Why Abortion is Moral - an essay that every liberal should read

[don954]

Why Abortion is Moral
Abortion questions answered

By Elroy
http://elroy.net/ehr/abortionanswers.html

All of the arguments against abortion boil down to six specific questions. The first five deal with the nature of the zygote-embryo-fetus growing inside a mother's womb. The last one looks at the morality of the practice. These questions are:

1. Is it alive?
2. Is it human?
3. Is it a person?
4. Is it physically independent?
5. Does it have human rights?
6. Is abortion murder?

Let's take a look at each of these questions. We'll show how anti-abortionists use seemingly logical answers to back up their cause, but then we'll show how their arguments actually support the fact that abortion is moral.

1. Is it alive?

Yes. Pro Choice supporters who claim it isn't do themselves and their cause a disservice. Of course it's alive. It's a biological mechanism that converts nutrients and oxygen into energy that causes its cells to divide, multiply, and grow. It's alive.

Anti-abortion activists often mistakenly use this fact to support their cause. "Life begins at conception" they claim. And they would be right. The genesis of a new human life begins when the egg with 23 chromosomes joins with a sperm with 23 chromosomes and creates a fertilized cell, called a zygote, with 46 chromosomes. The single-cell zygote contains all the DNA necessary to grow into an independent, conscious human being. It is a potential person.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

[progressiveBadger]

1. An interesting essay

welcome to DU!

[don954]

2. thanks! This is one of the best arguments for the morality of

aboartion i have seen in a VERY long time. It provides a complete argument that is very hard to refute, something the anti-choice people seem unable to come up with for their point of view.. :)

[progressiveBadger]

6. That they do

though in fairness, it is very difficult to come up with an irrefutable argument based on "because I told you so". :)

[Malva Zebrina]

3. all well and good, however

masturbation also eliminates a "potential" human being. In vitro fertilisation techiniques also eliminate "potential" human beings.

I beg to differ. Once born, out of the watery enclave, the born baby indeed is conscious that his/her environment has changed from one of warmth to one of cold and chill and let's it be known immediately. That baby is aware that when the diaper is soiled, and becomes uncomfortable, and let's it known immediately by it's excersizing it's vocal cords, something it NEVER does while in the womb. It is not the same as having it's waste material being handled by it's mother while it is in the uterus. It is uncomfortable, and it now has the means to express that. It is also capable of expressing hunger, and responding to satisfaction. This does NOT happen in the womb.

A born baby is a human being and becomes so when it is born.

There is NO argument that "potentiality" confers upon a blob of cells, the right to be labeled a human being, NONE. It's DNA is there, as is the DNA contained in a single egg or a single sperm, which are both "potential" human beings.

Until an acorn takes root and grows into an adult tree, it is not a tree. It is a seed with the potential to become a tree. I must have raked up ten thousand spent and useless acorns underneath the seven oaks that line my property. They were food for the squirrels, but had no intention of becoming a tree and were NOT a tree.

[don954]

4. i dont think you quite read the essay right, please read it slower

and think about it a while.

[Malva Zebrina]

5. OK, sorry -- I went off on a tangent

and did not mean to attack your essay.

I am appalled at what is happening to women under Bush. And much of happening with the willing consent of other women.

[Maat]

7. I love his logic.

Good argument. Helped me quite a bit. Thanks for the link.

[herberthoover]

8. The unasked question that sticks out in this essay is

..whether or not abortion an ugly thing we want less of or something to be celebrated and encouraged. Keep in mind this is from the perspective of one without the tools to give birth but I understand completely the keep your hands off my toolbox argument.
As I see it abortion is a symptom of a larger problem that could range from poor judgment to rape. The circumstance leading to an abortion is always tragic, and there is a logical argument that the results are to.
I would like to see people get off the backs of planned parenthood et al and the government get out of the abortion business. It is a medical procedure nothing more and should be regulated just like a vasectomy or appendectomy.
So the answer to the morality question needs to include context as well as logic, morality is anything but logical.