Abortion

Before I begin, I want to have the opposition clarify something: are there any restrictions on when the fetus can be aborted? Please answer this question in the beginning of your next speech so I can focus my rebuttals on that primary question. Abortion: The deliberate termination of a human pregnancy. Human: Of, relating to, or having characteristic of humans. Characteristic: a feature or quality belonging typically to a person, place, or thing and serving to identify it. Harms: When is a fetus considered human? So, essentially, the opposition has to consider when the fetus is human. They are asserting tha the fetus is not really human, but a group of cells; A part of the mother"s body that she can do with as she pleases. This view does have merit. If the baby is a part of her body, then she can do with it as she pleases. That logic flows pretty nicely. There is only problem: What if the fetus is a human being? In this section, I will layout the average development of a fetus in the womb. Week1: The fertilized egg makes its way to the uterus. It is about the size of a pen tip. Within days, the cells organize into groupings, the inner cell mass becomes the baby, and the outer cells become the placenta. The egg sheds its protective shell, and burrows into the womb. Week 5: The baby is the size of a sesame seed. Around this time, the cells take the shape of the embryo, and make primitive organs. The brain and the spinal cord are visible. Around this time, the circulatory system forms. His heart begins to beat. The baby begins to draw nutrients and oxygen from the umbilical cord. Week 9: The baby LOOKS human with limbs, nose, and even ear lobes. It is now the size of a grape and weighs a fraction of an ounce. It has UNIQUE fingerprints. Week 10: The baby has fingernails and its liver makes blood cells. Week 11: the baby"s bones start to harden, and he can even open and close his fists. Week 13: the urinary tract is functioning and he is starting to urinate. Week 14: The baby can make facial expressions. Week 15: The baby"s eyes can detect light and his legs are longer than his arms, he can also move them. Week 17: The baby can now move all his joints. Week 18: the baby can hear noise, such as your voice, and possibly other loud noises Week 19: The nervous system has developed and he can now access the ability to hear, taste, smell, touch and see. Unfortunately, he hasn't developed eyes, his sense of smell, or his sense of taste. Week 20: Usually, the mother goes to have an ultrasound, and you can feel his movements. He is now the size of a banana. Week 21: The eyelids and eyebrows are developed. Week 22: the baby has lips, and teeth are forming. Week 24: the baby"s lungs have developed, and the taste buds have developed. He can now taste and breathe on his own. The definition of human is Of, relating to, or having the characteristic of a human. From this definition, all I have to do is show that the fetus has the characteristics of a human, and it is therefore considered a human. Once we do this, the killing of a fetus is instantly equated with murder, for we are killing a human with the intention of doing so. We can see that the fetus, by week nine, looks like a human with limbs, nose, eyes, and even a nose. He also has UNIQUE fingerprints. Notice the word unique. Unique can be defined as: being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else. This is equated with grown humans. On week 14, it can make facial expressions. Week 17, he can move joints. Week 19 he has assessed the ability to all of the five senses. By week 24, it LOOKS, ACTS, and BEHAVES human. He also has access to all of his senses, making him conscious, which makes him alive. What is a cell? As I stated earlier, the opposition will have to assert that the fetus is a group of cells that the mother can do with as she pleases. However, she might argue, "but, in the first week, it is essentially a bag of cells." But, what is a cell? Cells are considered the basic units of life in part because they come in discrete and easily recognizable packages. In these packages is something called deoxyribonucleic acid. Now, you might think, what is deoxyribonucleic acid? Well, you would recognize it as DNA. DNA is a self-replicating material present in nearly all living organisms as the main constituent of chromosomes. It is the carrier of genetic information. The important part that I want to expound upon is the Genetic Information. Genetic information includes information about an individual's genetic tests and the genetic tests of an individual's family members, as well as information about the manifestation of a disease or disorder in an individual's family members So, basically, the cell contains DNA, which contains genetic information. This Genetic information is so complicated, I had to research the kid version to understand it in a broad sense. Kids Health.org gives a broad sense of what genetics is: "Each of us has a unique set of chemical blueprints affecting how our body looks and functions. These blueprints are contained in our DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), long, spiral-shaped molecules found inside every cell. DNA carries the codes for genetic information and is made of linked subunits called nucleotides. Each nucleotide contains a phosphate molecule, a sugar molecule (deoxyribose),and one of four so-called "coding" molecules called bases (adenine,guanine, cytosine, or thymine). The sequence of these four bases determines each genetic code. The segments of DNA that contain the instructions for making specific body proteins are called genes. Scientists believe that human DNA carries about 25,000 protein-coding genes. Each gene may be thought of as a "recipe" you'd find in cookbook. Some are recipes for creating physical features, like brown eyes or curly hair.Others are recipes to tell the body how to produce important chemicals called enzymes (which help control the chemical reactions in the body). Along the segments of our DNA, genes are neatly packaged within structures called chromosomes. Every human cell contains 46 chromosomes, arranged as 23 pairs (called autosomes), with one member of each pair inherited from each parent at the time of conception. After conception, the chromosomes duplicate again and again to pass on the same genetic information to each new cell in the developing child. Twenty-two autosomes are the same in males and females. In addition, females have two X chromosomes and males have one X and one Y chromosome. The X and the Y are known as sex chromosomes." (emphasis added) As a summary of this, we all have a unique set of blueprints that tells us how are body looks and functions, located in our DNA. The specific part that affects how your body looks is the part called the Genes. Genes are like cookbooks. They tell you how your hair will look, what color your skin will be, and what color your eyes will be. These are all humanistic characteristics. All contained in a little cell that you can"t see. Much smaller than the size of a kid, grape, or even a sesame seed. The same cells located in you. They function in the same way, work the same way, and carry the same information inside of a human egg, the size of the tip of a pen. If the cell contains human information, then it fits the definition of a human. In order to be human, it has to be Of, relating to, or a characteristic of a human. We find that the cells contain humanistic information, thus making it human. In order to reconcile this, the opposition must prove that DNA does not make themselves human, and thus making the opposition un-human, for their DNA tells us humanistic information about them. It is silly to think that they are not human, so why are unborn fetuses who at week one carry the same information as full grown adults, are aborted. If it is true that within the first week that the fetus carries humanistic information, then it is murder to kill it.