Resolved: The practice of abortion ought to be made illegal in most circumstances

Now onto mine. The fetus is a humanMy first contention is that a fetus is human. I will choose to focus on a fetus, not a zygote or an embryo because most abortions happen during the fetal period. A fetus is simply the combination of the male sperm, and the women’s ovum. Combining the two creates an entirely unique organism, not alike to its mother or father. There is no doubt that the fetus is biologically alive. It fulfills the four criteria needed to establish biological life: (1) metabolism, (2) growth, (3) reaction to stimuli, and (4) reproduction. (1) A fetus will, in no doubt, become a human being. There is absolutely no question about it. A fetus will turn into a living, breathing, and thinking organism like you and I. So why deny it the same rights that are given to us? Lets take this for an example: You are a hunter out in the woods. You see something rustle in the bushes. You aren’t sure whether it’s a bear, or a human. Is it worth it to take that shot, knowing that there could be a human there? That directly relates to abortion. Even if you aren’t sure whether the fetus is a human, is it worth it to take that risk? Benefit of the doubt should always be given to life, not death. One very important point is that the entire biological and scientific communities agree on one common definition for human life: one human individual’s life begins at the completion of the union of his father’s sperm and his mother’s ovum, a process called "conception," "fertilization" or "fecundation. " This is according to the one of the only embryology textbooks used in medical schools: Langman’s Medical Embryology written by Thomas W. Sadler PhD(2) Continuing on with the point that a fetus is a human, we have to realize that not only is the fetus being created by the human’s natural processes, it is a unique human individual, just as each of us is. Resulting from the union of the female gamete (which contains 23 chromosomes) and the male gamete (which contains 23 chromosomes), the conceptus is a new—although tiny—individual. A fetus has all of the basic components needed for human life, so to kill it with an abortion would be equivalent of killing a human. It has its own unique genetic code (with forty-six chromosomes), which is neither the mother's nor the father's. From this point until death, no new genetic information is needed to make the unborn entity a unique human individual. In fact according to biology, human development begins with conception. From the moment of conception, the being is complete. Nothing else — no bits or pieces — will be naturally added from this time until the old man or woman dies — nothing but nutrition and oxygen. This being is programmed from within, moving forward in a self-controlled, ongoing process of growth, development, and replacement of his or her own dying cells. To argue the fact that this is not human goes against any scientific and medical standards, which is what our current society is based upon. (3) According to Keith Moore in Essentials of Human Embryology: "Human development begins after the union of male and female gametes or germ cells during a process known as fertilization (conception). "Fertilization is a sequence of events that begins with the contact of a sperm (spermatozoon) with a secondary oocyte (ovum) and ends with the fusion of their pronuclei (the haploid nuclei of the sperm and ovum) and the mingling of their chromosomes to form a new cell. This fertilized ovum, known as a zygote, is a large diploid cell that is the beginning, or primordium, of a human being. " To summarize the first contention: I have concluded that a fetus is a living being, is a unique human individual, and is simply a stage of development in the human process. Abortion is economically harmful Abortion is, in fact, economically detrimental to society as a whole. Lets look at some stats. Since the legalization of Roe V Wade in the United States, there have been about 50 million abortion. (4) Abortions cost about $350 dollars to the average citizen. (5) Therefore, over the years that abortion has been legal in the US, the private sector has received 1 750 000 000 000. In other words, one trillion seven-hundred fifty billion dollars. That seems like a large amount, but the amount that the state lost is more. The average US salary is 42 000 per year. (6) The average life expectancy in the US is 78.1 years (7). Abortion was legal from 1973 to current, or 38 years. Since we can assume that every person who wasn't aborted would live to this day, the calculations are relatively simple. Multiply the number of abortion (50 000 000) by (42 000) the average salary per year and then multiply it by 78, the average life expectancy. We receive the number 2 100 000 000 000. That is the amount of money that the State could have gained by not performing abortions. That is considerably larger than the money gained from abortions. Therefore, abortion is a societal economic detriment. ConclusionThe fetus is a human being It is immoral to kill innocent human beingsAbortion is economically harmful to a society(1) . http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com...(2) . http://books.google.ca...(3) . http://www.abortionfacts.com...(4)http://www.guttmacher.org... (5). http://www.positive.org... (6). http://www.worldsalaries.org...(7)http://goo.gl...(8)http://www.nrlc.org...