Abortion should be legal.

Fetuses cannot feel and do not have a sense of mortal danger. There are no detectable brain waves that would translate to pain or fear until 28 weeks. An abortion after 28 weeks only happens under special circumstances, and the fetus is euthanized before a 3rd-trimester abortion, meaning it feels none of the abortion A heartbeat does not make something alive. There is this thing called Electroencephalography (EEG), which records brain activity. If someone has no EEG activity, they are declared brain dead. Some say that fetuses don"t have brainwaves detectable by EEG until a certain point, while some say they don"t at all until birth. Life does not equal personhood. The biological definition of life is something that is made of cells and has the ability to grow and reproduce. Animals are alive. Trees are alive. Bacteria are alive. Are they people? No. Lets take a look at the definition of the word murder in the dictionary: "Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human. Generally this premeditated state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide (such as manslaughter)"http://dictionary.reference.com... The thing that doesn't make abortion murder is lack of malice. People getting abortions are not getting them to punish the fetus or because they want to kill the fetus. Those are literally never the reasons for abortion. People get them because of poverty, work, school, their age, abusive situation, rape, medical reasons and fetal abnormalities. But not because they want to hurt or kill something. It"s not murder if it"s not an independent person. One might argue, then, that it"s not murder to end the life of any child before she reaches consciousness, but we don"t know how long after birth personhood arrives for each new child, so it"s completely logical to use their independence as the dividing line for when full rights are given to a new human being.Using independence also solves the problem of dealing with premature babies. Although a preemie is obviously still only a potential person, by virtue of its independence from the mother, we give it the full rights of a conscious person. This saves us from setting some other arbitrary date of when we consider a new human being a full person. Older cultures used to set it at two years of age, or even older. Modern religious cultures want to set it at conception, which is simply wishful thinking on their part. The genesis of a new human life begins when the egg with 23 chromosomes joins with a sperm with 23 chromosomes and creates a fertilized cell, called a zygote, with 46 chromosomes. The single-cell zygote contains all the DNA necessary to grow into an independent, conscious human being. It is a potential person. But being alive does not give the zygote full human rights - including the right not to be aborted during its gestation. A single-cell amoeba also coverts nutrients and oxygen into biological energy that causes its cells to divide, multiply and grow. It also contains a full set of its own DNA. It shares everything in common with a human zygote except that it is not a potential person. Left to grow, it will always be an amoeba - never a human person. It is just as alive as the zygote, but we would never defend its human rights based solely on that fact. There is a legal excuse - the right to Bodily Autonomy. This is the right which allows us to decide who may use our bodies, what parts they may use, what they may be used for and for how long. This means if I do not consent to the use of my uterus by a fetus I have the right to remove said fetus. Bodily Autonomy is the most basic human right. http://en.wikipedia.org... There you have it. Abortion fails to meet the requirements for murder at every stage. Yes, it"s gory and bloody when you use late term abortions (which only account for about 1.5% of abortions anyways and are dead fetuses that failed to be expelled naturally, fetuses that were actively dying and putting the pregnant person in immediate danger and fetal abnormalities.) https://www.guttmacher.org... Yes, it"s unpleasant to look at -so is open heart surgery. Being unpleasant to look at doesn't equal murder though, it never has.