“From 1973 through 2011, nearly 53 million legal abortions were performed in the United States – an average of about 1.4 million abortions per year” (Ashford-Grooms). I have recently changed my position regarding the morality of abortion. Before, I held the position that we do not know when exactly a fetus becomes a conscious human being. There is no specific moment, which we can prove, that a soul enters the fetus and the fetus then becomes an actual ‘human being,’ for lack a lack of a better explanation. Some will argue that life begins at conception; others want proof of this claim. Regardless of the semantics of murder and abortion, it is proven that fetus’ respond to their environment while in the womb, and recent studies suggest abortions
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Biologically speaking, the whole purpose of any living organism is to continue its existence; there are two ways to accomplish this: Immortality or reproduction. Some marine animals, such as jellyfish, are capable of “cheating death” by reproducing asexually. But for humans, and most other forms of life, we achieve this feat through reproduction. This is a prodigious responsibility that I think many people do not truly consider before engaging in sexual intercourse. Every individual is responsible for his or her actions. If a woman is physically mature enough to be impregnated, then more than likely she is mentally mature enough to understand that she may become impregnated if she chooses to engage in coitus. It is unfair for this woman to turn around and get an abortion due to a lack of personal accountability. Additionally, we have known for a long time that how we turn out depends on both our genes and our environment. What we now realize is that the influence of the environment begins in the womb, and how the mother feels during pregnancy can change this environment and can have a lasting effect on the development of her child. For example, if a mother is routinely stressed while pregnant, this child According to clinical scientist Vivette Glover, “The fetus starts to make movements in response to being touched from eight weeks, and more complex movements build up, as detected by real time ultrasound, over the next few weeks.” This suggests that, even though we may not be able to scientifically pinpoint the exact moment a fetus becomes a ‘real human being,’ they should still be treated as such because they are showing signs of human life from very early on, which would suggest that they are actually people, not just a bunch of DNA and atoms. It takes about thirty-eight weeks for a fertilized egg to develop into a full term baby and the changes that occur over this short time
Biologically speaking, the whole purpose of any living organism is to continue its existence; there are two ways to accomplish this: Immortality or reproduction. Some marine animals, such as jellyfish, are capable of “cheating death” by reproducing asexually. But for humans, and most other forms of life, we achieve this feat through reproduction. This is a prodigious responsibility that I think many people do not truly consider before engaging in sexual intercourse. Every individual is responsible for his or her actions. If a woman is physically mature enough to be impregnated, then more than likely she is mentally mature enough to understand that she may become impregnated if she chooses to engage in coitus. It is unfair for this woman to turn around and get an abortion due to a lack of personal accountability. Additionally, we have known for a long time that how we turn out depends on both our genes and our environment. What we now realize is that the influence of the environment begins in the womb, and how the mother feels during pregnancy can change this environment and can have a lasting effect on the development of her child. For example, if a mother is routinely stressed while pregnant, this child According to clinical scientist Vivette Glover, “The fetus starts to make movements in response to being touched from eight weeks, and more complex movements build up, as detected by real time ultrasound, over the next few weeks.” This suggests that, even though we may not be able to scientifically pinpoint the exact moment a fetus becomes a ‘real human being,’ they should still be treated as such because they are showing signs of human life from very early on, which would suggest that they are actually people, not just a bunch of DNA and atoms. It takes about thirty-eight weeks for a fertilized egg to develop into a full term baby and the changes that occur over this short time