by Branwyn Kenney

Created on: March 19, 2010   Last Updated: May 12, 2011

One of the most controversial topics in America and all over the world today is the issue of abortion. Purely by the nature of the topic itself, many questions about morality are raised that are very difficult, and sometimes even impossible to answer. However, the fundamental question that needs to be addressed in order to make any substantial arguments either supporting or opposing abortion is this: is abortion killing?

As killing is defined as depriving of life, then it must first be known if an unborn child is alive. What constitutes human life? Scientifically, life is characterized in terms of growth, reproduction, metabolism, motion, and response to outside environment. From the moment of conception, a human grows and adapts, gradually evolving into a fully formed being that shows all these features of being alive. At conception, some facets of “life” are not yet shown, but there is no other logical or scientifically supported point to draw the line.

If a fetus is only regarded as human once it's fully formed, how and when does a human that is not alive become one that is? Where precisely do you draw the line? Some will say that because there is no official definition of life, it is not up to the general public to decide whether or not it should be legal to abort. If, because there's doubt about what composes life, and the decision is left up to the parents as to whether the fetus is human or not, that is saying that it's human only if the parents say it is. If your parents were to decide that you were not human, does that mean they have the right to legally kill you?

 
A very popular argument towards this stance is that it should be considered life only when it can survive without the woman's body. It is known that many premature babies can survive outside of the womb at as young as 5 months, and yet, an alarming amount of abortions are performed at or after this point. Also, a child is not truly self-sufficient until long after they are born. They rely on the care of an adult for many years after birth. Under the argument that is it not alive till it can survive without its mother, it would be reasonable to support killing anyone who is dependent solely on another person.

The word fetus comes from the Latin word meaning young one, or young child. Those who say, "It's not killing a child, it's aborting a fetus," are merely using synonyms that sound less horrific, as a synonym of abort is terminate,

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• Next Page >>