The topic of abortion has always been a controversial topic. Does the embryo have the same rights as other human beings? The same argument can be applied to a chicken in its egg. Does the chick deserve a chance at life because everytime an egg is taken for consumption it is preventing a life. There are hundreds of articles, books, newspapers, blogs and other forms of mass media communications on each side pro life and pro choice. The point of this article is to take a non bias standpoint and explore the scientific and moral decisions on abortion to decifer which argument is more logical than the others.
For pro choice one of the main arguments is that if the baby is unwanted or unplanned for then it should be up to
...the mother whether or not she wants to give birth or not. This maybe due to financial situations, or maybe she just isn’t ready “there was nothing I could do to stop her from going through with an abortion; it was her legal right” (The atlantic). The story behind this was two people were in a relationship, Tony and Jenny were in a relationship but not in love. Jenny one day messaged Tony and said that she was pregnant and that she wanted an abortion because she was not in love with Tony and was not ready to have a baby with somebody that she was not in love with. Tony was not able to have a say in the matter because she was the one carrying the baby and it was her right to have the abortion or not. This is a flaw
in the argument of pro choice because if people are looking for true equality for all then in situations like this it is vital to make the decision equal between the two individuals. And if there can't be a verdict or middle ground reached then it can be discussed between the two parties families or taken to court in order to reach this middle ground. There are other instances where the parents know about possible birth defects and still proceed to not have an abortion this is the other half of the pro choice in which they do decide to keep the baby although it could mean a life of pain and hospitalizations. And if the parents do decide to keep the baby that puts the parents and the hospitals into a financial predicament where the parents can't keep up with the bills and can't pay the hospital for the birth defects that were known about and ignored by the parents. These complications are often caused by the women not taking proper care of themselves while being pregnant not allowing the child to grow and develop normally. This begs the question whether or not it is the right thing to do to bring the child into the world with all of these complications. But another issue with this standpoint is the outliers like transgender people who are looking to get abortions, and those who are raped and pregnant do to that fact. An example of this is the sad story of “Ms Y” , a woman who was granted safety by Ireland because she was beaten and raped by the armed forces in her hometown.
In Ireland there are restrictive laws against abortions so she was forced to give c section birth after attempting suicide multiple times after discovering she could not have an abortion. These laws gave no sympathy and restricted her rights as a human being in order to save the life of an unborn rape caused child. Later on that year Ireland along with almost 50 countries have expanded lawful abortions. In this touchy situation where rape is involved there is a reasonable cause to incite an abortion due to the physical and mental damage that caused her to be pregnant. These countries are pushing these laws in order to allow certain outlying situations to be dealt with. These laws are also helping the fact that as of now there are 7,781,660,690 people on this planet and this is a way to be able to slow down the birth rate in order for the current population to deal with the worldwide problems at hand. All in all the pro choice has flaws but within reason it has it’s points like rape incidents and transgender issues. And overall agreement between couples to decide what happens with their unborn child.
For the pro life half of the argument there are a few standpoints that are rational and logical. Like the safety of the child and how much earlier we are coming to understand that the embryo has consciousness and intelligence. This being said they are viewed as human beings having the same rights as any other human after conception when a sperm and an oocyte connect and become the single celled zygote. One of the many arguments against pro life
is that women have the choice of doing what they want with their bodies. Body autonomy is very important and is supported around the world. But this fact is a problem when it starts to intervene with other people's rights such as drinking and doing drugs while “pregnant women shouldn’t ingest drugs that cause birth defects. And if harming unborn children is wrong, then dismembering and killing them (through abortion) is even worse”. This brings up the question, if harming an unborn child is wrong then why is abortion right? Harming the unborn child through the mother’s decisions is one thing but to go as far as killing the child is immoral and murder of another human being. The excuse of not being able to financially support the child is answerable by adoption and if you are not ready to be a parent then you can also just put your child up for abortion. But one of the few reasons that makes this point mute is in the outliers of rape and transgender issues. Although the act of killing the unborn child is not fair to the child neither was the act that caused it to come to fruition. This is a grey area for both ends of the spectrum. It is believed that in those cases it should be left up to the victim of either situation what they would like to do with the unborn child. And for when the child is considered a living organism and not just a “a blob of tissue” scientifically is considered human after conception when the two come together and make the zygote that has its own
unique genetic code and completely different from any other human ever this disproves the argument of its the mother and her body it is the mother and her body. The DNA double helices that reside in every human being makes them who they are, giving them not only their own unique genetic code but even hereditary attributes as well including eye color, hair color, and even personality traits all in embryos. Even in the earliest stages of being an embryo it still qualifies to be alive because they have a metabolism, it's always growing, reacting to different forms of stimulus, even reproductive capabilities. This brings up the point of after conception contraceptives which literally means a drug or tool used to prevent pregnancy as just mentioned the zygote contains its own unique DNA helices and qualifies to be considered alive even in embryo before it connects to the uterus wall. The pro life argument has many points of discussion based on scientific fact showing how the fetus is still considered human even in embryo due to their unique DNA helices making them their own individual. While showing the four signs of life right after conception even before connecting to the outer lining of the uterus which is when most contraceptive companies say it is when they are living.
The investigation of the pro life versus pro choice shows that both sides have valid and invalid points logically. With the pro choice the valid points in the argument are the reduction in the birth rate of the human population allowing the current population to continue to fix the problems we already have, and the outliers such as
rape and transgender issues. For the invalid points reflect upon the example of Tony and Jenny where the man had no say in the abortion because it is the mothers right to the abortion without consent of the other partner and for society to be completely equal for both sexes there should be more of a say for the male in this decision. For the pro life side of the argument the truth behind when the baby is considered “human” or “alive” has been shown to be after the point of conception when the sperm enters the oocyte and creates the zygote creating a unique strand of DNA that will soon fully develop into a human being. The downsides to this argument are the outliers where the female got raped and the fate of the unwanted fetus should then be put into the hands of the mother whether to abort or support. Both sides of the arguments have downsides and upsides a middle ground between the two arguments where the downsides of pro life is supported by the upsides of pro choice is where society should put this argument to rest.
