Abortion :: essays research papers

Abortion. Is there any other word that creates such hatred and charged emotion? The word abortion means â€Å"the loss or removal of an embryo or fetus before it can survive outside the mother’s body† (Day 7). The meaning of abortion, however, is completely different. To people who are pro-life, abortion is a vicious and murderous word dripping in blood and disgust. To people who are pro-choice the word is just as emotional. It represents women being able to control their own thoughts, feelings, bodies, and futures. The question facing Americans today is, "Should abortions be illegal for women to obtain?" The government cannot have control over a woman’s body. It is her body and her rights. The freedom to make choices and decisions for ourselves is part of the foundation of our nation. To deny the basic freedom rights that our forefathers fought to obtain for America is a step backward, not forwards. Once the government can control the individual lives of people, where would it stop? Ending abortions is not the answer; abortions should remain a legal choice in the United States. Many pro-life advocates feel that abortion is murder. While they may have arguments to support this fact, the truth is, a fetus is not a living person. It cannot feel pain or live outside of the mother’s body. Pain in a human starts as an electrical signal in the body’s pain receptors. In a fetus, the pain receptors develop around seven weeks after conception, long after an abortion would occur. Many pro-life advocates claim the fetus can feel pain while these systems are partly formed and forming. Pro-choice advocates feel that it is necessary for the synaptic connections within the fetus’ brain to develop in order to feel pain (Planned Parenthood). The issue is so heavily biased by a pro-life/pro-choice stance that even the debaters are incapable of making objective observations. A panel of experts appointed by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists addressed the issue of fetal pain. The panel consisted of experts in fetal development, law an d bioethics. They obtained experts with both views on abortion so as to eliminate the bias that had occurred with the issue thus far. The group determined that a fetus could only feel pain after the nerve connections become established between two parts of the brain: the cortex and the thalamus. This happens about twenty-six weeks after conception.