Abortion: Why do pro-choicers?

Question

Why do pro-choicers still hold the position that the unborn isn't a unique individual human being from conception?

Nealis v. Baird, 996 P.2d 438, 453 (Okla. 1999) “Contemporary scientific precepts accept as a given that a human life begins at conception.” (citing KEITH L. MOORE & T.V.N. PERSAUD, THE DEVELOPING HUMAN 14 (5th ed. 1993); SUSAN TUCKER BLACKBURN & DONNA LEE LOPER, MATERNAL, FETAL AND NEONATAL PHYSIOLOGY: A CLINICAL PERSPECTIVE 49 (1992); MICHAEL R. HARRISON ET AL., THE UNBORN PATIENT: PRENATAL DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT 14 (1984); DALE RUSSELL DUNNIHOO, M.D., PH.D., FUNDAMENTALS OF GYNECOLOGY AND OBSTETRICS 286–99 (1990)

"an unborn child is a human being from conception is “supported by standard textbooks on embryology or human biology”
T.W. SADLER, LANGMAN’S MEDICAL EMBRYOLOGY (John N. Gardner ed., 6th ed. 1990.

"The exact moment of the beginning of personhood and of the human body is at the moment of conception."
M. Allen et. al., "The Limits of Viability." New England Journal of Medicine. 11/25/93: Vol. 329, No. 22, p. 1597.

"Physicians, biologists, and other scientists agree that conception marks the beginning of the life of a human being—a being that is alive and is a member of the human species. There is overwhelming agreement on this point in countless medical, biological, and scientific writings." John C. Fletcher, Mark I. Evans, "Maternal Bonding in Early Fetal Ultrasound Examinations," New England Journal of Medicine, February 17, 1983.

"Not only is it a life, but, by its intrinsic biological nature, it is a human life from the moment of conception, for “it can be nothing else.”
E. BLECHSCHMIDT, THE BEGINNING OF HUMAN LIFE,]16–17

" A zygote is the beginning of a new human being. Human development begins at fertilization, the process during which a male gamete or sperm ... unites with a female gamete or oocyte ... to form a single cell called a zygote. This highly specialized, totipotent cell marks the beginning of each of us as a unique individual." Keith L. Moore, Ph.D. & T.V.N. Persaud, Md., The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, 6th ed.(Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company, 1998), 2-18.



T.W. SADLER, LANGMAN’S MEDICAL EMBRYOLOGY (John N. Gardner ed., 6th ed. (1990): "the proposition that an unborn child is a human being from conception is “supported by standard textbooks on embryology or human biology"

(“Contemporary scientific precepts accept as a given that a human being's life begins at conception.”
KEITH L. MOORE & T.V.N. PERSAUD, THE DEVELOPING HUMAN 14 (5th ed. 1993)
SUSAN TUCKER BLACKBURN & DONNA LEE LOPER, MATERNAL, FETAL AND NEONATAL PHYSIOLOGY: A CLINICAL PERSPECTIVE 49 (1992)
MICHAEL R. HARRISON ET AL., THE UNBORN PATIENT: PRENATAL DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT 14 (1984)
DALE RUSSELL DUNNIHOO, M.D., PH.D., FUNDAMENTALS OF GYNECOLOGY AND OBSTETRICS 286–99 (1990)

Ronan R. O'Rahilly, Fabiola Muller, HUMAN EMBRYOLOGY & TERATOLOGY , (New York: Wiley-Liss, 1996), 5-55. "Fertilization is an important landmark because, under ordinary circumstances, a new, genetically distinct human being is thereby formed"

E.L. Potter and J.M. Craig, PATHOLOGY OF THE FETUS AND THE INFANT, 3d ed. (Chicago: Year Book Medical Publishers, 1975), vii. "Every time a sperm cell and ovum unite a new human being is created which is alive and will continue to live unless its death is brought about by some specific condition."

M. Allen et. al., "The Limits of Viability." New England Journal of Medicine. 11/25/93: Vol. 329, No. 22, p. 1597 "The exact moment of the beginning of personhood and of the human body is at the moment of conception."

John C. Fletcher, Mark I. Evans, "Maternal Bonding in Early Fetal Ultrasound Examinations," [I]New England Journal of Medicine[/I], February 17, 1983."Physicians, biologists, and other scientists agree that conception marks the beginning of the life of a human being—a being that is alive and is a member of the human species. There is overwhelming agreement on this point in countless medical, biological, and scientific writings."

E. BLECHSCHMIDT, THE BEGINNING OF HUMAN LIFE 16–17 (1977) "Not only is it a life, but, “by its intrinsic biological nature,” it is a human life from the moment of conception, for “it can be nothing else."

Carlson, Bruce M. Patten, Foundations of Embryology. 6th edition. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1996, p. 3); "Almost all higher animals start their lives from a single cell, the fertilized ovum (zygote)... The time of fertilization represents the starting point in the life history, or ontogeny, as an individual member of that species."

Answer 1

It is conception that creates human life, not childbirth.



A fetus has a heartbeat that is separate from the host, same with a functioning brain. Arent those 2 things what make us human?

Answer 2

The question of course remains whether, in the course of its development, even before it is delivered, the foetus will not become, if not a complete living being, at least “enough of a living being” to be considered as a living being and if so, as a person; but whichever the answer to this or that question may be, it concerns the foetus (from the fourth month onwards) and not the embryo, which is only too evidently deprived of vital functions.

http://humaniteinenglish.com/spip.php?article637



I could dig through the records and find you just as many people who don't agree that a fetus is a life. And no matter how many references I gave you, you would never agree, any more than I would agree with you.



It doesn't matter though, since you will continue to consider it a sin. But do you actually consider it a murder? If you are consistent, then you must advocate for both the mother and the doctor to be jailed for life for murder. Now, considering the number of abortions performed every year, how many new jails would you have to build to house them all? And you absolutely must charge them all, even the mother who aborts a baby conceived in rape or one that was killing her. And if you think that would stop them, you're wrong.



Edit: So are you ready then to send all the women and their doctors to prison for life? Because that is the inevitable conclusion of your beliefs, if you are honest.

Answer 3

I'm pro abortion because I own a black market business selling aborted fetuses to restaurants that serve aborted fetus stew as a delicacy. Yum! Yum!

Answer 4

Maybe it does have a right to live and it is an individual, but it cannot survive on it's own, and we cannot physically force women to carry it in their womb. Just being practical, this isn't Nazi Germany, we are not going to force a pregnancy upon a woman if they don't want to be pregnant. May God forgive them.



Rebuttal- where is this hierarchy of rights in the Constitution? We have sworn to protect the rights of freedom, this means freedom of choice. If you take away this, what kind of life are you protecting? You're just protecting the right for someone to do what someone else tells them and that's not freedom. You'd be forcing someone to do something they don't want to do, they might consider that threatening to them and their life.

Answer 5

The fertilized ovum (zygote) is TWO CELLS, not a single cell.

Answer 6

I don't. I hold the position that its a clump of living human cells with no sentience, and that it's entirely the mothers choice what to do about it.

Answer 7

Did you expect me to read all that.



I didn't.



And I still vote exclusively pro-choice.

Answer 8

If you don't like abortion don't have one. Making abortion illegal wont end it. It will simply make it more dangerous.