Abortion: A Right Or a Crime?

I personally feel it's a crime.  It's the killing of a life-form.  In this country (US) it's a crime to kill animals in a painful, inhumane way, but not a baby.  I find that backwards.

Also, if a man were to kill a woman who is pregnant, he would be charged with a double murder but if a woman get's an abortion, it's legal?  It doesn't make sense.  I think it's a crime, it's always been a crime, and it always will be a crime.

Personally, Abortion is a sin. Luckily, it's not allowed in Canada[i think so]. if a lady decides to have fun, she should protect herself, if because of her negligence, she has a baby, well take care of it.

i can say abortion falls on both sides because, the woman might not be ready for pregnancy so she might abort it especially maybe when shes schooling but if u did something wrong and u gat pregnanat aborting it will be a crime

It is totaly a crime,no debating there.

what if a woman has been raped? do you know what would happen to that child if he should be brought to this life? don't you know that that child will never be loved by the mother...and do you know what it means to be hated by your own mother? think about it! it's not easy to say it's a crime or a right but we need to consider every situation. those who substain here that's a crime I'd like to see you in the shoes of a woman who got pregnant through a sexual abuse!

Well, to speak from the heart I have two things to say to this:

1. I have a friend who was raped, became pregnant, and decided to keep the child.  She loves him, he is actually my god son.  He is so smart, to smart for his own age.  He's so curious, interesting, funny, and a joy to be a round.  He does this cute little dance that makes me laugh so hard it brings tears to my eyes.  What if he was never born?  No matter the act of how he got here, he was an innocent life.  He did not rape the mom.  It's not his fault. 

2. If the mother does not want the child, there is always adoption.  There are thousands upon thousands of childless couples out there who have been placed on waiting lists for a child.  If the mother won't love him, someone else will.  But how will you know if you never give the child that chance?

This is not an argument. A soul is supposed to be eternal and cannot be murdered. You could make the argment that abortion is killing a human being, but then again, at what time does life start?

Here are the summaries two opposing arguments from the debate in nferyn's link:

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Pro-life: intentionally killing an innocent person is morally wrong because it unjustly denies them their intrinsic rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Both biology and genetics prove that a unique human individual begins at conception, therefore, by definition, rights and value that are intrinsic to humanity must also take effect at conception. Abortion intentionally and unjustly denies these intrinsic rights, therefore it is morally wrong to abort an innocent human being in the womb.

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Pro-choice: Abortion is the destruction of a group of cells which merely have the potential of becoming a person. But an embryo or early stage fetus is not an actual person yet. Therefore abortion is not morally wrong.

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At the heart of this debate is whether an early stage fetus is a person or not.  If you say it's not a person, then at what exact point does it become a person?

If God come first in ones life then abortion is out of the question. It is a selfish act.
If ones interest is only their own; then any action is valid.

Go back to the debate, a reasonable answer is given there: after 25 weeks the brain shows neural activity
[SNIP]
I don't know what you mean by relative. Everything and nothing is relative, can you be more specific?

No. this argument is similar to "If we cannot determine at what exact point spanking becomes child abuse, let's just let the parents decide that point, even if it's beating their childen  so that they're cripple"


In  legal terms, they err on the side of caution: say that at 4 months the fetus is sentient and at 3 months it isn't. We know that the fetus starts to feel somewhere in between. The approach lawmakers take in such a case is erring on the side of caution and deciding that it is legal up to 2 months and 3 weeks

But please, we're not discussing something like just making a visit to the doctor. No woman will ever abort just like that, it's an experience that has serious psychological en physical consequences for the woman.

@nferyn any human being is just a bundle of cells. so justifying abortion on the basis of that is not really valid.

@seun Overpopulation is a myth, what we have is mismanagement of resources and a reluctance by governments to see the real truth because it might involve changing whole lifestyles. If you support this then you have to support eugenics which believes in choosing humans based on certain physical characteristics selected as desirable (example: hitler's belief in a blond,strong race of aryans, chinese women's abortion of female children because of the one-child policy.). we can as well kill old people because they are no longer productive and are prone to diseases that will make life uncomfortabe to them, they are slow and are usually much of a hindrance in daily life and disaster situations(those are complaints by other people not me).
If you keep viewing humans as commodities or objects or things, that would be permissible but i believe we are more than that.

@michelin
Every child has a right to live. In the case of a woman who was raped, if i were the child of such a union, I believe i would prefer to be born than to be aborted,no matter how deep the hate my mother may have for me, while it might cause me distress, i can still live a fulfilled life so that is not an issue.

Overpopulation is not a myth. It is impossible to maintain the current lifestyle in the west, let alone export it to the rest of the world. The ecological footprint of the current homo sapiens is unsustainable. We are endangering the very survival of human life on this planet, unless of course you welcome it, because it brings rapture that much closer 

I really would like to know where Seun objectified humans or viewed them as mere things. You put words in his mouth (e.g. you must support eugenics) that were certaily knowhere to be found in his contributions to this thread.

exactly, spot on
Murder is a specific legal term, it's not murder, but killing. Following the same logic, carrying out a death sentence or killing someone during a war is equally murder. Strictly speaking, she's not the one doing the killing. At that point in time the value of the life of the fetus should be weight against the consequences of continuing the pregnancy, e.g. not aborting would cause great harm to the health of the woman or the fetus is severly handicapped and would not have a life of value. Here one should abort only if the consequences of continuing the pregnancy would be worse than aborting

At the moment the fetus becomes a baby and could survive outside the womb, abortion should be out of the question, except if not aborting would mean the death of the woman

Just my opinion, guided by my ethical principles

I really don't feel that it's right to abort at this time. It's immoral and illegal (in most countries that have legal abortions).The girl knew perfectly well she was pregnant way before that time and if she wanted an abortion, she could have had it. At that stage the reason  to abort needs to be something significantly more than inconvenience (such as I pointed out before), we're talking about ending a human life here.

I think in this case the overall morality of society is where the problem lies. Why didn't she have the abortion earlier? Is it because she can not talk about the issues with her parents? Is it because society has very negative attitudes towards early stage abortions?

It is an established fact that in societies with:
- access to comprehensive sex education
- a more liberal attitude towards sex and relationships
- legal access to abortion facilities under strict medical and ethical guidance and control
we find that:
- the rate/number of abortions is lower
- abortions do not result in medical problems (infertility, death, etc) to the same degree
- there are far less unwanted pregnancies

I have the unpleasant feeling that this is turning into a one-on-one discussion, so please other members do join and bring your perspective, especially the women

No question about it, but still no person.

I understand that this is an emotional subject and I feel that we should do everything in our power to avoid abortions, but logically you cannot equal an 24 week old fetus to a full human. To put it bluntly, an adult chimpansee is closer to a human than a 24 week old fetus

Should the offence of deliberately aborting a pregnancy old enough for the feotus to be regarded as a person (25 weeks) be regarded as 1st degree murder and prosecuted the same way?  With life imprisonment or execution?  Can you give a reason for your answer?