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An Abortion Is the Deliberate Killing of a Human Being

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ABORTION

Biomedical Ethics PHIL 235 EC
Sunday April 16th, 2006

WINTER 2006

"An abortion is the deliberate killing of a human being. As such, it is a murder. When you kill an unborn child, you rob it of its whole future life. Therefore it is never morally permissible and it should be illegal." Critically assess that claim.

Abortion is one of the most controversial and frequently debated topics in the world. The fact that the topic involves a persons right to choice, the ethical and moral question of what's right or wrong as well as what the definition of murder constitutes, it can easily be rejected or approved by a wide variety of people depending on their personal beliefs. Over the past few generations there have been much
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Before then it is still considered an embryo. An embryo is defined as "an organism in its early stages of development, especially before it has reached a distinctively recognizable form" which explains rather clearly that embryos possess very little, if any at all, recognizable characteristics similar to that of a human being. Embryos cannot display acts of human kindness or any other examples of positive acts of nature. Furthermore it isn't possible at this time in the development process to distinguish if an embryo has any imperfections that are associated with humans, and at a maximum of 8 cm, the human form is almost as easily compared to a hairless baby monkey as it is to an embryo inside the womb. This stance specifically focuses on the developmental sense of the word human. As stated by Dr. Ornstein in the video on the topic "Any being that lacks the capacity for consciousness can not be said to have a mind, and is therefore not a person." Embryos are beings that lack the capacity for consciousness before a specific stage and then in effect, cannot be considered a person. According to the definition of a person "a living human" and then applying it to the definition of murder "The unlawful killing of one human by another", abortion cannot in any way be considered a murderous act, considering an embryo is not a person nor is it a human being. The topic of abortion is one of the most debated and argued topics in moral and ethical cases. Often the
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