Abortion Laws or When Does Life Begin?

Abortion is a very important issue which is being debated nowadays. The increasing number
of population, feminism movements, more individualization of the society, culture, politics and ethics
play significant roles in the equation.

The main debate is between pro-life and pro-choice groups. Pro-life is against abortion and
pro-choice is supporting the right of women to choose, therefore it is for abortion. Both of the groups
build their arguments and advocacy strategies on the question when does life begin. The existing
accounts fail to resolve the contradiction between the life begins at conceiving and the life begins
when the fetus is sufficiently human.

Pro-choice believe that the fetus has the right to life when it can sustain life on its own. The
key problem with this claim is when the fetus can sustain on its own, when the brain developed to the
point where it is able to control the parts of the body (but brain activity at this stage is no more than a
precondition - it doesn't demonstrate that the fetus is actually conscious) or after the birth occurs. Pro-
life, on other hand, believe that from conceiving the zygote, it has the right to life and that his brain
will develop soon. One criticism of this statement comes from Abortion: When Does Human
Life Begin?, according to it a bug has more characteristics of being a living creature than a fetus
before eight weeks of pregnancy, which is when most women seek abortions. I.e., if a person kills an
ant, this person has just killed something with more brain activity than a fetus before eight weeks of
early development. Yet, the murder of an ant is accepted, while the termination of the pregnancy isnt.

Another part of pro-choice group claims that the baby has the right to life when the birth occurs
so the child is able to breath/eat without the mother supplying him/her directly. This theory fails to
answer the questions regarding when the birth occurs? When part of the baby is outside the mother's
body? When the whole baby is outside the mother's body? Or when the placenta separates from the
womb and the fetus has to rely on its own resources to keep alive?

Pro-lifes argument relies too heavily on chromosomes as a proof that the fetus is human,
because science states that chromosomes are not the only components that determine a human life.
Human chromosomes are analogous to the drafts of a building. It provides a guide showing how the
building will be constructed, but it still remains a paper. Similar, chromosomes provide a genetic plan
for life, but they are not human. Difficulties arise, however, because only humans have 46
chromosomes, we possess this from the time of conceiving, that proves that the fetus is a human, but
it only marks the beginning of biological life, some people believe that biological life is not sufficient
to give the fetus the right to life.

Sadly, we lack consensus in biology, philosophy or theology as to what stage of fetal

development should be associated with the right to life. Because of the difficulty of deciding at what
stage a fetus becomes a being with the right to life, we can always approach morality and ethics. This
will be one of the strongest arguments of those you are supporters of pro-life: terminating life will
always be morally wrong. But abortion debate is not about morality. If abortion law is immoral and
illegal, the same we must say about criminal justice system, wars and state security laws. And yet, we
witness all this in our daily lives, moreover they have been historically present. It is not a question of
morality, it is a question of standing by a persons inherent right to choose, their right to life and
safety. It would be oversimplified to reject it because it is morally wrong, instead we must perceive it
as an option to reduce different risks and as a human solution to end guaranteed suffering.

Articles used:

1. https://www.listland.com/top-10-arguments-in-support-of-abortion/
2. http://comp2eportfolio.weebly.com/research-paper--works-cited.html
3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/child/alive_1.shtml