Ectogenesis will Help Women with Unwanted Pregnancies

Yikes! It looks like my opponent does not understand my question. To clarify: This is not a debate for or against abortion. This is a debate over the overall effects of ectogenesis on women with unplanned pregnancies. My opponent refrained from using the word "ectogenesis" in his entire argument; this leads me to believe he is not, in fact, aware of the original statement, posted above: "Ectogenesis will Help Women with Unwanted Pregnancies." It is quite difficult to refute a procedure without even using the procedure"s name. To respond to Con, I will assume he is equating abortion with ectogenesis. To retain some semblance of organization, I will list my arguments. 1."Compared with other medical procedures, the abortion industry is largely unregulated. Although there are no exact statistics for the number of women who die from botched procedures, LifeDynamics.com compiled a list of 347 women killed by legal abortions since 1973." Note: topic of the debate, ectogenesis, is not mentioned. Please define your use of the term "unregulated"" it is quite ambiguous. Do you support forced ultrasounds? Do you support government oversight in every abortion clinic? Do you support Louisiana"s recently passed law that will enable women who regret their abortion to sue their doctor for "unlimited sums?"(1).. And I hardly think it is appropriate to compare the "abortion industry" to other industries. Abortion is not remotely related to a dental procedure or a breast implant. "The number of illegal abortions in the 1950s and 1960s ranged from 200,000 to 1.2 million per year". One stark indication of the prevalence of illegal abortion was the death toll. In 1930, abortion was listed as the official cause of death for almost 2,700 women"nearly one-fifth (18%) of maternal deaths recorded in that year." (2) I am in no way minimizing the 347 deaths that resulted from "botched procedures," caused by legal abortions. However, in one single year, 1930, we see clearly that nearly 8 times as many women died from illegal abortions; more deaths than the 40 years of legal abortions combined. It is safe to say, limiting access to safe abortion procedures is more perilous than legalized abortion. 2.Here we go" the infamous "cancer is caused by abortion claim." Actually: "Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women (aside from skin cancer), and it"s the second leading cancer killer in women" scientific research studies have not found a cause-and-effect relationship between abortion and breast cancer." (3) This directly contradicts your claim, which interestingly comes from a biased source, an organization against abortion. "The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) Committee on Gynecologic Practice also reviewed the available evidence in 2003 and again in 2009. In 2009, the Committee said. "Early studies of the relationship between prior induced abortion and breast cancer risk were methodologically flawed. More rigorous recent studies demonstrate no casual relationship between induced abortion and a subsequent increase in breast cancer risk."" (3) It must be said that this information comes from the American Cancer Society, an organization with no connection at all to pro-choice or pro-life interest groups. Now I will state my arguments supporting ectogenesis. Note: I realize the arguments above appear to support abortion. On the contrary, ectogenesis is an alternative to abortion; to reiterate, this discussion is not about abortion. I merely stated facts in response to my opponent. 1.Abortion: a medical procedure done to end a pregnancy. It is what most people think of when they hear "abortion." Ectogenesis: "raising a fetus outside the body in an artificial womb." (4) Please note the differences. 2.Background: Dr. Helen Hung-Ching Liu, Director of Reproductive Endocrine Laboratory at the Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility" grew a human embryo, for ten days in an artificial womb. As complicated as it is, her goal is a functioning external womb." (4) 3.To recall my previous statement: "Ectogenesis will Help Women with Unplanned Pregnancies"" I believe truly that this procedure- which differs greatly from an abortion because the pregnancy is not terminated, it is continued in an artificial womb- will help women with unplanned pregnancies. I recognize the ambiguity of the term "help"- to aid my opponent, I will narrow the definition: "help" as in, present more choices for women with unplanned pregnancies. Simply, will ectogenesis help or hurt these women? 4.I realize that ectogenesis is not a perfected procedure- because of the ethical and political minefields that surround artificial wombs, the research process is extremely slow-moving. If it helps, assume that women have access to these artificial wombs now. Picture a young woman who must make a choice- keep the fetus inside her body for nine months, abort the baby, or- a new choice is presented- she may choose to have the fetus transferred to an artificial womb. Is this new option good? Or bad? 5.Finally, I would like to mention some arguments against ectogenesis which I find rest on unsound logic. a."Artificial wombs would make women feel useless." Oh dear. This assumes that all women feel "useful" simply because of their ability to bear children. Does this mean men, who cannot give birth, feel useless already? Does this mean infertile women are useless? I hope we all know that the worth of a person does not rest on their ability to give birth. b."Ectogenesis would convince all conservative lawmakers to outlaw abortion, because this gives pregnant women another option that does not involve terminating the fetus." Ectogenesis is about more options for women, not replacing the options already present. My personal beliefs concerning abortion have no place in this argument. And in my experience, conservative lawmakers are an unpredictable bunch :) c."Ectogenesis will result in too many unwanted children." There are millions of couples in the U.S. alone who are waiting to adopt a child. There are also many same-sex couples who would love to adopt a child. Thank you for reading! I came back from another District Band rehearsal that lasted 8 hours, so I apologize if my arguments seem scattered. To my opponent: please discuss the matter at hand :) 1.http://theweek.com... 2.https://www.guttmacher.org... 3.http://www.cancer.org... 4.http://motherboard.vice.com...