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When Does Life Begin : An argument against abortion
2008-11-26 08:11:00
In the wake of American Presidential Elections, much debate is being fulled regarding a wide range of topics. Not least among them is the issue of Abortion. It is, essentially, a question of ethics and morality. An interesting take on this question appeared recently on Opposing Views in the form of a debate entitled : "When Does Life Begin?".
This question of "life" is a valid question, as it implies that there is a continuum of development, along which human life forms at a particular point. And it is at this point that the organism's life becomes valued as a human life. But where is this point. The following argument is my thought process in working through this question.
At the moment, there is a lot of debate in the scientific community as to what constitutes life? We have no problem identifying animals and humans as being alive, but what about when it comes to things like virii, bacteria, a planet, a solar system, the collective internet?
If we can accept that single celled organisms are alive, in that they have active micro-organisms working collectively to prevent atrophy and cell decay, then we could say that an egg cell or a sperm cell is 'alive'. However, do such single celled organisms hold the same 'status' or value as the life of a fully formed human? Obviously not, otherwise just about every male would be convicted as a mass murderer. Thus, the question becomes, when does the life of the single celled organisms become "human life"?
This is a more interesting question. Is an organism defined as human according to physiology? If so, then is a person missing a limb less human than one with all four limbs? Well, that is absurd. Thus, the question of classification as human is not dependant on physiology. I would like to argue that it is thus dependant on DNA. So, at which point does an organism hold complete human DNA. It is at the point where the chromosomes from the sperm cell and the egg cell combine. It is at that stage, that human life begins.
It is thus a logical conclusion that a fetus, from time of conception, should be considered a human, with equal value placed on it's life.
