Different aspects regarding abortion

Published Date: 23 Mar 2015

Everyone has different aspects regarding abortion, when a fetus is determined to be a human or a human being and when or why someone should or should not have an abortion. In this paper I hope to open your eyes to the Pro-choice argument of abortion and why maybe it should be considered the women's choice and not to be determined by other opinions and views.

There are several different arguments of when a fetus can be or should be considered a human or a human being. Pro- choice arguments do consider a fetus a human or they would not have an argument on abortion, but the question is when is a fetus considered a human being? What makes us a human being is the ability to be a recognized member of society. There can be no meaningful social participation or social acceptance for someone still living inside another's body. Fetuses do not have a social identity, because of the fact that even names are not determined until after the birth and certification of a birth. Society simply places infants in a higher social value then fetuses, which is embedded in our history, culture and society.

Some cultures babies aren't deemed socially acceptable until later in life. The human species is estimated to have killed 10 to 15 percent of its born children.The point in life when one can be considered a human being is determined by social customs and social norms. Babies have not established a social identity as some older children or adults, because of their undeveloped human abilities and potential.

Pro- Life arguments have completely different views. Pro-life are more of the religious side of abortion and why women should not abort a child. They determine that an embryo is a human as soon as the women's egg is fertilized with the sperm. Whether or not it does not have a heart beat or a functional brain, which is the determining factor that one is considered to be alive. The typical meaning of human being is a physical body of an acceptable size and shape with common dimensions; early embryos do not have similarities that define us as human beings.Zygotes and embryos are barely visible to the naked eye and have no bodies, brains, skeleton, or internal organs. Fetuses do not breath or can make sounds, they are not seen unless through ultrasound. They absorb nourishment and dispose of waste through an umbilical cord and placenta, not a mouth and anus like all other human beings.

A early human fetus is almost indistinguishable as such and if put next to a dog or other animal fetus cannot be recognized as human. The brain is not yet able to have conscious thought, memory and doesn't develops a personality until after birth and social integration. But our complex brains are what set us apart from animals and define us as human beings. The brain is the seat of personhood.So how could one determine that this completely dependent cell is a human being?

Pro-life advocates like to demand legal rights for fetuses. There is no support for fetuses as legal persons in international human rights codes. In almost all national constitutions fetuses are not treated as persons or humans. American citizenship is granted to those born in the United States" (as per the 14th Amendment) and the word "Everyone" in the Canadian constitution has been deemed by the courts not to include fetuses.

A Gallup survey taken in November 2009 suggest that 48 percent consider

themselves pro-choice and 45 percent consider themselves anti-choice, compared to 42 percent pro-choice, 51 percent anti-choice in May 2009.This new research shows numbers close to the historic average, with a small majority of voters supporting choice: 51 percent believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases; 44 percent believe abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. Pro choice views also vary in not only social class and ethnicity but also in the age of the social class. For example 59 percent of young people—support a pro-choice position, 8 points higher than the overall average. Some of this difference may be an artifact of the difficulty of adequately representing the views of young people in landline surveys. In this research, the sample includes interviews among young people from landlines, cell phones, and the web, which better captures a diverse and increasingly mobile population. Youth reached through landlines are more likely to be married, own a house, and have started their own family, and less racially diverse, often resulting in a more conservative political outlook.

Regardless of the views of society or the laws of human rights of a fetus, women will have abortions by any means they can. Whether they break the laws or risks lives doing it abortions will still continue to happen. Even the ones who believe abortion is murder and believe it is morally and ethically wrong but have chosen to go through with an abortion with continue to have them. So ultimately it has to be the women's choice and her moral conscience that will help her make these decisions. That's why the decision should be left up to the pregnant women, and we should help provide safe, legal ways to have abortions. Ultimately, the status of a fetus or whether one wants to have an abortion or not is a matter of society's opinion, and the only opinion that should count is the opinion and decisions of the pregnant woman.