Abortion is Immoral --- Tournament Debate, round 1

Pro wrote: Murder is defined as the crime of unlawfully killing a person especially with malice aforethought. This fails to support Pro's position. Abortion isn't unlawful, and abortionists work without malice towards the products of conception. That would be like having malice towards a piece of bread that you put in the toaster, or towards a lug nut as you tighten it. Does a doctor performing a tonsillectomy have malice toward the tonsils? It's a perfectly ridiculous idea. Pro undertook to prove that abortion is immoral. He isn't even moving in that direction. Claiming that abortion is illegal‒especially when this claim is patently false‒does not tend to show that it is also immoral. Was it immoral to smuggle bibles into Russia? Was it immoral to smuggle slaves north out of Dixie? Not every illegal act is immoral. Essentially the killing of one human by another is murder. Again, this argument doesn't work in Pro's favor. Pro has no problem with murdering (in his view this is murder) the children of rape and incest victims. Therefore‒even if we stipulated that abortion was murder, which we do not‒Pro takes the position that murder isn't always wrong. Thus, he has done nothing to show that abortion is immoral. The embryo is killed in the abortion process. Again, not helpful. Pro gives us no reason to believe this killing is wrong. He doesn't object to killing unfertilized eggs, why should he object to killing fertilized eggs? He has offered no case for me to refute. He is arguing strictly to those who already agree with him, and giving no reason for others to agree. Since embryos have human characteristics it must be considered murder. Would Pro call it murder to burn a photograph of a human? A parrot that talks like a human? Tonsils that have human DNA? No, having some similarity to a human does not make one a human, no more than being an acorn makes one an oak tree. And further, even if we stipulated that killing things like humans was murder, that would not tend to prove that doing so was immoral. Not all illegal things are immoral, and Pro himself seems to favor murder in some cases. I stated that a thin exception [murdering the children of rape and incest victims] could be used. Pro thinks that a few murders would be good, but he doesn't want too many? Whatever Pro's opinion is, whatever point he's trying to convey, he has not yet had success at getting his point across. Why does Pro think abortion is immoral? He has not yet made his case. I can say why I think it is immoral to make abortion illegal, or even to go around promiscuously declaring abortion to be immoral. I'll not take the space to do that here, since it would be off topic, since Pro has the burden of proof. But I could do it, and I would do it if it were on topic, if it were the subject of this debate. But Pro declines to share his reasons for thinking abortion is immoral. I can't refute his argument if he refuses to say what it is. So just remember that Pro has the burden of proof. He has not tried to meet that burden. Vote Con. Also, doctors have medical opportunities to prevent this if these cases arise. I don't know what the point of this is supposed to be. Is Pro backpedalling, implying that abortion is bad even in the case of rape and incest? And how is it worse to abort an attached zygote than to prevent a zygote from attaching? It's murder either way, according to Pro's logic. An unattached zygote has as much similarity to a person as an attached zygote does, doesn't it? In fact, an unattached zygote is even more similar to a person, since people aren't generally attached to other people. Once again the majority of people who take the abortion route deeply regret their decision. I assume this is a lie. Mind you, I don't think Pro is lying. I assume that Pro is innocently repeating something that some liars told him. In any case, even if Pro's outlandish claim were true, would that make abortion immoral? For instance, if most people regretted voting for George Bush, does that mean that voting for George Bush was immoral? Obviously not. In a free country, we get to make free choices, even if we will regret some of those choices. Freedom is good, including the freedom to choose whether or not to have children. Any negative practice that, in the majority, caters to minors and young woman is most definitely immoral. Pro has not shown abortion to be a negative practice. Forcing pregnant children to have babies, now that would be a negative practice. Forcing anyone to do anything, without compelling reasons, would be negative practice. It would be immoral. I've read a quotation, something like, "If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament. " It seemed to me an extreme thing to say, an exaggeration. But here, suddenly, is Pro saying that it is because it is women wanting abortions that the practice is immoral. I am at a loss for response. Conclusion: Pro has undertaken to prove that abortion is immoral. He has undertaken to show that this is true from the moment of conception, notwithstanding that he keeps referring to embryos. Pro has taken no steps in this direction, given us no hint of a reason to think abortion immoral. Indeed, his cryptic and self-contradictory proto-arguments call doubt on whatever he may say next. He thinks abortion is murder, but he approves of some murders? Would Pro think it acceptable to murder the teenaged children of rape and incest victims? I assume not. I assume that he really knows that abortions aren't murders. But if I'm wrong, if Pro really thinks abortion is murder and that murdering the children of rape victims is fine, then how are we to trust anything else he says. In particular, how are we to trust anything he says about morality?