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“How far along in a pregnancy is it until the unborn child is considered human? At what point does it receive basic rights?” These propositions have been the topic of one the most controversial discussions of the century. Based on the research I have completed on this topic, it has been made indisputable to me that life begins at the moment of conception.
While I, along with many other pro-life advocates, believe that human life is set into motion the minute of conception, there is a major group of individuals who would beg to differ. They are strong believers that the embryo is only “potential human”. Many abortionists place confidence in the idea that the embryo is not to be considered as a full human, due to the idea that it is depending fully on its mother. Although this reasoning seems plausible, when analyzed a little deeper, that does not seem to be the case. Imagine the following scenario. A man is driving down the busy road on his motorcycle. All of a sudden, the man loses control of his bike and collides with a car passing him on the road. This man is then rushed to the emergency room where the doctors discover that, although blessed to still be alive, he is completely paralyzed. He now depends exclusively on the health care providers, family and friends for all aspects of his life which he used to be able to complete independently. Does this full dependence on others dehumanize him in any way? No. This man is still a human “by nature”. The paralyzed man’s situation is now comparably similar to the human embryos’. According to the textbook Basics of Biology, life starts at fertilization. This is when the sperm joins the oocyte. In order to distinguish whether an organism is living or not, there are several crucial char...
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...e leading scientists in our society today.
Works Cited
"When Does Life Begin?" When Does Life Begin? Association of Pro-Life Physicians, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. .
Dougherty, Jon E. "RECENT ARTICLES." Life Begins at Conception. Catholic Education Resource Center, 2001. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. .
Alcorn, Randy. "Why Life Begins at Conception." Naapc.org. The National Association for the Advancement of Preborn Children, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. .
Slick, Matt. "Is an Embryo Human?" CARM. Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. .
"Human." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2013. .
The Web. The Web. 15 Apr. 2013. The. Waskey, Andrew J. -. “Moral Status of Embryos.”
“I argue that it is personhood, and not genetic humanity, which is the fundamental basis for membership in the moral community” (Warren 166). Warren’s primary argument for abortion’s permissibility is structured around her stance that fetuses are not persons. This argument relies heavily upon her six criteria for personhood: A being’s sentience, emotionality, reason, capacity for communication, self-awareness, and having moral agencies (Warren 171-172). While this list seems sound in considering an average, healthy adult’s personhood, it neither accounts for nor addresses the personhood of infants, mentally ill individuals, or the developmentally challenged. Sentience is one’s ability to consciously feel and perceive things around them. While it is true that all animals and humans born can feel and perceive things within their environment, consider a coma patient, an individual suspended in unconsciousness and unable to move their own body for indeterminate amounts of time. While controversial, this person, whom could be in the middle of an average life, does not suddenly become less of a person
Lee, Patrick. Abortion and Unborn Human Life. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America, 2010.
The criterion for personhood is widely accepted to consist of consciousness (ability to feel pain), reasoning, self-motivation, communication and self-awareness. When Mary Anne Warren states her ideas on this topic she says that it is not imperative that a person meet all of these requirements, the first two would be sufficient. We can be led to believe then that not all human beings will be considered persons. When we apply this criterion to the human beings around us, it’s obvious that most of us are part of the moral community. Although when this criterion is applied to fetuses, they are merely genetic human beings. Fetuses, because they are genetically human, are not included in the moral community and therefore it is not necessary to treat them as if they have moral rights. (Disputed Moral Issues, p.187). This idea is true because being in the moral community goes hand in hand w...
Mary Anne Warren’s “On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion” describes her justification that abortion is not a fundamentally wrong action for a mother to undertake. By forming a distinction between being genetically human and being a fully developed “person” and member of the “moral community” that encompasses humanity, Warren argues that it must be proven that fetuses are human beings in the morally relevant sense in order for their termination to be considered morally wrong. Warren’s rationale of defining moral personhood as showcasing a combination of five qualities such as “consciousness, reasoning, self-motivated activity, capacity of communication, and self-awareness” forms the basis of her argument that a fetus displays none of these elements that would justify its classification as a person and member of the morally relevant community (Timmons 386).
But, there are many differences between an actual person and a fetus. First of all, a fetus is completely dependent on the mother. Fetus’s need their mothers in order to be fed correctly, to live in a stable environment, and to grow and expand among many other things. Because the fetus cannot survive on its own, then it does not qualify as a human being. In addition, a fetus that is still inside the womb is only a potential person. The fetus resides inside of the mother, and thus is part of the mother herself until it is born. Another difference between a fetus and a person is that a person can feel pain. Anti abortionist commonly argue that abortion is wrong because it would cause pain to the fetus. But, according to Mark Rosen, an obstetrical anesthesiologist at the University of California at San Francisco, “the wiring at the point where you feel pain, such as the skin, doesn’t reach the emotional part where you feel pain, in the brain.” Furthermore, the thalamus does not form until week 28 of the pregnancy. So, no information, including pain, can reach the cortex in the brain for processing. These facts prove that a fetus would not be affected by the mother’s choice of having an abortion, thus proving Marquis and all other anti-abortionists wrong.
In order for the pro-life argument to be valid, it must have both a true premise and true conclusion. It falls short of validity by assuming that a fetus up to 22 weeks old is a person, and has its own rights independent of its host, or what we often refer to as its mother. First we must recognize the subtle, yet extremely important distinction between a human being and a person. It is obvious that a fetus is a member of the human ...
Spotts, P. N. (1998, November 6). Embryo- Based Research: Advances and Argument. Christian Science Monitor, Vol. 90, issue 241, p. 3.
According to Dr. McCarthy de Mere, a medical doctor and law professor at the University of Tennessee, "The exact moment of the beginning of personhood and of the human body is at the moment of conception." This is suggesting that once a child is conceived, it should be recognized as a human. Furthermore, he explains how at just eighteen days after conception, the fetus’ heart begins to beat and after just eight weeks after conception, all body systems become present on the fetus. I feel strongly that if everyone was aware of these numbers that the numbers alone could convince the public to think twice before aborting a child. In situations where it was the mother’s idea to have sex and she got pregnant, it is cruel to allow her to, in a sense, punish her child for actions that she could have prevented. Everyone knows exactly wha...
According to St. Thomas Aquinas, Catholic priest and philosopher, a fetus is not a human being because it does not possess language or articulated thought - one of the defining aspects of human nature (qtd. in Eco 51). Theoretically speaking, a fetus is not a human until it can think and talk. With that being clarified, the rest of the essay will first include arguments for, and then arguments against, abortion. Karen Pazol, et al.
Roe v. Wade and the Right to Abortion. (2013, January 18). Retrieved April 21, 2014, from
Over the duration of the last century, abortion in the Western hemisphere has become a largely controversial topic that affects every human being. In the United States, at current rates, one in three women will have had an abortion by the time they reach the age of 45. The questions surrounding the laws are of moral, social, and medical dilemmas that rely upon the most fundamental principles of ethics and philosophy. At the center of the argument is the not so clear cut lines dictating what life is, or is not, and where a fetus finds itself amongst its meaning. In an effort to answer the question, lawmakers are establishing public policies dictating what a woman may or may not do with consideration to her reproductive rights. The drawback, however, is that there is no agreement upon when life begins and at which point one crosses the line from unalienable rights to murder.
When someone conceives a child, the minute the heart beats, life begins, but where does life
Pro – life groups believe that from the point of fertilization, a new life is being carried by its mother. According to the Central Illinois Right to Life, a baby develops a heartbeat at eighteen days. Though it is not yet a physical human, the beating heart...
Article 3, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, states “everyone has the right to life, liberty and the security of a person” (Goodhart, 379). This article creates cultural discrepancies that are rooted in interpreting undefined and ambiguous language. For example, there are cultural disputes concerning the definition of a “person”. In many monotheistic cultures, abortion is considered a crime. Advocates of this opinion support that a fetus is a human being from conception.