Abortion

"My framework will be based around libertarianism. Within libertarianism, there is controversy on abortions because it depends on if the fetus is alive. If the fetus is alive then libertarians are against abortions because libertarians are individualists and therefore value the life of the individual heavily [1]. If the fetus is not alive then libertarians advocate abortion because libertarians belief in a less powerful and restrictive government. In our first contention we will prove the fetus to be living. I will explain why we should have an abortion under libertarian belief." Correct me if I am wrong here, your first point is that liberals support abortion, therefore abortion is morally acceptable because the liberals must be right. This is a poorly attempted appeal to authority. "She is the individual that libertarians prioritize, due to their individualist beliefs [2]. Since libertarians believe in a less restrictive government, the outcome is clear. The government should NOT be involved in something so personal to the person since by intervening in this person"s choice, you are restricting them and are violating libertarian ideology [3]." The fetus had no choice in it being in the woman"s womb either, that fetus is like a prisoner there, it had no choice I the matter, here is a story to illustrate this: "it would be like if I came home one day, and some guy was tied by his feet upside down, he wants to get down so he can leave my house, so I can either A shoot the innocent victim (abortion), or B untie him and let him go (continue with pregnancy), what would you do?" Additionally, if said fetus is not a product of rape, then that means that the mother consented to it being there. "Only 1.4% of abortions occur after 21 weeks into the pregnancy [3,4]. This means that that most abortions are done before the fetus is even formed. It is an embryo, and an embryo is proven to be not alive. It isn't a subject of discussion when talking about the embryo [5]." If it consumes energy, grows and develops, and responds to stimuli, according to the definition of life provided by biology, it is alive. I will now address the fetus - which is mitigated due to the small percentage of abortions that occur at this period. "There are 7 categories in which life can be identified [6]. The categories have been compiled by biologists over a long period of time with great discussion [6]. The fetus only meets 2 of these. Movement - The fetus can move so this part is met. Respiration - The fetus cannot respire on its own (7). Is a fish alive? Yes, it is, but it never respires, it absorbs oxygen through the liquid surrounding, like a fetus. Sensitivity - The fetus cannot sense at 24 weeks or even 28 weeks (8). Actually, as soon as grey matter has been formed, it can feel. Growth - The fetus does grow. Reproduction - Whilst it is a fetus, no it cannot reproduce (9). By that logic children that have not yet hit puberty are not alive, hence killing them is OK. Excretion - This is possible however very rare and unlikely (10). I guess people who are constipated are not alive either. Nutrition - The fetus cannot independently take in nutrition. So people dependent on injected nutrition are not alive either, wow, there"s a lot of dead people walking around these days eh? "When an abortion is legal there is absolutely no point in having an illegal abortion because they have been proven to be very dangerous and expensive. If abortion are legal then illegal abortions will negatively correlate (11). These illegal abortions have been known to kill both the mother and the baby and sometimes result in extreme suffering on the mother"s part (11). Mothers are not doctors (most of the time) so these illegal abortions also occur later than 24 (and even 28) weeks meaning that the babies suffer too (11)!" That is because these mothers are deranged psychopaths, under some circumstances, something not so good should be legalized seeing what happened as a result of prohibition, but in other circumstances, it is too evil to allow. This is one of them. "This statistic is shocking but demonstrates my point very well. These unsafe abortions are illegal and this is what is currently happening because abortions are illegal in places. They have no option to a safe abortion and are so desperate for abortion that they attempt to have an unsafe abortion. Therefore, we can conclude that there are a huge number of unsafe abortions (13% of all pregnancy related deaths). From this we can then follow up an argument suggesting that making abortions illegal will not necessarily get rid of all abortions therefore rendering our opponent"s aim to be mitigated." I think you missed my point, if it isn"t rape, incest, or a medical issue, they should be forced to go forward, so if they NEED one, they can get one, but it they DO NOT need one, they should go forward, and we should put harsh punishments on trying to abort when they o not need to. "This statistic is significant for many reasons. If this occurs amongst 18 - 19 year olds then this is extremely bad. Having to look after and care for a child ruins their chances of going to university. Your twenties are your most important period of your lives according to many sources (13,14,15). Having to look after a child in this period of time is extremely stressful and prevents you from getting proper qualifications and more importantly, it prevents you from getting a full time job and a house. Children are extremely expensive to have and having a child at the time when you should be looking for a job makes income problematic. On top of this you will have to pay huge amounts of money." This would fit under an issue that harms both the mother and the child. "A pregnancy to a woman is perhaps one of the most determinative aspects of her life. It disrupts her body. It disrupts her education. It disrupts her employment. And it often disrupts her entire family life." (17) She continued: "[And we feel that], because of the impact on the woman, this " is a matter which is of such fundamental and basic concern to the woman involved that she should be allowed to make the choice as to whether to continue or to terminate her pregnancy." (17) This was a case showing that without the right to a termination, you are denying women a right and therefore what my opponent is advocating is gender inequality. So let me get this straight, women have the right to murder, because it makes their lives easier? There are a lot of people in everyone"s lives that if they were to go missing then their lives would be so much easier, but it does not justify murder. The philosopher, Judith Thomson said: "If abortion rights are denied, then a constraint is imposed on women's freedom to act in a way that is of great importance to them, both for its own sake and for the sake of their achievement of equality .... and if the constraint is imposed on the ground that the fetus has a right to life from the moment of conception, then it is imposed on a ground that neither reason nor the rest of morality requires women to accept, or even to give any weight at all." (17) This emphasizes my previous point in regards to the denial of gender rights and equality. That"s how nature set them up, women were made for pregnancy, and men were made for getting themselves killed. Correct me if I am wrong, this is your argument: a baby makes a woman"s life harder, something that men don"t have to deal with, hence, they have the right to kill to make their lives easier. I have to listen to my mom, something that adults don"t have to deal with, does that justify the same action, yes or no?