Why is abortion deemed...?

Question

ok if a doctor does it, but murder if it's the result of violence to a pregnant woman who loses her fetus as a result?

So, it seems it'a merely according to the mother's whim?

So the attacker shouldn't be charged with murder, but denying a woman's choice, right?

So it appears from many of these answers that a mothers right to choose is more important than a baby's life.

Answer 1

Just another double standard, the pro-abortionists will say because it "was her choice" for the abortion, but the baby is still dead.

Answer 2

When doctors perform abortions, they are acting on the will of the woman having the operation to remove the fetus. If someone attacks a pregnant woman and kills her fetus, then it is done against her will.

Think of it like someone getting elective surgery as opposed to violently attacking you and removing a part of you in the process.

Biologically, a fetus is an extension of the womb of the woman, and therefore still part of her body until it is being delivered. People will argue argue when it is supposed to be considered it's own separate entity, but technically the fetus cannot survive without the mother until the last trimester, and even then faces extreme health risks in the process. Therefore, medically the fetus is dependent on the mother until the time when it can survive on it's own. The debate rages on whether or not something that requires someone else to live has rights to demand the other entity to give up it's rights to it's own body once the former starts growing.

*In Addendum*

"So it appears from many of these answers that a mothers right to choose is more important than a baby's life."

I don't think that's really the case. I think it's more like it depends on what point the fetus is considered to have a life of it's own, as opposed to requiring the support of a mother to survive. If the baby -must- be attached to the mother, otherwise it will die regardless of technological support, it is part of the mother until that requirement has ended, and therefore any changes to it are changes to her.

The doctor in your case is performing an operation to protect the mother, who if going to him or her for the operation for the termination of the fetus would most likely have it performed someplace else, regardless of safety. At least with a doctor, a medically credentialed individual performs the operation, limiting the risk to the mother.

In the case of the violent act, it is not about choice or credentialing, it is a result of violence changing the woman who is carrying the fetus. Neither the life of the fetus nor that of the woman is controlled internally, it is an external decision. A doctor conversely is requested to perform the abortion by the woman.

So, technically it's the act of violence that causes it to be considered murder.

Answer 3

The murder charge was intended to confuse things, and it seems you fell for it. In the Bible, killing a fetus in the course of an assault on a woman is an aggravating factor, not a murder.

The real question is then simply whether making abortion illegal reduces the number of abortions.

Careful research shows that criminalizing them does not reduce the number of abortions at all. They just become more dangerous to the mother. So outlawing abortion makes absolutely no sense. It is immoral to force it underground, as it achieves nothing positive but causes harm.

So how does one reduce the abortion rate? Well, we can learn from western Europe, which has the lowest abortion rate (as a region) in the world (half that of the US). The countries with the absolute lowest abortion rates are Belgium and the Netherlands (about a third of the US rate), both countries that allow abortion on demand. But they have universal healthcare, support children and mothers and have (almost) free education. In those countries, having a child is much, much easier than anywhere else. They even offer incentives (tax rebates, monthly stipends, etc.). And they have low poverty rates.

In summary: criminalising abortion is harmful to women and does not reduce the number of abortions, so it is immoral. To reduce abortions, we need to reduce poverty, make healthcare and education available to all and support mothers (stipends, childcare, catching deadbeat dads,...). Western Europe leads the way on the path to a more moral society.

EDIT: Adelaide, don't be silly. The angel said no such thing, or Mary wouldn't have understood him: she spoke no English. The Luther Bible (in German) simply says: you will be pregnant (Luke 1:31), as does the Bible du Semeur (in French) and Het Boek (in Dutch). You're drawing conclusions from a fanciful translation. God knows what actually was said. Read Leviticus and you will find that a child of less than one month old is deemed worthless (if killed, no fine needs to be paid). For once the Bible is very clear...

Answer 4

Because, all moral arguments aside, the law has deemed abortion to be a legal practice, while assault or taking another's life is not.

The reason the assaulter cannot be charged with "denying the woman personal choice" is, again, that the law does not have a provision for same.

Also, cases where murderers or assaulters who are charged with the death of an unborn baby only happen to my knowledge when in the last trimester, where SCIENCE and the LAW both agree that it is indeed a human being. By the same token, a woman who purposefully aborted a child in her last trimester, could be charged with the murder of her unborn child.

Edit: Umm...I answered this question in a legal sense and spoke nothing of my own moral opinion on abortion...so I don't understand the thumbs down, as my answer is completely correct.

If you don't like the legal answer, don't ask and answer these questions in the law category!

Answer 5

This poses has case of your concept of murder. Can you imagine the pain that the human being feels as it comes into the light of life and having someone holds your head down as a scapel is used to cut into the back of your head and sucks your brain out. Then someone says that it is illegal to use body parts that may just help someone else to live. Therefore more than one life is murdered.Yes it is murder either way regardless of the so called"violent" act murdered the unborn life or not. I also believe that the person giving the lethal injection for the death penalty is just as guilty as the criminal himself/herself. Overcrowding of the prisons right. The majority of "Hitler'" murdering the physical defective as well as mental patients as well as the ones he chose to kill. I would refuse to be cared for by a doctor that used abortion as a means of birth control. Doctors are now giving medication to prevent males infants not to experience pain during circumsism. Their original conclusionwas that the infant would not remember the pain. Does the fetus regardless of age not feel pain while it is being torn apart and thrown out with the garbage. Murder is murder. If someone does not give voice for these sinless then what is next? You say it is a woman's choice. If she knew of the consequences of having sex then she could have abstained, why shoud the child pay the price with death.

Answer 6

Both are murder because the baby is a person the moment it is conceived.
When the angel told Mary about being pregnant he didn't say "Rejoice for you are with fetus!" no the angel said "Rejoice for you are with child!" so the moment a baby is brought into this world after conception takes place it is a baby
It also states in the bible that those who kill the little ones for profit will suffer tremendously for it and I do believe those are the doctors who perform the abortions.
I just wish people knew exactly how an abortion is performed and how painful it is for the unborn child then maybe they would think twice before being pro-death.

Answer 7

In both cases, the 'fetus' IS a baby, regardless of size or ability to speak, etc. A seed growing is STILL alive, even if it isn't full size yet.

With the doctor, money and politics keeps the truth off his back. With the murder case, lack of money makes him guilty.

In both cases, a baby is being murdered but it is only politically correct to do so with the doctor because he has the backing and the ability to use technical words to lessen the effect of Reality.

Answer 8

Its a lost life no matter how it is looked at, I think that when the doc does it that is the woman's choice but if it is done out of violence it was not the mothers choice whom may have wanted the baby.

i think that abortion is wrong in any sense!! That is a life that is growing in the womb....if you are old enough to have sex you are old enough to go through with the pregnancy and have the child, just give it up for adoption there are many people out there that can't have children of their own and would love to have a child to raise.

Answer 9

A DOCTOR is the only person certified in the USA to be legally able to PERFORM ABORTIONS..... abortions are legal in this country because of a court case called Roe V. Wade.. (google it).... prior to that, abortions were done ILLEGALLY by UNCERTIFIED PEOPLE using things like coat hangers and UNSTERILE conditions and many deaths occured to the WOMEN having these abortions.... when Doctors were LEGALLY able to perform abortions, fewer women were put at risk BECAUSE doctors use sterile conditions and the best modern sterile equipment.... MANY people in this country are TOTALLY OPPOSED to abortions of any kind... the MAJORITY however feel that it should be a WOMAN's CHOICE...... and with any luck at all, that will REMAIN the case forever.....you MAY or may NOT feel that abortion is right for YOU, but that doesn't give you the right to DICTATE whether it is right or wrong for EVERYONE... it should be left to the individual woman in this situation..... CERTAIN people tend to think of abortion as murder....the majority do NOT.... (truth based on the fact that ALL cases brought to court have PASSED in favor of NOT overturning Roe v. Wade)....if the RIGHT TO CHOSE is ever taken away again...... this country will be doing a GREAT disservice to the American women of the future..... I may not think abortion is right for ME, but I DESERVE THE RIGHT to chose one way or the other....

Answer 10

It's actually not deemed legal murder if she loses her baby as a result of harm done to her in the commission of a crime, unless the mother herself loses her life.

Answer 11

It is understood that woman went to doctor to have abortion so it was her intention and her decision. In the case when she was beaten by somebody and lost her baby she was most probably not in agreement with that act but she lost a baby as a consequence of a violent act.