Abortion is Murder

Welcome everyone! Here is the game: Pro - Abortions are MurderCon - Abortions are not MurderOne Round. No Semantics or games. I have made my case below. Con can provide rebuttals or make a case seperate from my arguments so long as they remain on topic. Without further ado...Many abortions are performed under the assumption that life begins after birth, but in truth, it starts much earlier. The implications of life beginning at conception require attention as our country commits and allows the mass murder of innocent life. As a father and a Christian who has had close experiences with abortion, this topic has great personal importance. With continual advances in technology, scientists and parents alike are able to see the development of the unborn more clearly than ever before. A new fetus contains all that is needed to become a fully functioning adult at conception and is no different from one who is born, other than the point of development he or she is actively experiencing. Studies continue to discover fresh evidence proving that babies exhibit responses to stimuli much earlier than believed by the general population. This includes babies’ responses to their mother, and responses to pain. A beating heart is also present despite the belief that it does not appear until near full development. If the above points are true, then abortion is murder, as much so as the murder of any other human being. Many believe that abortions are not immoral because they feel that the fetus is not alive or not considered a person. However, studies have shown that human life begins much earlier than birth. Many people see a fetus as just a lump of cells, but it is much more than that. A fetus contains all that is needed to become a unique and fully functioning adult at conception. A new fetus is termed a “zygote,” and contains human DNA. DNA is a blueprint for everything from eye color to personality traits and “DNA contains the instructions needed for an organism to develop, survive and reproduce” (Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) Fact Sheet, 2015. p. 4). Each zygote is an individualized blend of their parent’s DNA, creating a new and unique person at conception. This blending of DNA and the forty-six chromosomes, which make up each individual person, eliminates the idea that the fetus is merely another appendage of a woman’s body. As Lee (2004) said, “What makes it wrong to kill you or me now would also have been present in the killing of you or me when we existed as adolescents, as toddlers, as infants, but also when we existed as foetuses or embryos” (p. 250). As the zygote develops into a fetus, it begins to express these individual features, responses to stimuli, and preferences, just as any other human being. Despite the popular belief that a fetus’ heartbeat develops far later in the pregnancy; the facts show otherwise, and it is accepted that, “the heart begins to beat by the 25th day of development” (Balaban & Bobick, 2008. p. 318). In some cases, heartbeats can be seen on a sonogram as early as three weeks gestation. Many states, in fact, require that a mother hears the heartbeat of their child before receiving an abortion. In Minnesota, a pamphlet is provided, in accordance to the Women’s Right to Know Act, to all mothers contemplating abortion, which explains that the physician will be providing a means of pain relief for the unborn child (Minnesota Department of Health, 2015. p. 9). A variety of studies throughout the years have been published, which show that a fetus responds to stimuli earlier than previously thought, in fact, in a recent study researchers confirmed such a conclusion (Marx & Nagy, 2015. p. 4). Babies can also be seen smiling in reaction to their mother’s voice as early as seventeen weeks gestation. The idea that a fetus can be aborted because it is perceived as an unresponsive blob of tissue is refuted by these studies, which show that life begins before birth. If the above points are true, and a fetus is more than just an unresponsive blob of tissue, than abortion is undoubtedly murder. Murder is defined as, “the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another” (Oxford dictionaries, 2016. p. 1). The act of abortion would be premeditated killing of that fetus as a mother contemplates, plans, and prepares for her abortion. The Unborn Victims of Violence Act places unborn children with the same value as any other human being, in fact, section 1841 states that any attempt to kill a fetus will be punished in the same manner as attempting to kill an already-born human being (Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004, 2004). Furthermore, in defining “unborn child,” the law states, ‘‘As used in this section, the term ‘unborn child’ means a child in utero, and the term ‘child in utero’ or ‘child, who is in utero’ means a member of the species homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb’’ (Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004, 2004). In accordance with this law many state laws and federal laws allowing abortions are in complete contradiction to each other. In the same way, the public denial of the unborn being human is in opposition to the federal definition of “unborn child.” Just as well, the killing of a born baby is murder, and the logical conclusion to draw is that the killing of an unborn baby should be treated the same. “As the difference between a six-month old human being and that same human being twenty years later is only one of maturation, the same is true of the human embryo or foetus compared to the twenty-year old she matures into” (Lee, 2004. p. 257). Despite that many believe that abortions are not immoral because they disregard the fetus as alive or a person, we are murdering people, but not only people – innocent children. A fetus does indeed contain all that is needed to become a unique and fully functioning adult at conception. Studies continue to discover new evidence proving that the unborn have unique personalities, responses, and awareness in the womb. These presented facts indicate that abortion is indeed murder and thus a serious issue worth contending over. We must then, bring people to taking responsibility for their sexual activity and present the facts in hopes to prevent those consequences of falling on an innocent child. While children are subject to their parent’s choices, we should allow children the right to live and give them the opportunity to respond to the gift of life. The continuous debate, on whether or not a fetus is a person, in itself should have been enough to prevent us from moving forward with the legalization of abortion. To enact a law, which allows for the murder of innocent life, or the taking of any life, on the basis of uncertain conclusions, assumptions, and appeals to emotions is neither moral nor justified. References Balaban, N. E., & Bobick, J. E. (2008). Human Growth and Development. In The handy anatomy answer book. Detroit: Visible Ink Press. Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) Fact Sheet. (2015, June 16). Retrieved from http://www.genome.gov... Lee, P. (2004). The Pro-Life Argument from Substantial Identity: A Defence. Bioethics, 18(3), 249-263. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8519.2004.00393.x Marx, V., & Nagy, E. (2015, June 8). PLOS ONE. Retrieved from http://journals.plos.org... Minnesota Department of Health. (2015, September 14). Retrieved from http://www.health.state.mn.us... Murder. 2016. In http://www.oxforddictionaries.com.... Retrieved January 25, 2016, from http://www.oxforddictionaries.com... Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1841 – 919a (2004)