Arguments For And Against Abortion

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INTRODUCTION Abortion has been viewed and defined by many scholars and schools of thought from different perspective. Each definition is determined by the various conception of the various school of thought as to when fetus is believed to have life, Dutt T, Matthew sees abortion as the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion of a fetus or embryo from the uterus, resulting in its death. 1 An abortion can either be spontaneous or induces, and of course the term abortion most commonly refers to the induced abortion of a human pregnancy, while spontaneous abortions are usually termed miscarriages. Induced abortion can be carried out for several reasons which will be discussed in some details in course of this paper. Menikoff, Jerry argues that a pregnancy can be intentionally aborted in many ways and that the manner selected depends chiefly upon the gestational age of the embryo or fetus, which increases in size as the pregnancy progresses. 2 However an abortion is referred to as elective when it is performed at the request of the woman "for reasons other than maternal health or fetal disease. 3 The second type of abortion to be considered in this paper is the Spontaneous abortion also known as miscarriage which is the expulsion of an embryo or fetus due to accidental trauma or natural causes before approximately the 22nd week of gestation; the definition by gestational age varies by country.4 Most miscarriages are due to incorrect replication of chromosomes; they can also be caused by environmental factors. ARGUMENTS AGAINST ABORTION 1. Since life begins at conception, abortion is akin to murder as it is the act of taking human life. Abortion is in direct defiance of the commonly accepted idea of the sanctity of human life 2. Abortion is indisputably the act committing murder and no one is permitted to harm or take the life of another human

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