1b. Abortion

Abortion is one of the most widely disagreed upon topics. To determine whether abortion is right or wrong, we must define our values. Before I go on, I will clarify my stance. Some of you might see PRO for 'Abortion' and assume I am advocating that Abortion is awesome and should always be done. Au contraire. I am arguing that abortion is fine, but not necessarily 'good' [though in many cases, it is good]. Due to the nature of the debate on this subject, my opponent will be arguing that abortion is bad. First, an observation. Morality is a construct through which we do what's best for society at large rather than for ourselves as individuals. For instance, it may be in a person's best interest to commit murder, but even without laws few of us would be willing to do so, due to morality. And that is all morality is. Therefore, morality need not come into play, since people have different perspectives on morality on this issue. Rather, let us examine the root of morality - whether abortions are often better for society at large or not. First, let me point out that we are specifically talking about people who are considering getting an abortion. It is obvious that abortion, if done by everyone, would be a pretty bad idea. But who are these people who are considering getting abortions? I will make some statements that are generally true about this group of people. They are poor. They are people who do not wish to have children. The kid is shown to have physical or mental problems. These are the general groups that most widely apply. Now then. Time for another observation. On average in society, people take from society the same amount they give to society. This is a mathematical necessity. Since this is not true for everyone, note that some people contribute more than they take and some people take more than they contribute. The poor tend to occupy this second group. Welfare, charity, and other poor-assistance programs tend to make the poor take more than they receive from society. This also applies to the mentally or physically handicapped. Here is an analogy. Let's say society is a big party, and the amount of beer at this party represents productivity. All the beer at this party is brought by individuals; some people bring more than thy drink so that others can drink more than they bring. In this analogy, the poor or handicapped person takes more than he brings. Stopping that person from coming to the party means the average amount of beer every other person gets goes up. True, you may say to yourself, "A person can only use so much beer," but remember that this is productivity in my analogy. More beer means more food, better food, a better car, more stuff. Except for the ridiculously wealthy, it is senseless to argue that people cannot use more wealth. So above I've shown that the economic impact of a poor or handicapped person is low, and that most of those aborted are destined to be either handicapped or poor [most poor parents have poor kids]. Sure, there might be the occasional exception, but we are talking in overall terms. So now, let's consider environmental impacts. Most people have negative impacts on the environment, save for people who invent environmentally friendly alternatives to stuff. Needless to say, it is almost certain that a poor or handicapped person will have a negative environmental impact. There's an astounding minority of people who have positive impacts, and an astounding minority of that group would be poor or handicapped. What about social impact of aborting a kid? I want to point out that most of us are extremely replaceable as far as the social impacts we cause. For instance, Bob had a lot of good times with his best friend, Tom. However, what if Tom had been aborted as a fetus? Would Bob have gone friendless, spent all that time alone? No. He simply would have found different friends growing up. Therefore, it seems the social impact we have is minimal at best, and this would apply just as much, if not more, to the poor and handicapped. The other two positive impacts of abortion above far outweigh this impact, if this impact is indeed negative. Also, consider that these groups tend to be genetically less than average. Thus, abortion is a form of unnatural selection, helping weed out some of the low end humans. While this is hardly justification for abortion on its own, it certainly is a nice bonus to the reasons given above. But perhaps my opponent can find a way to tip the scales to his side.