Abortion And When Life Begins A Criticism Of Pro Life

Kaitlin Walker Dr. Turner Philosophy 252 Section 028 8 December 2014 Abortion and When Life Begins: A Criticism of â€Å"Pro-Life† Abortion is consistently one of the most dividing issues in any social situation—it can pit family members against each other, husbands against wives, friends against friends, and is frequently misunderstood as an issue with complete â€Å"black or white† transparency that yields only two labels: â€Å"pro-life† and â€Å"pro-choice.† However, it happens too often that we are distracted by details of the abortion process and logical fallacies disguised as moral statements, thus blending the entire debate into a massive gray area. It is my opinion that: abortion itself is not an issue that can or should be defined as†¦show more content†¦This argument is typically expressed as something like: 1. Killing a baby is murder. 2. Murder is ethically wrong and illegal in the United States. 3. Abortion is killing a baby. ∠´ Abortion is ethically wrong and should also be illegal in the United States. No sane person on the â€Å"pro-choice† side would argue that killing babies is acceptable and should be legal. The issue here is also not whether a fetus is a â€Å"human.† The question is when the fetus becomes a human person (baby). This is a simple, classic case of begging the question, a case in which an argument is presented with a conclusion that â€Å"is based on an unstated or unproven assumption† (Gass). The unproven assumption here is premise three, that â€Å"abortion is killing a baby.† Although much research has been done to try and determine how and when a fetus should be classified (as a human baby or tissue blob), science cannot determine exactly where life begins. However, most â€Å"pro-lifers† would say they believe that life begins at conception. Roe v. Wade dictated that a woman has a right to an abortion until the point the fetus becomes â€Å"viable,† meaning that it is likely the fetus could survive outside the mother’s womb as a premature baby—generally around 20-24 weeks into the gestation period (Lawnix.com). Is this not the Supreme Court decreeing that â€Å"life† begins at viability, and