Am I wrong by saying abortion is murder?

Question

people say unborn babies are not humans, but there is no proof of that claim. So since from all accounts of human conception, humans have been produced, and there is no proof the the unborn are not human. Though some of you will go into the whole "what is human" debate. I will say this to that. Ape have ape babies, and the babies inside them were ape all along. Humans are no different.


Definition of murder:
law crime of killing somebody: the crime of killing another person deliberately and not in self-defense or with any other extenuating circumstance recognized by law
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Abortion = Murder?

Or at least those abortions that dont involve mother's being held at gunpoint by their unborn babies. lol

oh, and for thsoe who will and have simply said, "you are wrong" please tell in which way i am wrong.

Answer 1

As you said, murder is a crime, that is, unlawful killing. Since abortion is technically lawful, at least in this society, it cannot technically be called murder.

But in th eyes of God, it surely IS murder.

The ONLY LOGICAL point we can say a 'foetus' is not a human being is before the DNA joins to form a new entity. Individually, sperm and eggs are incomplete instruction sets. Together, they have EVERYTHING you and I have. ALL they need is food and shelter, just like us. To claim that an unborn child is not human is to claim that an astronaut ripped from his environmental suit is not human. Survivability cannot be a logical criteria. Isn't Steven Hawking human???

Answer 2

Where you aware that until the fall of the Roman empire babies were not considered "persons" until they were one year old? This allowed families time to discover if the child was deaf, blind, or otherwise seriously deformed. Such children, including those who were simply unwanted, were taken into the woods and destroyed. (Traditionally, by the father's oldest brother.) As long as the baby was less than one year old, there were no legal penalties.

Until the late nineteenth century, a fetus wasn't even considered alive until the mother felt it kick, which was called "quickening." In modern times, we traditionally considered life as beginning at the moment of birth. America's entire legal system is (was) based on this convention and, even when abortion was a felony it has never been considered murder. Then Roe vs Wade happened. This represented the first real chance, since Roman times, for a woman to manage an unwanted pregnancy. It also reaffirmed that the decision to terminate a pregnancy was exclusively the mother's and not the state's. This decision was unacceptable to fundamentalist Christians who howled "murder" and the law of the land became the first trimester rule. A fetus less than twelve weeks along is so primative that it lacks neurological reflexes and cannot possibly be self-aware. This compromise sufficed for thirty or forty years. Now the next generation of fanatical Christians is once again howling "murder." The issue is the same as it's always been, except all the resonable compromises have already been made. There is nothing left for reasonable people to offer in compromise and the religious right has become more extreme than ever. Now they imagine that fewer than a hundred stem cells in a petri dish is the moral equivalent of a human being and use their twisted logic to deny millions of afflicted people any hope of a real cure within their lifetimes. The first trimester rule was a valid compromise which directly addressed Christian concerns. Yet again Christians have proved themselves to be unworthy of our trust and they are again seeking to inforce their superstitions and dogma with the power of federal law. It is becoming painfully obvious that radical Christians are unwilling and unworthy to live in a civilization ruled by reason and law.

Answer 3

It's not prohibited. In fact, in Jewish Law (influenced by the Torah and Talmud, or Old testament) an abortion was permitted in the event a mother's life depended on it. Right up until the child is half-born. As in, if for some reason the child is stuck, and no way of getting it out, and the mother would have died...well, I'll leave that to your imagination. Pro-life is a recent thing. The reason it was banned in the first place was because quacks were doing it wrong. Prior to these bans, it was common for a woman to seek out abortions. Encouraged in some circles.

Answer 4

This kind of question always sparks a debate, because people often don't realize they're arguing apples against oranges.

By the definition of murder that you provided, one clause makes abortion *not* murder: "or with any other extenuating circumstance recognized by law."

The desire to terminate pregnancy is an "extenuating circumstance" recognized by law, making abortion legal and not murder by Encarta's definition. (Of course, on top of that is the terrible gray-area debate about when the collection of cells becomes an actual human being with rights).

Trouble comes when people argue the issue from a mix of legal, ethical, and moral perspectives. As a Christian, I am inclined to consider abortion murder - but I also wouldn't inflict any personal condemnation for a woman who exercised her right under the law.

Answer 5

This is an area that has sparked so much debate, but here are interesting facts:
A woman in Virginia Beach was recently charged with murder for stabbing herself in the stomach during pregnancy in a successful attempt to terminate the pregnancy.
Other cases have been brought to trial when pregnant women were attacked and miscarried as a result of the attack. In addition to charges of rape, assault, etc., were murder charges for the death of the baby.

Answer 6

Yes it is Murder. Everyone says that is is a Constitutional Right for a woman to have an Abortion, BUT the Constitution I know does not have anything in it that says that. Abortion is NOT mentioned. It is the Man made law Adopted into it that gives this so called Law. Think about this. NOT ONLY does someone Murder a Child, BUT EVERY person who would have been BORN through that Child as well. SO you are NOT just Murdering ONE PERSON, you are Murdering hundreds more when you take Children, Grandchildren and all the rest that would be born, and so on. Get it?

Answer 7

Murder - Dictionary.com

1. Law. the killing of another human being under conditions specifically covered in law. In the U.S., special statutory definitions include murder committed with malice aforethought, characterized by deliberation or premeditation or occurring during the commission of another serious crime, as robbery or arson

5. to kill or slaughter inhumanly or barbarously.

If abortion is legal, then definition one cannot apply. Definition 5 is more problematic, but early term abortion is carried out incredibly carefully.

It all comes down, as you say, to definitions. But not so much of "human" as of "life." Yes, if allowed to grow to term a human embryo or foetus will become a human baby. But at what point does a collection of cells become an independent life? Certainly not before 8-10 weeks, which is when most abortions are carried out.

So I definitely say abortion is not murder.

Answer 8

When something is a mass of cells and is not developed yet, it only has the potential to be something. The lump of clay has the potential to be a vase, but at this stage, it is just a lump of clay. Abortion early in the pregnancy is not murder simply because you can't murder "potential"......and in some cases, it is preferable.....why bring an unwanted child into an already overpopulated world? So we can find it in a dumpster later? Or have it abused? Or grow up hungry or alone? It is more humane to stop the pregnancy before it develops. Rabbits can reabsorb embryos if they think that their food supply will be limited or some other non-optimum condition exists.....abortion should NEVER be used as a form of birth control, but there are good times and excellent reasons when it should be an option.

Answer 9

Murder as described in Scripture is:
lying in wait to do fatal harm:
that means pre-meditated murder, and when you make a decision to make an appointment to go to a clinic and extract
that living entity from the womb - guess what; they can call it all the fancy "nicer" sounding things that they want to, but it is
murder, plain and simple.
And for those who think I am being judgmental, I'd like to witness that I am guilty of that very thing. As a 14 year old who made a mistake by getting pregnant, I
went to a clinic so that my parents wouldn't "kill me", like so many others did in the early 60's. So I confess my guilt as well.
Abortion does equal murder, and I can only pray to God for His forgiveness, and for the forgiveness of that child I did prevent.
I was not held at gunpoint, I did it of my own free will, and thats how it stands, whether I like it or not (and I don't like it, I wish I'd never done it).
Thats as honest as I can be with you.

Answer 10

ABORTION: Is the expulsion of an embryo or a fetus that is not normally able to live outside the womb. spontaneous abortion or miscarriage may result from human imperfection or from an accident. Deliberately induced abortion simply to avoid the birth of an unwanted child is the willful taking of human life.

NO YOU ARE NOT WRONG.

The Bible shows that God view the life of a child even in during the very early stages of development after conception to be prcious.

Ps 139: 13-16 "You [Jehovah] kept me screened off in the belly of my mother....Your eyes saw even the embbryo of me, and in your book all its parts were down in writting."

The Bible even shows that if a person were to cause injury to an unborn child that, the person should be call into account.

Ex. 21:22,23: "In case men should struggle with each other and they really hurt a pregnant woman and her children do come out but no fatal accident occurs, he is to have damages imposed upon him without fail according to what the owner of the woman may lay upon him; and he must give it through the justices. But if a fatal accident should occur, then you must give soul for soul."

Ex. 20:13: "You must not murder."