Why is abortion unethical?

Question

I'm not saying its ethical so please don't attack me.

Answer 1

At the moment of conception, the forming child is genetically distinct from its mother. If it is not actively interfered with, one of two things will happen -- spontaneous miscarriage or birth.

Since it is genetically distinct from the mother, it is not part of her body, nor is it a 'nondifferentiated tissue mass'

Answer 2

Think of all the women or couples who have kids. Most of them cant even afford it, they live off the government and i think that is wrong. and if you take abortion away, the adoption agencys wont know what to do with them selves. There will be so many children without familys. The world will be a mad house more then what it is. Im sure most people can agree with me on the fact that some people are not even fit to have a child, and abortion would be the best thing for them. Just remember everyone has their own opinions.

Answer 3

before an abortion can be ethical or unethical, you have to ask yourself "what is the unborn." If the unborn is a blob of cells, there's no problem in killing it, but if the unborn is a living human child then it seems very unethical to cut it up. There are only 4 differences between an unborn baby boy and a fully grown adult man. The differences are
1. size
2. level of development
3. environment
4. degree of depedancy

Now I don't think a small person is less human than a large one. I don't believe that a little girl without a fully developed reproductive system is less human than a woman with a fully developed reproductive system. I don't believe that you're more or less human based on where you are at the moment, and I don't believe a baby is less human because it depends on it's mother to feed it.

Since none of these factors determine your humanity, and since these factors are the only differences between an adult (which is unethical to kill) and the unborn, it would follow that it is unethical to kill the unborn.

Answer 4

Abortion is the ending of a Human life....Period.

Is it sometimes nessasary?.....Sure.

Is it Sometimes the best thing for both the mother, and/or the child?....Maybe.

But let's not mince words here.

An Abortion Kills a human. It Ends a life.

All too often, an abortion is used as a form of birth control.

It's done because the >Two< people responsible for producing the baby, aren't willing to accept the responsibility of their actions.

I'm all for women having control of their own bodies.

But when does a baby, become a baby?

When does that "Child" gain it's own rights, to >Life<, liberty, Etc.?

When is it no longer just a "Clump of cells"?

When does an abortion terminate a fetus, and when does it kill an unborn baby? Conception?, 1 month?, 6 months?, when the baby could survive outside the womb?, when it's finally born?

We, in modern society, have to define >clearly< when this occurs. For without defining that point, are we not blurring the line of what we are doing?

And to whom?

T.S.

Answer 5

It is unethical because it is the woman's choice. Everyone seems fine with the man's choice to walk away without a backward glance. He misses all those trips to welfare for help and all the people women have to beg for help. He might have to contribute fifty dollars a month if the courts ever pin him down. The man's choice to rape a woman is another choice he gets to make with no consequences unless by chance he gets caught. So the only choice a woman gets to make is to have an abortion or not which ever she chooses it is a life time decision she makes and has to live with. I don't want to get attacked either but a woman deserves the right to make that choice and if you never have to make that choice it will not be forced upon you but please don't judge others that have to make that difficult choice.

Answer 6

It's seen as the destruction of a human life. This is basically an arbitrary point of "faith," because there is no scientific agreement as to when a cluster of cells officially becomes a "human being."

There's a Buddhist tradition that the reincarnating Ego enters the fetus at 3 months. So, I suppose if you're a Buddhist, abortion is kosher up until that point.

Answer 7

Abortion, is questionably un/ethical because of the issue of terminating a potential life. The issue arises around when "life" is said to have begun. Religious people will tell you life begins at the very nanosecond of conception. Others say it happens later (some even say at birth) So the question becomes (for each person) when is it unethical to end that life?...

Answer 8

Well in the bible it was a law that if 2 men got in a fight and somehow hurt a pregnant women in the process, and she lost the baby, that they would be stoned to death. That clearly shows how God felt about a baby, it's murder in his eyes.

But lets say you don't believe in God. Many women argue that it's their body and they can do what they please. But is it really? They already made a choice to have sex, maybe they were even using protection but still, there's almost never a 100% chance that you won't get pregnant and they need to understand that. When you abort a baby you're making a choice for them another human being, not just you. Many couples would do just about anything to have a child, and some people just throw them away like they're nothing. Saying they can't handle it. What the heck? That's just plain stupid and selfish....Anyways that's my rant for the day. Take care.

Answer 9

I don't believe that abortion is always unethical. It can be unethical to bring an unwanted child into the world. It is unethical in my view to force someone to have a child they are not ready for. If some use it as a means of birth control I do think that is unethical. I do see that it would result in a human if the pregancy were carried to term. At the time most abortions are done though what you have in an unsentient fetus with no opinion on the matter and no knowledge that it even exists. Contrast that with the fully formed sentient being whose life may be seriously derailed by being forced to continue an unplanned, unwanted pregnancy. So I guess for me there are two competing rights involved and I give priority to the already born, thinking, feeling woman. I don't see black and white here. In a perfect world no one would get pregnant before they were ready. In a perfect world there wouldn't be child starving every 8-10 seconds and many waiting for decent homes. In a perfect world there would be no child abuse. We don't live in that world. I think we should focus on making it better for the children who are born and making better birth control and sex education available.

The Bible is silent on abortion although pro-lifers twist the hell out of certain scriptures to make them show a pro-life stance. Conveniently ignoring that God sanctions the murder of the unborn in numerous places in the Bible, even ordering his people to slash the stomachs of the pregnant women of their enemies.

oh, and to angie, my mom was pro-choice. She chose to have me. and to devon below here is the exact scripture without its meaning twisted. It doesn't imply that there were any penalties for causing a woman to miscarry. Only penalty to the injury of the woman who was considered like property in those times. So the injurer had to compensate for damaging the pregnant woman and it had to be in like for the damage done. Tooth for tooth, burn for burn. Newborns don't have teeth and its unlikely they would be burned in the miscarriage.

And if men struggle and strike a woman with child so that she has a miscarriage, yet there is no further injury, he shall be fined as the woman's husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide. But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise."
Exodus 21:22-25

Answer 10

Because killing innocent human beings is wrong. It's not complicated. Before most women even know they are pregnant (just 3 weeks after conception), their baby's heart is already beating. Virtually no surgical abortions are committed before 6 weeks, at which point the baby has tiny fingers and recordable brain waves. Every abortion kills an innocent human being:

Photos and Video of Abortions, Including 1st Trimester Abortions:
http://www.abort73.com/HTML/I-A-4-video.html
http://www.cbrinfo.org/Resources/pictures.html

Information on All Aspects of Abortion:
http://Abort73.com

Photos and Facts About Prenatal Development:
http://www.justthefacts.org/clar.asp
http://www.abort73.com/HTML/I-A-2-prenatal.html
http://www.studentsforlife.uct.ac.za/foetal%20dev%20photos.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/3847319.stm
http://www.lifeissues.org/ultrasound/11weeks.htm

Pro-Life Answers to “Pro-Choice” Arguments:
http://www.deathroe.com/Pro-life_Answers/
http://www.pregnantpause.org/abort/choicarg.htm

Answer 11

The "reasoning" (and I use the term very loosely here) of the religious people never ceases to amaze me.

If you mythical "god" considers abortion a sin, why didn't he say so in his "holy book?" Show me where in the bible it says abortion is a sin...it doesn't. That's why you get all these "it's the same as killing" and "life starts at the moment of conception" blatherings, because their bible doesn't say anything about abortion. Not surprising if you're a reasonable person, since the "commandments" in that book are thousands of years old, long before safe, medical abortion was available.

A sperm and an egg get together, each contributing their half-chromosome load to one cell, and the cell starts to divide. That's no more a "life" than a cancer cell is (which is just your own body's cell with new DNA growing differently than the cells around it). Until those cells that *might* someday be a newborn child are capable of living on their own outside the woman's body, they are part of the woman's body -- and hers to decide what to do with, not yours or anyone else's. Would you outlaw removing cancer cells from a woman? Cancer cells (just like fetal cells) are not a normal part of her body, are growing and taking nutrients from her, and will develop much further if allowed to continue their NATURAL growth. And like fetal cells, they're incapable of surviving on their own outside the body.

Opposition to a woman's right to choose isn't about killing babies, it's about *control of women* -- which is why you see all the statements about women not being responsible, having too much sex, etc. And religions hate not being able to control people, ESPECIALLY women (who they still see as the root of all evil, because of Eve and "original sin."). The arguments are specious, illogical, and not supported by facts, science, or even their own holy book. They're ridiculous on their face.
Stop trying to control other people. Worry about yourself. You do realize, don't you, that since 80% of the US is "christian," 80% of the abortions in the US are had BY "christian" women? Seems they don't buy the ridiculous arguments when it comes right down to a hard choice, either...