The Moral Status of the Fetus in Abortion

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Imagine…the birth of a human being into the world. 9 months of endless anticipation leading to someone’s first chance at seeing the world for the first time. While some enjoy the result of a pregnancy, leading to a new human being entering life, some are not so fond, or just can’t be in such a situation. Abortion is the supposed “cure” to this problem and is, for the most part, done safely. However, one of the factors stopping someone from committing an abortion is the consideration of moral status on the child. Moral status means that there are moral implications to how you treat a particular thing (if, in this situation, should the fetus be treated like a human being and not an object to dispose.) There may be no moral implications to a piece of paper, but there are moral implications to a human being. The question that leads up is, while there is a clear difference between the two, there is a question of what is the reason that we treat one thing as valuable over another. Is the reason we treat one thing as more valuable over another is because one can speak our language, or because one has a heartbeat while the other is practically lifeless? The problem of moral status is central to the question of abortion. Abortion, by definition, is the termination of the unborn as a result of its physical destruction. That is to say it is killed before it is ever born from the woman it is conceived through. There are three types of abortion existing in the world today, one more extreme than the other. The three in discussion are therapeutic abortion, spontaneous abortion, and elective abortion. While people have their different sides regarding this topic, the one that is up for conversation being argued by both sides of groups is electiv... ... middle of paper ... ...just a virus that you should get rid of with some medication. Now whether someone believe that what is in a woman’s body in front of her, next to her organs is either a clump of cells up for a death sentence or a human life waiting for 9 months to enter the world on their (more or less) own is not me to decide. I, on the other hand, see it different when it’s my situation. Works Cited http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/therapeutic%20abortion http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/en/resourcecentres/pregnancybabies/pregnancy/pregnancyloss/pages/therapeutic-abortion.aspx http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/elective+abortion https://www.boundless.com/physiology/definition/homeostasis/ http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/03/10/adam-lanza-dad-wishes-son-had-never-been-born-says-cant-get-any-more-evil/ http://harvardmagazine.com/2004/07/debating-the-moral-statu.html

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