Five Abortions example essay topic

Many have pondered upon the meaning of abortion. The argument being that every child born should be wanted, and others who believe that every child conceived should be born (Sass vii). This has been a controversial topic for years. Many people want to be able to decide the destiny of others. Everyone in the United States is covered under the United States constitution, and under the 14th Amendment women have been given the choice of abortion. In 1973, Harry A. Blackmun wrote the majority opinion that it's a women's right to have an abortion.

Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion. Even though these people have been given the right, the case is not closed. Pro-life activists carry a strong argument, and continue to push their beliefs. They feel so strongly about these beliefs that violence has broken out in some known instances. Pro-choice activists, on the other hand, also carry very strong points. They believe that the child inside them is their property and it's life doesn't be until birth.

In 1973, the United States Supreme Court decided that as long as the baby lived in the womb, he or she would be the property of the mother. Because of this decision almost every third baby conceived in America is killed by abortion, over one and a half million babies a year (Willke vii). Many countries have followed our decision on the abortion issue and some of these include Canada, England, and France. Other countries still believe abortion should be illegal, they include Germany, Ireland, and New Zealand. Abortion poses a moral, social and medical dilemma that faces many individuals to create a emotional and violent atmosphere.

Allowing abortion to be legal is immoral. A pre-born child is given the status of a "product of pregnancy' and never seen as the miracle only a women can create. Compassion for the small one is drowned out under a demand for "rights', but what about the rights for the unborn. "A women has a right to her own body' is an idea more and more women are realizing, but that idea ignores the unborn child's right to his or her body.

Never, in modern times, has the state granted to one citizen the right to have another killed in order to solve their personal, social, or economic problems. the embryo is its own being that should have it's own rights to protect it. The zygote is a unique genetic being (Zindler 27). If one was to abort an embryo than that embryo, that human life would never be duplicated. A scientist that may have found the cure to A.I.D.S. would be killed. There is a better way to solve our problems than by killing children. A fertilized egg is the most beautiful, most innocent being that we could ever create, and can redeem even the worst of our mistakes.

This fertilized egg is not just a mass of tissue, for if it were than there would be no debate. A fetus feels pain. Ultra sound, fetoscope, study of the fetal EKG (electrocardiogram) and fetal EEG (electroencephalogram) have demonstrated the remarkable responsiveness of the human fetus to pain, touch and sound (Willke 64). The fetus responds to light, heat, cold, and taste. Observations of the fetal movements in saline abortions indicates that the fetus experiences discomfort as it dies.

One doctor who, the New York Times, wrote "conscientiously performs's aline abortions stated, "when he injected the saline, he often saw an increase in fetal movements' (Willke 64). In another case, a film using mew sono graphic techniques, shows the outline of the child in the womb thrashing to resist the suction device before it tears off the head. Then you see the dead child dismembered child and the head crushed (Edwards 40). This is murder.

Nobody who sees this film will speak again of "painless' abortion. After the doctor who performed this procedure saw this film, he never performed another abortion again. But, many doctors still do perform abortion, and in some instances a live child is killed. "About once a day, somewhere in the United States, something goes wrong and an abortion results in a live baby' (Willke 76). Forty five out of six hundred and seven mid trimester abortions done in Connecticut in 1974-1976 resulted in live births (Willke 76).

In these cases the child was killed in cold blooded murder. It is immoral to kill, therefore abortion is immoral. "Abortion is the unnatural end of pregnancy. That child has a right to life that is equal to the mothers right. One cannot kill another human being just because they wished it wasn't around. Abortion is murder of the innocent practiced on a national scale (Day 84).

' Overall it has been proven that the fetus is a real person. It responds to noise, has feeling and fears. To have an abortion it will destroy an innocent life which is directly connected to murder. Scientific research has successfully shown that abortion causes many psychological side effects. It leaves the woman with many strong feelings about their decision. They feel sadness, wishing things could have been different and grief for a lost life (Chalker 15).

Guilt arises because they know a fetus represents an independent life. Anger builds up towards other people having to do with their decision. Sometimes the mother may feel that she has infact been abandoned. Most of all the mother feels ashamed and embarrassed about her action (Chalker 23). People close to the mother may be angry at her for ending her pregnancy and make it difficult for her to deal with (Chalker 24).

Even years after the abortion, women tend to remember the regretful experience. They usually wonder what the baby would have looked like and its birthday (Chalker 28). Thirty-three year old Michelle Urbain of south Florida has had five abortions so far. She realizes now that they all left emotional scares her that are unbearable. "It wasn't just a mass of cells, it was children I was killing (Chalker 42). ' It maybe a month or a year but feelings do catch up with the mother.

Symptoms like nightmares, panic attacks and flashbacks are signs of a recently discovered Post Abortion Syndrome (PAS). According to a study published by Association for Interdisciplinary Research in Valves and Social Change, one in five women studied had diagnosable stress disorders. Also two in five had sleep disorders and flashbacks following abortions. In the United States about 1.6 million pregnancies end in abortion (Denny 22). Women with incomes under eleven thousand are over three times more likely to abort than those with incomes above twenty-five thousand (Denny 105). Unmarried women are four to five times more likely to abort than married and the abortion rate has doubled for 18 and 19 year olds (Denny 106).

Recently the U.S. rate dropped 6 percent overall but the rate of abortion among girls younger than 15 jumped 18 percent (Denny 112). The rate among minority teens climbed from 186 per 1,000 to 189 per 1,000. The most popular procedure involved in abortions is the vacuum aspiration which is done during the first trimester (three months or less since the women has become pregnant) (Denny 163). A tube is simply inserted through the cervix and the contents of the uterus are vacuumed out.

The most commonly used type of second trimester abortion is called dilation and evacuation (Denny 174). Since the fetus has bones, bulk and can move, second trimester is not as simple. When as much of the fetus and placenta are vacuumed out then tweezers are used to remove larger parts. After this, or the beginning of the fifth month abortion is serious and actually induced as childbirth. That is, the mother is given substances which puts her into labor and delivers the fetus as she would a full-term baby. About 40 percent of Americans believe that abortion should remain legal and 40 percent believe it should be banned except when the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother or is the result of rape or incest (Day 84).

Also 15 percent believe it should be illegal in all cases (Day 85). Finally, abortion should be banned because life begins at conception. The individual sex cell consists of 23 chromosomes (Shettles 15). It is only through combination, however, that the sex cells contain the full complement of heredity units that defines a human being (Shettles 17).

This procedure of combination defines conception. After the merger of the two sex cells 46 chromosomes are present (Shettles 19). This is what makes a human being. The merger is complete within twelve hours, at which time the egg is fertilized and becomes known technically as the "zygote' (Shettles 22). The inherited characteristics of a unique human being has been established, and in no circumstances will it change (Shettles 17). Nothing from this time on, until death, will anything be added.

The definition of alive is that a being is growing, developing, maturing, and replacing its own dying cells. It means not being dead. At the very time conception begins the zygote is growing, developing, maturing, and replacing its own dying cell It's alive (Shettles 76). The single-celled fertilized ovum cannot by any stretch of the imagination be considered part of a women's body. This new living being has a genetic set up unlike anyone else's, totally different from the cells of the mother's body (Shettles 254).

It makes no difference to assume that human life is more human post-born than pre-born. What is critical to figure out is if it is or isn't human life, and of coarse it is human life. At 18 days the heart is pumping through a closed circulatory system, with blood whose type is different from that of the mother (Shettles 258). At 40 days the brain begins to function. In the 16th week motion has been detected (Shettles 260). At 6 and 1/2 weeks all twenty milk-teeth buds are present (James 264).

During the eighth week the baby's stomach secretes gastric juice, and all it's body system is present. The baby dreams, thinks, and feels pain (De Marco 56). This is definitely a child, and no one on the face of this earth would be here if they weren't conceived. In summary, abortion can be justified by a women's right to choose, but it should be banned because it's immoral and life begins at conception. Women have been given the right to have an abortion under the United States Constitution, but this right is still being protested by the people that fight for the unborn's rights.

Pro-life activists claim that its immoral because it is simply defined as murder. Life begins at conception is another strong point brought up by pro-life activists. Before a child is born it is given all it's necessities to survive. Before birth the child's heart beats, the gastric juices flow in the stomach, and all its necessary organs have been made present. This is a child that thinks, dreams, and feels pain. Yes, some women may look at having an abortion to solve her personal problems, but in all, women are abandoning the abortion because it weakens their great strengths: creation, compassion and the ability to look beneath the surface of appearance of things.

Maybe soon the abortion issue will reverse, and people will see the rights of the unborn as greater importance than that of a personal right. Chalker, Rebecca. The Choices We Made. New York: Random House, 1991. Day, Nancy. Abortion: Debating the Issue.

Springfield, New Jersey: Ens low Publishers, 1995. De Marco, Donald. Abortion in Perspective. Cincinnati: Hilts & Hayes Pub. Co., 1974. Denny, Myron.

A Thinking About Abortion. Garden City, New York: Dial Press, 1984. Edwards, Bruce. Abortion. New York: Julian Messner, 1987. James, Kay Coles.

Never Forget. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1992. Sass, William. The Abortion Controversy. San Diego: Green haven Press, 1995. Shettles, Cynthia.

A Matter of Choice. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983. Willke, James. Choice and Conflict. New York: Facts on File, 1993.

Zend ler, Michael. Embryonic and Fetal Development. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1972..