...Are Individual Rights More Important Than Human Life? By Talha Sajjad English 161: Academic II Dr. William Ford University of Illinois at Chicago May 3rd, 2010 There are protests and demonstrations held every day, yet somehow abortion is still legal in the United States. In the decision of the Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, it was ruled that women have the right, given to them by the Constitution, to have an abortion in the early stages of pregnancy (Infoplease). Hundreds of protesters gather outside clinics that offer abortions and try to present their position on the issue, but it seems as though their cries and complains are never heard. The main question that we must decide on is this: is it just to take away human life before it even has the chance to be lived? Several countries around the world have outlawed the practice of abortion. When deciding the abortion issue, its women’s rights as citizens of the United States versus the religious beliefs of a majority of citizens. What is more important, the sanctity of life or allowing murder on the basis of one’s right to choose? Given the abortion procedure allows women sexual and reproductive freedom, it has unconsciously led to a trend where abortion is being used as a method of contraception. In the United States, 49% of the pregnancies are unintended and American women used abortion as a tool to terminate almost half of these pregnancies (Infoplease). Abortion was not meant to be used in accidental...
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...Abortion Introduction The abortion debate deals with the rights and wrongs of deliberately ending a pregnancy before normal childbirth, killing the foetus in the process. Abortion is a very painful topic for women and men who find themselves facing the moral dilemma of whether or not to terminate a pregnancy. It's one of the most polarising moral issues - most people are on one side or the other, very few are undecided. The primary questions The moral debate about abortion deals with two separate questions: 1. Is abortion morally wrong? 2. Should abortion be legal or illegal? Women's rights arguments in favour of abortion Here are some of the women's rights arguments in favour of abortion: • women have a moral right to decide what to do with their bodies • the right to abortion is vital for gender equality • the right to abortion is vital for individual women to achieve their full potential • banning abortion puts women at risk by forcing them to use illegal abortionists • the right to abortion should be part of a portfolio ofpregnancy rights that enables women to make a truly free choice whether to end a pregnancy This argument reminds us that even in the abortion debate, we should regard the woman as a person and not just as a container for the foetus. We should therefore give great consideration to her rights and needs as well as those of the unborn. Women's rights arguments against abortion Not all who support women's...
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...There are many different viewpoints on the topic of abortion. Some individuals see it as murder while other individuals believe that everyone can make their own choices regarding their bodies. An abortion is the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy. In certain circumstances, an abortion is seen as acceptable and others believe there is no excuse for anyone to commit what is believed to be murder. Pro-life individuals believe in giving every unborn child a chance at life while pro-choice individuals believe that every woman has the right to make their own decisions regarding their body. Much of the country is split in the decision to keep abortion legal or illegal which is why a desired outcome is difficult to point out for the future of the country. The Main Issues Regarding Abortion There are two different viewpoints when discussing the topic of abortion. You have individuals that are “pro-life”, meaning that they believe intentionally caused abortions are wrong and considered murder because a human is taking away the life of another. Then there are pro-choice groups who believe that a woman should have access to whatever health care she needs and that she has control over her own body. Murder is the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another. But people debate whether a fetus is considered a human being at such an early state. On the other side, the pro-life individuals believe no matter how small, that a fetus is still a human. There are many situations...
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...The argument on whether abortion is morally permissible has been considered for years. Most philosophers incline to accept moral principle that it is always prima facie seriously wrong to end the life of a person in normal circumstances. The personhood of an embryo and foetus has somehow invoked another controversial issue on whether they are kind of beings, or persons, that it is seriously wrong, for any sake, to end their life. Both the anti-abortionist side and pro-choicers side can only give equally vague boundary on claiming that foetus is a person, or not so. However, as we will find out later in this essay, the problem of whether a foetus is a person, or whether a foetus has serious right to life, does not significantly affect the consideration of abortion under Thomson’s account. The argument of the personhood of foetus will just stay at a standoff if there is no clear definition or lists for what characteristics make a thing a person. When we draw line to represent the development of a human being from the state of conception to the point that a baby is born, it will be arbitrary to choose a point which the thing inside a mother is a person after that point and not a person before that point. Moreover, the opposite of abortion may suggest that a foetus, even at the moment of conception, is a person because of their potential future, meanwhile, the supporters of abortion may insist that a foetus has not yet become a person because it lacks of some characteristics that...
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...Abortion, Right or Wrong? To most people life is a gift. Some people live each day as if it were their last. Others take life for granted and assume that what they put off today they can do tomorrow. What about the life of the unborn child, the human being that is growing and developing inside its mother’s womb. Is it the right of the mother to say this child shall be born, or is it the right of the government? Does the developing fetus have a voice on this issue? These questions have been asked as far back as ancient times. Today, the question whether abortion is right or wrong still has many people on different sides of the issue. Abortions have been performed throughout history for many different reasons. Laws and their enforcement on the issue have fluctuations through many eras. Many of the methods used in early and primitive cultures were non-surgical. Common techniques were making the woman perform strenuous physical activities such as climbing, paddling, weightlifting, or diving. Women could also use irritant leaves, fasting, bloodletting, and pouring hot water onto the abdomen. Each culture had its own ways of dealing with unwanted pregnancies. For centuries, South Asia has practiced the technique of massage abortion, the application of pressure to the pregnant abdomen. During the nineteenth century in the United States, the use of candles and other objects, such as glass rods, penholders, curling irons, spoons, sticks, knives, and catheters...
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...ABORTION PRO CHOICE OR PRO LIFE April 11, 2013 PROFESSOR DANIEL HAYNES PHI 103 INFORMAL LOGIC Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy and expulsion of fetus from the uterus resulting in or cause by death of the embryo. The debate over the legal and ethical viability of abortion has been complicated by the lack of consensus in defining whether the developing embryo can be equated as human life. Many people are constantly debating whether or not abortion should be allowed or not. I believe in Pro Choice which believes that woman should have the right to decide if she wants to abort a baby or not. In this paper, I will look at abortions critically and express why abortion should be legal and be left us to a woman to decide. The goal is to point out reason why one might choose abortion. While one is Pro-Choice in the case of abortion, and feels that is should be legal and the choice of a woman. Upon reading the statement on what is pro-choice and how and when abortion is legalized. I will go over why I feel that abortions should be legal. Unwanted pregnancies can be very stressful for woman. Whether or not the woman has the right to have an abortion or not is a controversial subject. Prolife members believe that abortions are seriously wrong and killing a fetus is killing a person. However, woman should have the right to have an abortion for several reasons. Woman should have the right to make decision for their own bodies. Woman should be able to have an...
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...definition of abortion is termination of a pregnancy prematurely by removing a fetus or an embryo from the uterus. Abortion is a very sensitive matter that has people with differing opinions about its permissibility. Some people believe that abortion is similar to committing murder since the fetus is a human with a life. On the other hand, others feel that parents have a right to choose whether to see a pregnancy to full term or to terminate it before it's due. This argument is usually centered on the notion that removing a fetus or an embryo from the uterus cannot be compared to murder as this is not yet a baby. The major controversy about abortion lies in the definition of what stage of development the fetus is in and at which point...
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...Policies in Relation to Abortion Before and After the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court Case New Mexico State University Jennifer Walker Abstract The Roe versus Wade Supreme Court Case has had a huge impact on abortion laws in the United States. Before 1973, abortions were illegal and criminal, with few exceptions. Overnight, the decision in the case legalized first trimester abortions while leaving the specifications of the other trimesters up to the states. This case has led to many debates over the value of life and when life begins whether at conception, independence from mother, or first breath. All of these can be defined by religion, law, or individual beliefs. Unfortunately, none of the policies before or after Roe versus Wade have addressed the issue of unintended pregnancies, which is the underlying cause of abortion. Until this is addressed, policies will continue to be created, implemented, and challenged. Policies in Relation to Abortion Before and After the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court Case Introduction In 1973, a case was selected to be heard by the Supreme Court that would substantially impact women’s rights then and continue to impact them today. The case was over Texas policy article 1911 that stated, “If any person shall designedly administer to a pregnant woman or knowingly procure to be administered with her consent… and thereby procure an abortion, he shall be confined in the penitentiary not less than two nor more than five years…” (Law Library, 2014)...
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...“Pro-choice Abortion” Abortion has been one of the biggest controversies of all time. Many people believe it is immoral and even consider it to be murder. The definition of abortion is; “The termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to being capable of normal growth.” 1 These pro-life believers do not support the idea of induced abortion and believe it should be illegal. Many of these supporters do not know that if abortion were illegal they would still be performed, unfortunately by an uneducated staffs. Over 70 thousand maternal deaths occur every year because of unsafe abortions1. These women die, so the idea of supporting pro-life is contradictory, this is why the nation should be pro-choice. Pro-choice believers support the right to privacy and the idea women should have the choice to do what she pleases with her own body. As an example; a woman is raped by a man and becomes pregnant with his child. She decides she doesn’t want to keep the baby; she has an abortion because the idea of raising a child of her rapist is too painful for her to cope with. Pro-choice defenders take sympathies to this woman while she then gets called a murderer by pro-life supporters. Abortions sometimes results in the woman being harassed because of the choice she has made about her own body. That’s what pro-life supports. Often time’s situations like this turns into harassment which can be considered to be part of anti-abortion violence1....
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...v. Wade”, there is an issue with a lady named Norma Leah McCorvey but is mostly known as “Jane Roe”, who wants an abortion but is illegal in the state of Texas. Now the county called Wade County finds out that she is attempting to have an abortion and they are pressing charges against her and is thrown in jail. Roe decided to fight for her freedom and decides to take this situation to court. The court was taken to the district court. While in the court Roe was making a big statement and stated that the government interfering with her abortion violates her 14th amendment which deals with the right to privacy. Roe gets her way and ends up winning the court case in the district but Wade County is not happy at all and decides...
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...Abortion Is Ethical Problems with Death, 2006 "A woman deciding whether to continue a pregnancy stands on moral ground. She is entitled to make her decision....No one else...should decide whether she will use her body to bring new life into the world." In the following viewpoint Caitlin Borgmann argues that abortion is ethical for many reasons. First, women have the right to decide what to do with their own bodies, she contends. Second, abortion allows women to participate equally in society by enabling them to postpone childbearing until they finish school or establish their careers. Borgmann also maintains that abortion allows women to have children only when they are ready to take care of them, and protects their health by allowing women to terminate pregnancies at legal clinics. At the time this article was written, Caitlin Borgmann was state strategies coordinator for the American Civil Liberties Union Reproductive Freedom Project in New York. As you read, consider the following questions: What two groups of women does the author suggest suffer the most due to restrictions on abortion rights? In the author's view, in addition to a woman's right to choose, what else does the pro-choice movement stand for? What examples does the author use to support her argument that institutional opposition to abortion rights is part of a campaign to undermine women's autonomy and equality? The movement to preserve and advance reproductive freedom is suffering the consequences of...
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...Abortion: Is it Right or is it wrong? Liberty University Human Growth and Development Dr. Robert Pace Contina Roby August 14, 2013 Abstract The purpose of this research paper is being done in reaction to the Mississippi’s Potential Initiative 26 Law. In response to Initiative 26 Law personhood is describe as “all human being from the second of conception, replicating or the functional corresponding thereof”. This would forbid abortions and certain birth control pill. Biblically it says “Thou Shall not Kill” but what transpire when a minor is raped and get pregnant. Should she be made to bring the child to term? After Mississippians went out to cast their votes, Initiative 26 was not approved. The persistence of this paper is to analysis this subject Biblically and then analysis it based upon how people view it. Key Words: Abortion, God, Murder Abortion: Is it Right or is it wrong? Abortion has become very popular in recent years. There are many people who support it and many that don’t. Sometimes abortion seems necessary but still God’s word, “Thou Shall Not Kill” stand. Many people will refuse to accept God’s word as a standard by which they should live and make decision. This is their right to reject it. Having an abortion is basically killing an innocent child. It has become a manufacturing, an elucidation, an excuse to avoid responsibility (Anderson, 2003). Abortion is wrong because God said we are not to murder, but not...
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...Abortion is the intentional termination of a pregnancy after conception. It allows women to put an end to their pregnancies, but involves killing the undeveloped embryo or fetus. For this reason, it is a very controversial subject in American politics. Supporters of abortion rights argue that the embryo or fetus is not a person, or at least that the government has no right to ban abortion unless it can prove that an embryo or fetus is a person. Abortion has been legal in every U.S. state since 1973. When the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade (1973) that women have the right to make medical decisions about their own bodies. Roe v. Wade is a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion. Decided simultaneously with a companion case, Doe v. Bolton, the Court ruled that a right to privacy under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment extended to a woman's decision to have an abortion, but that right must be balanced against the state's two legitimate interests in regulating abortions: protecting prenatal life and protecting women's health. Arguing that these state interests became stronger over the course of a pregnancy, the Court resolved this balancing test by tying state regulation of abortion to the trimester of pregnancy. The Court later rejected Roe's trimester framework, while affirming Roe's central holding that a person has a right to abortion until viability. The Roe decision defined "viable" as being potentially able to live outside...
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...Should abortion be legal? PHI-103 Legalized Abortion Abortion is not an easy decision. In society today abortion has been a very important issue for thousands of years. Everyone has their own opinions and views about abortion. There are two different types of views, the pro-choice activists and there are pro-life activists. Whatever side one decides to take, the argument seems to be pretty equal. For every point supporting abortion there is a counter-point stating just the opposite. The Pro-choice activists believe that it is the woman’s right to choose whether or not to give birth. There are people in our society who believe that abortion should be illegal. For the people who oppose abortion are called the pro-life. A woman should have the right to do as she will with her body and whatever may be inside. Abortion may not be an easy decision but why be against women who make the choice to have one. For thousands of years women have had abortions and many more continue to make the choice of having an abortion for many good reasons. If the government tries to outlaw abortion it will only force women into doing them in a dark and that can be very dangerous to their health, embarrassing, and expensive. Legalized abortions helps protect a women’s health, decreases the world’s population and keeps women from having unwanted pregnancies. Many women had died or have been severely hurt before abortion was legalized. Doctors would perform back alley abortions and at a pricey fee...
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...Researched Argument Audience Analysis: Abortion 1. Who is your audience? What is the name of the person or group for whom you are writing this argument? Why have you chosen this person or group as your target audience? Why will your argument have exigence for your audience? My audience would be to pregnant women. I have chosen my audience to be pregnant women because women who get pregnant are often asked if they know all their options. 2. How open is your audience to your argument? Is it undecided or hostile? Keep in mind that the more hostile your audience is, the more time you will need to spend establishing common ground between you and your audience. My audience would have to be more towards hostile because abortion is a sensitive subject to some people. 3. How will you organize your argument to accommodate your audience’s level of openness to your position? Will your argument have a classical structure? Will it have a Rogerian structure? Will you be presenting your reasons and evidence before directly stating your thesis? Why, based on your knowledge of your audience, will your argument have the organization you will be using? I will give both of the sides of the argument and keep an open mind when presenting both sides. My argument will have a Rogerian structure and my thesis will come after all the evidence is presented. 4. What are your audience's priorities and goals? What are your audience's concerns and fears? What values and beliefs contribute to these...
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