Pro-Choice Argument

3494 Words7 Pages

Thou shalt not kill; one-tenth of what may arguably be the most famous guidelines of morality in the western culture, and also the main driving force for pro-life advocates. The argument supporting their beliefs typically starts with the premises that a fetus is a person, and to destroy or to kill a person is unethical. Therefore abortion, the premeditated destruction of a human being, is murder, and consequently unethical. I deny the fact that the fetus, what I will refer to as an embryo up to 22 weeks old, has the right to live. The opposing argument is invalid because a fetus, although perhaps a part of human species, is not formally a person. This leaves it simply to be a part of the woman?s body, whose fate lies solely in the hands of the pregnant woman alone, no different from a tumor she might have. By proving this, the abortion debate then becomes an issue of women?s rights, something that is most controversial indeed. Furthermore, it is fair to question the credibility of many people against abortion because of obvious contradictions in the logic of their belief systems. The fact that this debate is relevant in modern society is ludicrous since there is a simple and plausible solution to this problem that could potentially end the debate for good, leaving both sides satisfied. 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 ... ... middle of paper ... ...erty and Human Rights? Ethics & International Affairs, Volume 19, No. 1 Spring 2013. Web 14 April 2014 . ?Total Midyear Population for the World: 1950-2050? U.S. Census Bureau 26 April 2012. Web 8 April 2014 . ?Teen Pregnancy ? So What?? teenpregnancy.org Feb 2014. Web 8 April 2014 . Connolly, Ceci ?As Teen Pregnancy Dropped, So Did Child Poverty? Washington Post 9 Jan 2014. Web 14 April 2014 < http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A51337-2005Apr13.html> ?113th Congress Scorecard? WAND Web 14 April 2014 . ?His and Her Demographics: Women and Men 2010? U.S. Census Bureau Web 14 April 2014.

Open Document