Right To Life example essay topic

403 words
That the individual shall have full protection in person and in property is a principle as old as the common law; but it has been found necessary from time to time to define anew the exact nature and extent of such protection. Political, social, and economic changes entail the recognition of new rights, and the common law, in its eternal youth, grows to meet the demands of society. Though in very early times, the law gave a remedy only for physical interference with life and property, Then the "right to life" served only to protect the subject from battery in its various forms; liberty meant freedom from actual restraint; and the right to property secured to the individual his lands and his cattle. Later, there came a recognition of man's spiritual nature, of his feelings and his intellect. Gradually the scope of these legal rights broadened; and now the right to life has come to mean the right to. enjoy life -- the right to be let alone, the right to liberty secures the exercise of extensive civil privileges; and the term "property" has grown to comprise every form of possession -- intangible, as well as tangible. A good case example is Roe vs. Wade in 1973 which gave women full freedom to choose abortion during the first 3 months of pregnancy.

The Supreme Court ruled that the State criminal abortion laws, like those involved here, that except from criminality only a life-saving procedure on the mother's behalf without regard to the stage of her pregnancy and other interests involved violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which protects against state action the right to privacy, including a woman's qualified right to terminate her pregnancy. Though the State cannot override that right, it has legitimate interests in protecting both the pregnant woman's health and the potentiality of human life, each of which interests grows and reaches a "compelling" point at various stages of the woman's approach to term. The Significance of this case was that with this decision, abortions became legal for all women across the United States. Even today, the decision is hotly debated - both by people who believe that life begins at conception and by people who do not think that any rights beyond those expressed by the plain text of the Constitution should be judicially recognized and protected.