Abortion

**I apologize for missing the last round. No excuse. I will do my best to make it up in this one.**Thank's to Pro for hosting the debate and a thank you to the readers for your time. I hope the read proves as worth the effort.**To avoid confusion, bias, or misguidance, I will be referring to the zygote/embryo/fetus/baby/leech/etc. as either "the thing" or "It," from fertilization to birth. I). LessonA. As Pro stated, this is an educational debate. Thus, here is a short education on types of abortion. These are just a few, many more can be found online and in medical dictionaries:1. Abortion: expulsion from the uterus of the products of conception before the fetus is viable. [4]2. Involuntary abortion: often called a miscarriage. [5]3. Induced abortion: brought on intentionally by medication or instrumentation. [4]4. Voluntary abortion: induced termination of a pregnancy (TOP), usually before the fetus has developed enough to live if born, deemed necessary by the woman carrying it and performed at her request. [4]5. Elective abortion: decision to proceed is regardless of circumstance. [5]6. Selective abortion: decision to proceed is based on (1) the thing's gender. (2) the thing's health (3) the mother's health. [5]II) RebuttalsA. On Constitutionality: 1. "the right of a woman to determine whether or not to bear a child." Agreed, we should prosecute those who violate their right. ie. rapists.2. "We as the united states have the moral obligation to uphold our constitution"This is an unsupported claim. We have the moral obligation to do the right thing, or else the constitution would never change.3. "[t]his right of privacy . . . is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy"This is an interpretation of the fourteenth amendment; it is not included in the constitution. Also, this is an unsupported claim; what makes it broad enough to encompass such a thing?B. On Safety1. "So by making abortion illegal you would be having that many more kids in foster care"This is a "slippery slope" argument. A counter slippery slope argument: By making abortion a punishable crime, there would be fewer unwanted children to begin with. 2. "nearly 17% of abortions preformed are done to save the life of a mother who would not be healthy enough to carry their baby to term"Apologies, but I could not find the source of that information, is there a direct link? I did, however, find the following quotes from what appears to be unbiased sources:i. "Between 1967 and 1990, only 151 abortions have been carried out to save the mother's life, a figure amounting to 0.004% of all abortions." [1]ii. "Less than 1% of all abortions are performed to save the life of the mother." [2]iii. “In 1987, only 2.8 percent of abortions performed in the United States were done because of risk to the mother’s life, according to a study in International Family Planning Perspectives." [3]Regardless, the right to life is not debatable. Assuming there are no other options, the relatively few women who are physically at risk of death should not be forced to die. This does not necessarily mean abortion should stay legal. Rather, a doctor—"a person who is trained and licensed to treat sick and injured people" [0]—must practice medicine to the best of his/her ability. So, if a patient needs morphine—that is, an illegal recreational drug—a doctor gives them morphine. C. On EqualityAll-in-all, this is a slippery slope argument. Here is another counter: If abortion were made punishable by incarceration of the doctor and sterilization of the patient, then there would be few unwanted pregnancies. Also, rich people should be punished the same as poor. 1. "Also woman would still get abortions it would just turn back into back ally abortions which was incredibly dangerous and more people died."Perhaps they should not have turned to back alley abortions?2. "thus not providing the most benefits to US society as define by our weighing mechanism."If this is in reference to utilitarianism, it is a topic for an entirely different debate on how flawed and upside-down that kind of thinking is. However, the US is not based in utilitarianism, but contractarianism--the Constitution being the contract. **Thank you to Pro for presenting your argument. Thank you readers for sticking with us so far. I'm look forward to finding out where this will go! **I will do my best to keep this short and sweet because, well, “if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough” [8]. It will get more detailed in whichever area Pro addresses. III.) ArgumentA. Definitions1. Life: the ability to grow, change, etc., that separates plants and animals from things like water or rocks. [0]2. Human: a member of the genus Homo and particularly of the species H. sapiens. [4]3. Human life: a member of the genus Homo and particularly of the species H. sapiens [with] the ability to grow, change, etc., that separates plants and animals from things like water or rocks. [4,0]4. Liberty: the power to do or choose what you want to [0].5. Posterity: people in the future [0]. B. Personhood1. Personhood is human life, which begins at the moment of fertilization. As soon as the thing has all of the chromosomes needed to show growth and development of the human kind, it is a person. 2. If the thing is not life, then what is it? If the thing is not human, then what is it? If a person is not human life, then what is it?3. Just because It is a person though, the thing is not guaranteed life. So, for my second argument, I will approach via the binding contract that we have called “The Constitution”4. If you accept my personhood argument, see III.C. If you do not, see III.DC. The Thing is a person1. Here is a snippet of the 14th amendment: “…nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property…” [7]2. The thing is a person. Therefor it shall not be deprived of life. D. The Thing is not a person1. Here is the preamble: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America” [6]. The Important line here is “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” 2. Here are a couple more definitions:3. So, even in the unlikely event that my personhood argument is deemed null and void, any abortion that is not involuntary steals the “blessings” of “the power to do or choose what [one] wants” away from “people in the future.”**Well, that’s all for now. Thank you readers!**Looking forward.[0] Merriam Webster[1] https://www.spuc.org.uk...[2] http://www.abortionfacts.com...[3] http://www.politico.com...[4] http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com...[5] University ethics course[6] The preamble[7] 14th amendment[8] Albert Einstein