George Munjas 11ME

Discursive Essay On Abortion

There are many arguments when it comes to abortion some of which are convincing and some which just seem plain selfish. I believe that too many women have abortions for reasons which are not just enough for the killing of a human being.


Abortion has been seen as a hot topic for hundreds of years. As more people discuss it, new dimensions are added to the argument and this may be why laws vary from country to country and have changed so many times.


Abortion in England and Wales was first made illegal in the 19th century. Before then, English Common Law had allowed abortion provided it was carried out before the woman felt the foetus move. If the abortion law was broken there were no fixed penalties and the woman having the abortion was not necessarily held responsible. In 1803 the law changed and abortion became a criminal offence from the time of conception with penalties of up to life imprisonment for both the pregnant woman and the abortionist. In 1929 'The Infant Life Preservation Act´ changed the previous law so that abortion was no longer a crime under certain circumstances. The new law made it illegal to kill a child capable of being born alive. 28 weeks was the age set at which a foetus was assumed to be able to survive. In 1967 'The Abortion Act´ was passed, it permitted the killing of pregnancies under certain conditions. Regulations under the act meant that a registered specialist in a National Health Service hospital or a clinic approved by the Department of Health must perform abortions. The last law to be passed was called 'The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990´. It introduced a time limit of 24 weeks for the killing of a pregnancy as opposed to the previous limit of 28 weeks. The act also confirmed that when a woman had a multiple pregnancy it was legal for a doctor to end the life of one or more foetuses leaving others alive. I think that the earlier laws were too harsh and unreasonable and the more recent laws are too easy-going and unclear. A balance between the two must be established.

Some people believe that a woman has the right to choose whether she will have an abortion or not, but I think that this belief is selfish. Our right to choose is limited by the rights of other people. For example, if this 'right to choose´ were applied to another situation it would not be appropriate; very few people would say that an employer has the right to employ someone on the basis of their gender or the colour of their skin. Also, the woman is not the only one affected by an abortion, family members and the father in particular are greatly affected. It has been said that the woman is the only person who should decide whether she should continue her pregnancy or not and that the woman’s partner has no right to prevent her having an abortion. It can then be said that the woman then has no right to call on her partner for support and that both parents have the joint right to abandon their responsibilities.

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It has been said that a foetus is not a human being; it is merely part of the woman. Whereas, medical science has proved that the foetus is biologically separate from its mother. From the moment the embryo is formed a new child is made, genetically different from its parents. The development of vitro fertilisation has proven that an embryo can exist outside a female body. All these scientific advances confirm that the unborn is a separate human being. The terms 'embryo´, 'foetus´, 'baby´, 'child´ and 'adult´ are just different words for a human being at different stages of life. ...

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