Take a stand against abortion

In the “Abortion: when do rights begin?” article, published in the Capitalism Magazine, Andrew Lewis wrote: The mother is free to remove the fetus from her womb though the fetus’ rights begin prior to his birth. However, the fetus’ rights become effective when he becomes a baby. Thus the concept of rights is applicable only to the mother as a real individual, not for the fetus who is a would-be individual. Moreover he argued that someone who has a valuable reason for aborting, does not commit any crime since abortion is included among the political rights of humanity. There is no reason to force a couple to enter parenthood if either person does not want to, he pointed out. Assigning rights to a fetus is a destructive and deceptive conception of rights, concluded the author.

Abortion has been a controversial issue since ancient times. Some people believe that this practice is convenient, whereas others assume that it is an immoral act or even worse, a crime. I believe abortion is wrong for many reasons. Those reasons include the violation of children’s rights, its ethical immorality, and its drawback on humanitarian progress.
Abortion is a violation of children’s rights, because life is a gift that every human being has received; thus it is not fair to deprive anyone of this precious gift. Those who abusively claimed that a fetus has no rights, promote oppression in the society. Generally, people who are stronger tend to deny the rights of the feeble. This attitude was commonplace throughout the world while some powerful nations were dominating other nations through slavery. The colonists considered the slaves as their personal estate; in this case, they could take advantage of these oppressed people. Similarly, as a helpless and innocent human being, the fetus is treated spitefully by his torturers. Unfortunately, no one is ready to raise his voice on behalf of those voiceless creatures who are victim of human cruelty.
Ethical immorality is another reason that makes abortion wrong. In every society where the moral standard is present, murder is unlawful no matter its form or motive. The proponents of abortion argued that a fetus is not an individual, because he still needs his mother’s womb to survive. However they ignored all individuals are constituted of cells. They also ignored the definition of cell which stands for the basic structure and functional unit in people and all living things. What does this definition imply? A cell is a human being or a living creature in miniature. If a cell is considered as the starting point of life, then a fetus can be considered as its middle, for a fetus may contain thousands of millions of cells. Moreover the proponents of abortion take a selfish and ungrateful stand by stating that since the fetus is nourished by his mother through the umbilical cord, he is not a person. Nevertheless, those who hold such opinion have short memories because they forget that they also were in need of the tender care of a mother from the very beginning of the existence.
Finally, abortion sets a huge drawback on humanitarian progress. Today’s society is facing numerous problems related to health, environment and food shortages. For instance, various diseases such as AIDS, cancer remain until now incurable. Maybe those potential individuals who are being killed before they come on the earth could fix some of the problems we are facing nowadays. Obviously, if Thomas Edison was victim of abortion, maybe humanity would never taste the benefit of electricity. This may be applied for Luc Montagnier, who discovered the HIV virus, and Louis Pasteur, who solved some problems related to health through the development of the first vaccines. In fact, the benefactors of humanity are countless. Interestingly, all of them without exception passed by fetus stage.
Because life is an inalienable gift granted to all living creatures, it must be respected and protected. On the other side, as reasoning creatures, humans are called to set a good example to the other living beings. Then our society should be a safe place instead of a jungle. In conclusion, abortion is wrong for all the reasons listed above and more.

Lewis, A. (2000, Feb. 14). Abortion: when do rights begin? Capitalism Magazine.Retrieved on February 2, 2009, from http://www.capmag.com/article.asp