborted. According
to the article ?Fetal positions: Making
abortin rare?,
?Women wanting to rid themselves of viable infants can
generally do so as
easily by delivering them and then turning them over to
adoptive parents as by
aborting them? (Meyer 62-64). These unwanted children
would be given to
someone who would care for them as their own, and the
mothers of these unborn
children would not have to worry about the
responsibility of raising them.
Everyone would come out ahead, especially
the unborn child. Abortionists claim
that unborn children are not human
people. The article ?Pro-life and
pro-choice? Yes? claims that, ?A potential
human person is not yet
an actual human person. Thus abortion, if repellent,
is not exactly
murder? (Church 108). But on what possible justification can
there be for
the termination of a seven month old unborn child, when heroic
medical measures
are often taken to save an even younger child?s life at a
mother?s
wish (Meyer 62-64). There is no way to say that an unborn fetus is
not a human
person when there are plenty of facts to claim that it is. Once a
child is
conceived, it is on its way to becoming a human person. There is no
way to stop
the process of growth from happening, unless the fetus is
aborted. Abortionists
also claim that it is the right of a woman to be able
to choose if she wants to
have an abortion. Jessica Feierman, whose mother is
an abortion doctor, says,
?I?m pro-choice because I believe that as women, we
must be the
ones to make decisions about our bodies and we should have the
right to be safe
with whatever choices we make? (82). In the Roe v. Wade
decision, the
Supreme Court declared that the rights of the fetus never
eclipsed those of the
mother (Meyer 62-64). But what of the rights of the
unborn child? An unborn
child is incapable of protecting itself and needs
someone to protect it from
harm. This someone should be it?s mother, but
sadly, it is usually the
mother that the unborn child needs protection from.
There needs to be some sort
of law which protects these unborn children from
needless death. There have been
a few court cases in which unborn children
have been protected. In 1981, the
state of Georgia obtained the right to make
a mother have a caesarean section,
against her will, to save her unborn
child?s life. More of these types of
cases should be enforced to save the
needless deaths of unborn children.
Abortion is a subject throughout the
world that desperately needs to be
addressed. The countless abolishing of
unborn children needs to end. If people
would just look at all of the facts
on abortion and realize that it is
senseless, then maybe some of these
potential human lives could be saved.
Everyone deserves the right to be
born, regardless of sex, color, or physical
handicaps. These unborn children
deserve the right to grow up and become someone
in this world, not be
terminated even before they get the chance to begin
life.
Bibliography
Church, George J. ?Pro-life and pro-choice?
Yes.? Time 6 March
1995: 108. Feierman, Jessica. ?Stand by your mom.?
Seventeen
December 1994: 82. Larson, Edward J. ?Personhood: current
legal
views.? Second Opinion July 1990: 40. Meyer, Stephen C.
?Fetal
positions: Making abortion rare.? National Review 20 March 1995:
62-64.