When does life begin in your view? Why?

I believe that life begins at conception or when there is a heartbeat, but does not begin living until birth.
Yes, there is a heartbeat and a child forming inside a woman but it is not an actual being who is living a
life until it is born. It is more or a philosophic opinion that life begins when conceived, but there is not a
scientific consensus on it. Scientists cannot positively say when a life begins, so why should anyone be
able to say that when people who study this for a living cannot even determine it. I am not “anti-family”
or anything like that, but I cannot say that a life begins the moment of conception because it really has
not in my eyes. A lot of women have natural abortions, or miscarriages, early in the pregnancy so I think
waiting until later term to consider it a life is better. My opinion on this may change when I have
children one day, but for now that is how I feel.

Compare and contrast the viewpoints of prolife and prochoice in a table format.

Pro-life
it is unacceptable for a child to be aborted no
matter the circumstance
it is a baby once conceived because at only a few
weeks there is a heartbeat and human features
it is a life, so it should be able to live even if the
mother chooses against it
The baby is a separate body so the woman
cannot make decisions for it
The government should interfere because they
need to protect the rights of the unborn baby
Women should pay the consequence for having
sex
Pro-choice
It is accepted for a child to be aborted in
circumstances like rape
it is not a baby until it is born
If the mother’s life is at risk or simply chooses she
cannot/does not want the baby, she can abort it
The woman has the right to do whatever she
wants with her body, including what is inside it
The government should not interfere
Motherhood is not a punishment for having sex &
people can get pregnant even when they have
done everything to prevent it

Read and summarize abortion techniques.

Different procedures are used depending on how far along the woman is in the pregnancy.

 First trimester:

o Methotrexate & Misoprostol (MTX): a medical abortion procedure used up to the first
seven weeks of pregnancy. This medication combination is not as commonly used in the
U.S. with the availability of mifepristone, which works more effectively for this use.

 Combination of medications to terminate pregnancy early enough for woman to

pass on her own

o Mifepristone and Misoprostol: a medical abortion procedure used up to the first seven
to nine weeks of pregnancy. It can also be referred to as RU-486, the abortion pill, and
mifeprex.

 Combination of medication to terminate pregnancy early enough for woman to

pass on her own, but more effective that MTX so is more common
 o Manual Vacuum Aspiration (MVA): a procedure used as early as 3 -12 weeks since the
last period. Considered less invasive with only a local anesthesia being used on the
cervix.

 Slightly invasive procedure where the fetus is “vacuumed” from the cervix to
terminate pregnancy

o Aspiration: a surgical abortion procedure used to terminate pregnancy up to 16 weeks

from the last period. It can also be referred to as suction curettage, dilation and
curettage (D & C) or vacuum aspiration.

 More invasive, but similar procedure to MVA, as the fetus is vacuumed out and
terminated, but useful for a longer period of time because it is more invasive
and powerful

 Second Trimester:

o Dilation & Curettage (D & C): a surgical abortion procedure used to terminate a
pregnancy up to 16 weeks gestation. It is also referred to as suction curettage or
vacuum aspiration.

 More invasive, but similar procedure to MVA or Aspiration, as the fetus is

vacuumed out and terminated, but useful for a longer period of time because it
is more invasive and powerful

o Dilation & Evacuation (D & E): a surgical abortion procedure used to terminate a
pregnancy after 16 weeks’ gestation.

 Removes the fetus from the cervix surgically, much more invasive

o Induction Abortion: a rarely performed surgical procedure where salt water, urea, or
potassium chloride is injected into the amniotic sac; prostaglandins are inserted into the
vagina, and Pitocin is injected intravenously.

 uses different substances to terminate pregnancy then uses suction and surgical
removal to get the fetus out from the cervix

 Third Trimester:

o Induction Abortion: a rarely done surgical procedure where salt water, urea, or
potassium chloride is injected into the amniotic sac; prostaglandins are inserted into the
vagina Pitocin is injected intravenously.

 uses different substances to terminate pregnancy then uses suction and surgical
removal to get the fetus out from the cervix

o Dilation and Extraction: a surgical abortion procedure used to terminate a pregnancy

after 21 weeks of gestation. This procedure is also known as D & X, Intact D & X,
Intrauterine Cranial Decompression and Partial Birth Abortion.

 Surgically removes fetus from uterus

Explain your position on abortion –pro or con. Why? Be specific with supporting ideas.

I am pro-choice on abortion. I believe that a woman should have the right to choose what happens
because the fetus is in her body. In the case of rape, I 100% believe that a woman should be able to
abort the child because she should not have to live with her attackers’ child inside of her for 9 months
then have to make the choice on to keep it or give it up. In cases where the woman’s life is at risk, I
believe she should be able to choose her life over the unborn child’s because it affects more people if
she does rather than the unborn child that has not made a huge impact on everyone’s life. I think there
are cases where the woman knows she cannot support or raise the child and does not want it growing
up in a broken system, so they think it is better to abort rather than the child having a bad life, I agree
with that even though there is a chance for the child to have a good life from the system. Also, if a
woman uses birth control correctly and her partner also uses a contraceptive correctly and still gets
pregnant and knows they cannot have the child, I think she should be able to abort because she did
everything, short of abstinence, to prevent a pregnancy. However, I do not believe that abortion should
be used as a form of birth control. Some people believe that they can go without using any form of
contraceptive then just use abortion as the way to eliminate the pregnancy, this is unhealthy for the
body and completely ridiculous when there are other safer and effective ways to prevent an unwanted
pregnancy.

Bring the format of your research topic that we assigned during the class. Come up with the list of
contents that you are going to research/write. You may look for some references and make a frame of
your paper. We will go over them in the class and provide constructive suggestions on your proposed
contents.

Canada’s Healthcare: Outline

 Accessibility
o “Accessing Canada's health care system involves first applying for a provincial health
card. Excluding inmates, the Canadian Armed Forces and certain members of the RCMP,
the Canada Health Act requires all residents of a province or territory to be accepted for
health coverage. There is a waiting period in place for new immigrants that cannot
exceed three months. Once a health card is assigned, it is used whenever visiting a
physician or health care provider. The health card contains an identification number,
which is used to access a person's medical information. After obtaining health coverage,
one can register with a primary care physician. For routine visits to a physician, one
needs only present their health card. There are typically no forms to be filled out or
individual service fees. The availability of physicians depends largely on the number of
 doctors and the current demand for medical services. Currently there is about 1 primary
care doctor for every 1000 Canadians.” (1)
 Cost Affordability
o “Health care in Canada is funded at both the provincial and federal levels. The financing
of health care is provided via taxation both from personal and corporate income taxes.
Additional funds from other financial sources like sales tax and lottery proceeds are also
used by some provinces. Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario also charge health
premiums to supplement health funding, but such premiums are not required for health
coverage as per the Canada Health Act. At a federal level, funds are allocated to
provinces and territories via the Canadian Health and Social Transfer (CHST). Transfer
payments are made as a combination of tax transfers and cash contributions. The
amount of funding provinces and territories receive is significant, and topped $35 billion
in 2002-2003. In 2000, the new budget injected an additional $23 billion of investment
into the health care system.” (1)
o “Individually, Canadians spend about $3300 per capita on health care.” (1)
o “About three-quarters of all funding comes from public sources, with the remainder
from private sources such as businesses and private insurance.” (1)
o “The Fraser Institute has released a study estimating the costs of Canada’s government
monopoly, a.k.a. single-payer health system. A typical Canadian family of four will pay
$11,735 for public health care insurance in 2015. The study also tracks the cost of health
care insurance over time: Between 2005 and 2015, the cost of health care for the
average Canadian family (all family types) increased by 48.5 per cent, dwarfing increases
in income (30.8 per cent), shelter (35.9 per cent) and food (18.2 per cent).” (2)
o “The study finds the average Canadian family with two parents and two children earning
$119,082 will pay $11,735 for public health care insurance in 2015. A single individual
earning $42,244 can expect to pay $4,222. For American readers, I should note that the
single-payer system does not include dental care or prescription drugs for working
people in most provinces. And to get in front of the comments: Yes, when you add your
taxes for Medicare and Medicaid plus premiums for employer-based health benefits,
you are paying more than your neighbors to the North.” (2)
o To review, Canadian healthcare basically works like Medicare, but for everyone. Medical
care is free, and it covers almost everything other than prescription drugs, glasses, and
dental care. (Most people have supplementary insurance to cover those things).
 Quality of Service
o “In 1993, Canadian patients waited an average of 9.3 weeks between the time they saw
their family physician and the time they actually received the treatment they needed. By
2007, the average wait time had almost doubled to 18.3 weeks. The median wait time in
Canada is nearly double the wait time that physicians consider clinically reasonable. •
The Canadian single-payer system does not cover prescription drugs on a universal
basis. Only about one-third of the Canadian population is eligible for various
government-financed drug programs. The remainder of the population has private
sector drug insurance coverage or pays cash for outpatient drugs, just like in the United
States. Public drug plans in Canada often refuse to cover new drugs. On average, only 44
percent of all new drugs that were approved as safe and effective by the Canadian
 government in 2004 were actually covered by government drug insurance programs in
October 2007. Even for the small percentage of new drugs that are covered by public
drug programs, patients have to wait nearly one year, on average, after government
approval for public insurance to start covering these new drugs. Government data show
that an estimated 1.7 million Canadians—in a country of around 33-34 million—were
unable to access a regular family physician in 2007. Without access to a family doctor, a
person can’t obtain regular primary care or referrals for elective specialty medical
services. Canadian patients on waiting lists are worse off than uninsured Americans, the
latter of whom are at least legally allowed to use their own money or credit to buy
healthcare. “(4)
o
 What if America had Canada’s healthcare system?
o “If Canadians had access to the same quality and quantity of healthcare resources that
Americans enjoy, Canada’s government health insurance monopoly would cost much
more than it currently does.” (4)
o Good:
 “5,400 fewer babies would die in infancy, and we'd save about $1.3 trillion
dollars in healthcare spending.” (3)
 “What's more, 57 million fewer people would go without medical care because
of the cost. "Roughly 40 percent of both insured and uninsured U.S.
respondents spent $1,000 or more out-of-pocket during the year on medical
care, not counting premiums," the report authors write. (Though, it's worth
noting that the data for the report was collected before the full implementation
of Obamacare, which dramatically expanded health insurance coverage in the
U.S.)” (3)
 “And, perhaps as a result, more than 50,000 preventable deaths would be
avoided” (3)
o Bad:
 “But it wouldn't all be good news. Canada's free system comes at the cost of
greater wait times for some services. In 2010, the Commonwealth Fund found
that 33 percent of Canadians waited six days or more to see a specialist,
compared with 19 percent of Americans. And Canadians tend to wait longer for
ER care than patients in other countries: One in 10 patients in a Canadian ER will
wait eight hours or more, and the average wait time is four hours.” (3)
 More people would visit the ER … “That last point could either be a positive or
negative, depending on how you look at it. On one hand, having lots of ER
patients is expensive and inefficient for hospitals, and Canadians might be
headed to emergency departments because wait times for regular doctors are
too long. But on the other hand, it's free for patients—so, some might wonder,
why not use it if it's there?” (3)
 “Ultimately, a single-payer system is probably the least effective way to achieve
universal health insurance coverage. Canada has proved this in spades. The U.S.
healthcare model may be flawed, but the Canadian model is far worse.” (4)

References:
(1) http://www.canadian-healthcare.org/page7.html
(2) http://healthblog.ncpa.org/free-canadian-health-care-costs-12000-per-
family/#sthash.tzVtDADP.dpbs
(3) https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/10/what-if-america-had-canadas-
healthcare-system/381662/
(4) https://www.aei.org/publication/the-trouble-with-canadian-healthcare/
(5)