Abortion Case Study

All this statistical information was from the DH (department of health) 2004 and 2003 survey. It is a reliable source. The information applies to only England and Wales, the data may have marginally changed since the survey was taken.

Many abortionists readily admit that abortion is the killing of a living being. Here are some examples:

• "We know that it is killing, but the states permit killing under certain circumstances." Dr. Neville Sender, founder of Metropolitan Medical Service, an abortion clinic in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
• “I see a case...after twenty weeks, where it frankly is a child to me, I really agonize over it because the potential is so imminently there...On the other hand, I have another position, which I think is superior in the hierarchy of questions, and that is "who owns this child?" It's got to be the mother." Dr. James McMahon, who performs D&X (also known as Partial Birth) abortions.

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Pregnancy lasts around 9 months/40 weeks or 280 days, during which the fertilised embryo develops into a foetus. At very early stages of pregnancy we can test the foetus for any signs of disability and inform the mother so she can make a suitable decision of whether to keep the baby or not (links to source 3).

One argument is that the mother’s physical or mental health may be affected by having a baby or that the child could be unhappy, have a short life and be hard to manage.

The main arguments against this idea is that the abortion of an unborn human life is murder whether the child is healthy or diseased, and that the mother has no authority to terminate her pregnancy because she should take responsibility for her actions.

As an argument for abortion even up to the later stages of pregnancy, many people have the opinion that the mother has the authority to decide whether to keep her baby or to have it terminated, simply because she was the one who made this life possible and that she would be the one who would have to take care of the child. Many people have strong views on this which is partly the reason why the law about abortion is the way that it is.

However, opposing this argument are those who believe life begins in the embryo. They would think that abortion is murder or extremely wrong and may think that the mother shouldn’t have that right to have an abortion. This argument suggests that the abortion of an embryo or foetus is murder.

Abortions in this country are still occurring due to teenage pregnancies. Young people may find that they can not cope with the pressure or stress that parenting would bring. This is why abortion particularly for young mothers is seen to be ok by some people. The removal of education in a young person’s life in this day and age is bad for the mothers future. Young mothers are becoming less willing to give this up for a child which is why 7% of abortions in the UK occur with mothers aged between 13 – 17 (source 1). Some of these young pregnancies are often caused by peer pressure or the influence of alcohol or drugs. Many people nowadays are thinking that it is better and more effective to provide under 16s with contraception as well as educating then beforehand.

 The age of mothers who have abortions, under the age of 15 has increased by 9% between 2002 and 2003 and there are now well over 1000 abortions from under aged mothers in the UK.

This chart below shows this change:

Chart

(Data from source 4)

For a lot people with religious beliefs abortion is wrong and is very seriously treated as murder. Many people retain the outlook that life begins at fertilisation for religious or philosophical motives or plainly because of opinion. Never the less many people contest this notion and don’t mull much over abortion. Those who do so may do it out of reverence for the mother’s deceptive authorization to stop midstream her pregnancy. Some think that an embryo is just a clump of cells just like a trees cells or a plant which it is, but it has the life potential of becoming a child. Some think that this is a good enough reason to believe that life does not begin at conception of fertilisation. This is backed up by science in that these cells have no feelings, memory, organs, or visible characteristics or any life worth living as they have not yet developed any visible human features (face, limbs, intestines, etc). We can see this when we use microscopes when we examine progress of an embryo.

A strong argument pro abortion, is that unwanted pregnancies can often result in unwanted children. This is a contributing factor towards so many of our disrupted families in this country. By making abortion illegal we may find ourselves with more family problems. Linked to this argument, aborting unwanted babies could reduce child abuse from family members and may prevent an unwanted child from psychological problems. Stats show that biological children are happier than adopted children.

On the other hand there are medical side effects from abortion in mothers. These include bladder injuries, bowel injury breast cancer, and ectopic pregnancy, effects on future pregnancy, failed abortion, hemerage, hepatitis, infection, future miscarriages, uterus perforation, post abortion syndrome rapid bleeding, sterility, ectopic pregnancy and social difficulties. Also new research shows that foetuses can feel pain just as we can. The suction or chopping up of the foetus during the abortion process is in fact felt by the developing human (Links from source 5).

My view about abortion is that it is wrong, despite the age of the developing fetus. I feel strongly that the moral and ethical arguments are much stronger than the more scientific and social arguments because they involve life and death. One main reason for this is because I am a Christian. The Bible clearly shows that this is wrong. I don’t think that there are any limitations to my argument because killing human life is murder. I can understand how lots of people think differently, but I feel strongly that it is wrong.

Conclusion

To conclude, the science of embryology tells us that human beings develop rapidly after fertilization of the egg. In fact, since the heart of the fetus begins to beat by 24 days, virtually all abortions (other than "emergency contraception") stop a beating heart. In fact, since most abortions occur between 4-6 weeks, they also destroy a functioning brain. Even modern embryology textbooks agree that human life begins at conception. Since abortion ends human life, one must ask the question whether abortion is justifiable homicide or murder.