The (U.S.) Constitutionality of Legalized Abortions on Demand

My opponent contends that a fetus is a person and thus has the right to life. Since my opponent wishes to use the constitution and laws as her method of fighting abortion, I will use the same to defend a pro-choice stance. DefinitionsAbortion: the termination of pregnancy by various means, including medical surgery, before the fetus is able to sustain independent life. Until 1973 abortion was considered a crime (by the mother and the doctor) unless performed by physicians to protect the life of the mother, a phrase often broadly interpreted. Untrained persons performed thousands of abortions each year in the U. S. using hasty, unsanitary and dangerous means, resulting in maiming, permanent damage of organs, and death of many women. The Supreme Court ruled in the case of Roe v. Wade (1973) that a woman had the right to choose abortion to end a pregnancy through the first trimester (three months) of gestation. In the latter stages of pregnancy, danger to the life of the mother could still justify a legal abortion. Political struggles followed over legalized abortions. Some state legislatures passed limitations such as requiring teenage girls to obtain their parents' consent in order to get an abortion. Despite appointment of anti-abortion justices by Presidents Reagan and Bush, the Supreme Court has not over-turned the basic Wade case rule. President Bill Clinton's appointments are expected to make legalized abortion continue in the future. [1] Contention 1: A fetus does not have the legal status of a person. A fetus is a human in a biological sense (i. e. , belonging to Homo sapiens), but it is not a person. In the book, On The Moral and Legal Status of Abortion, philosopher Mary Anne Warren detailed five psychological crieterai for personhood. According to her, these qualities include consciousness and in a particulary sentience, the capacity to reason, self-motivate activity, the capacity to communicate messages, and lastly, the presence of self-concepts [2]. Since a fetus does not have any of the qualities, it cannot be considered a person under the law. My arguments can be summed up as followed:P1: Only a person has a right to life. P2: An entity is a person if it has (1) consciousness, (2) the capacity to reason, (3) self-motivated activity, (4) the capacity to communicate messages, and (5) the presence of self-concepts. P3: A human fetus does not have properties (1-5). P4: Therefore, a human fetus is not a person. (from 2 and 3)C: Therefore, a human fetus does not have a right to life. (from 1 and 4)| QUESTIONS FOR MY OPPONENT |Imagine that you are pregnat, but that the baby cannot live. Would you be willing to allow that baby to die in a quick death or in a slow and painful death? What if the fetus puts your life at risk? Will you be willing to sacrifice your life for a baby that, most likely, will not live anyway? | Arguments for why abortion should be legal |(a) RapeThe woman does not choose to become pregnant. This fits perfectly with the Violinist analogy, since you are forced to be attached to the Violinist and should not be held morally culpable for refusing to accede to this situation. (b) Medical needIn cases, like ectopic pregnancy (where the fetus is growing in the fallopian tube), the mother has a substantial chance of dying if the fetus is not aborted, in which case abortion is a life-saving medical procedure. If abortion is defined as murder, then medical need would not matter; the mother would be forced to carry any life to term, regardless of danger.2) Abortions don't stop when we ban themAccording to the NY Times, "A comprehensive global study of abortion has concluded that abortion rates are similar in countries where it is legal and those where it is not, suggesting that outlawing the procedure does little to deter women seeking it. Moreoever, the researches found that abortion was safe in countries where it was legal, but dangerous in countries where it was outlawed and performed clandestinely. Globally, abortions accounts for 13 % of women's deaths during pregnacy and childbirths. " [3] However, according to the Associated Content in 1932, 15000 women died each year to due illegally and improperly performed abortions. | CONCLUSION |A fetus does not have the constitutional right to life and there are some cases where abortion is permisable and even necessary. We know that safe abortions are much safer than improper abortions, so why put more lifes at risk? I turn it back over to CON. Bibliography [1] "Definition of Abortion. " Legal Dictionary | Law. com. Legal Dictionary. Web. 14 Sept. 2011. <. http://dictionary.law.com...;. [2] Warren, Mary Anne. "On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion. " . http://instruct.westvalley.edu...... [3] Rosenthal, Elisabeth. "Legal or Not, Abortion Rates Compare - NYTimes. com. " The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. New York Times, Oct. -Nov. 2007. Web. 14 Sept. 2011. <. http://www.nytimes.com...;.