Right To Life Essay, Research Paper
Research Paper: Right to Life
Far back in the time of the Roman Empire, abortion and the complete destruction of unwanted children was allowed, and done with alarming frequency. As civilization aged and progressed, it seemed that such acts were no longer acceptable by rational human beings. In 1948, Canada along with most other nations in the world, signed a right to life declaration. At the same time, the World Medical Association met in Geneve and stated that the utmost respect for human life should be from the moment of conception. They met again in 1970 in Oslo, re-affirming their previous declaration. In 1973, Harry A. Blackmun wrote the majority opinion that it is a women s right to have an abortion. The United States Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade legalized abortion. However, the case is far from closed. Pro-life activists carry a strong argument, and continue to push their beliefs. Some of these activists feel so strongly that they have broken out in violence. On the other side of the spectrum, pro-choice activists carry some strong points too. They believe that the child inside them is their own property and that it is not a life until birth. Due to the decision of the Supreme Court, almost every third baby born in America is killed by abortion, adding up to over one half million babies a year. Many countries, such as France, Canada, and England, have followed our decision on the abortion issue. A few countries still believe abortion is wrong; they include Germany, Ireland, and New Zealand. From the moment of conception, science has proven that a woman is carrying a complete human being, which only needs the time to grow and mature. As soon as the sperm and egg unite, a being is formed that contains everything it needs, including forty-six human chromosomes. No new genetic material is added after conception. Although many people believe that abortion is a women s choice, abortion should be banned because it is immoral and life begins at conception.
With recent advances in the medical world, science has given us many insights to the development of a fetus. It has been discovered that after eighteen days in the womb, the baby s heart begins to beat and after just forty days brain waves are being recorded. Science has also shown that organs start to form in the pre-born around four weeks after fertilization and by eight weeks all body systems are present. There is no question that the fetus is a living, growing being. A fairly common belief exists in which it is thought that the fetus fails to be human until it shows viability. Viability is the state of development where the fetus is able to survive outside of the womb. It relates more to the location and dependency of the unborn that to any actual change in a state of being. With new advances and breakthroughs in the medical field, infants have been known to survive after just twenty weeks in the womb. Fifty years ago, the fetal viability status rested at two and a half months later in the pregnancy term (thirty weeks). Infants today are no more human than infants from the past just because of scientific advances since the fifties.
Allowing abortion to be legal is immoral. A pre-born child is given the status of a product of pregnancy between a man and a woman, but rarely seen as a miracle only a woman can create. Compassion for the small one is drowned out under a demand for rights , but what about 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 recent times, has any government 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. If one were to destroy an embryo, then that embryo, that human life, would never be duplicated. A scientist that may have found the cure for cancer or even the future president would be killed. There is a much better way of solving a woman s problems than killing children. All obstetricians and gynecologists know of many cases where the mother, whether she is single or married, has spoken of abortion early in the pregnancy and later on, has confessed her gratitude to those who have not performed the abortion. On the other hand, women are often troubled and deeply traumatized, being consumed with guilt due to their decision to abort their baby. They develop psychiatric problems following the abortion. These women usually cause more problems in the long run than they thought they cured.
A fertilized egg is the most innocent being that we could ever create. This fertilized egg is not just a mass of tissue, for if it were there would be no debate. A fetus feels pain. Ultra sound, fetoscopy (study of the fetal electrocardiogram) and fetal electroencephalogram have demonstrated the remarkable responsiveness of the human fetus to pain, touch an sound. The fetus responds to light, heat, cold, and taste. Observations of the fetal movements in saline abortions indicate that the fetus experiences discomfort as it dies. In one account, a film using new sonographic techniques shows the outline of the child in the womb thrashing to resist the suction device before it tears off the head. Then it shows the dead child dismembered and the head crushed. This is murder. Nobody who sees this film will ever speak again of painless abortion.
Abortion should be banned because life begins at conception. The individual sex cell consists of twenty-three chromosomes. It is only through combination, however, that the sex cells contain the full complement of heredity units that defines a human being. After the merger of the two sex cells, forty-six chromosomes are present. 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 . At this point, the unique characteristics of a human being have been established, and in no circumstances will they change. The definition of alive is that a being is growing, developing, maturing, and replacing its own dying cells. The initial single-celled fertilized ovum cannot by any stretch of the imagination be considered part of a woman s body. The new living being has a genetic set up unlike anyone else s, and totally different from the cells of the mother s body. It makes no difference to assume that human life is more human post-born than pre-born. At just eighteen days the heart is pumping blood through a closed circulatory system, with blood whose type is different from the mothers. No, a fetus is not just another part of a women s body like an appendix or appendage. These appendages, these perfectly formed tiny feet belong to a ten week developed baby, not to his or her mother. At forty days the brain begins to function. In the sixteenth week motion can be detected. At six and one half weeks all twenty milk teeth are present. During the eighth week the baby s stomach secretes gastric juice, and all its body system is present. The baby dreams, thinks, and feels pain. All the fetus needs to grow into a baby, a child, and old man, is time, nutrition and a suitable environment. This is definitely a child, and no one on face of this earth would be here if they had not have gone through the same process.
A women s right to choose can justify abortion, but it should be banned because it is 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 being protested. These protestors are fighting for the rights of the unborn child. Pro-life activists claim that it is immoral because it is simply defined as a murder. Before a child is born it is given all its necessities to survive. Notice the word before. Once a women has conceived, she already is a parent, be it willing or otherwise. The only way she ceases to be a parent is by a natural death or an act of killing. Killing in any form is not the solution to so-called unwanted human being at any age. Hitler thought this was right, and he was wrong. It is true that some women may look at an abortion in order to solve her personal problems, but in all, women are abandoning abortion because it weakens their great strengths: creation, compassion and the ability to look beneath the surface 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.
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