More Than a Debate

No matter how much it is discussed, I believe that abortion is still an issue that is very much overlooked by many people. The basic question behind the debate of whether abortion is right or not and whether it should be kept legal is: "What exactly are the unborn?” Are they individual human beings from the time they are conceived with a life worth protecting and preserving? Or are they simply a small mass of tissue that is part of the mother's body, and thus up to her whether to let it live and develop or to have it killed? It is a question that needs to be answered.

Biologically, the fetus is unique from the moment of conception from any other human being, including its mother, with its own distinct DNA. In fact by about day 22 the heart starts beating and moving blood around the little body which is often of a different blood type than that of the mother. Its brain waves begin at around forty days of gestation.

Being a tiny mass of cells does not make the fetus any less a person since size is not a criteria for being considered a human being. We don't say that Michael Jordan, being as tall as he is, is any more human that a small child--he is merely at a different stage of growth and development. Neither does that level of development determine how "human" a person is. In fact, people are continually developing and changing both mentally and physically. Does that mean that a twenty year old is any less a person than a sixty year old? No, just different.

An individual's location and environment do nothing to change his or her personhood. Where someone is does not determine what they are. A person is the same regardless of whether they are in the middle of the Sahara desert, in the midst of a snow storm in the Arctic, or traveling in a space shuttle outside of the planet's atmosphere. Likewise, the 8 inches of birth canal that separate an unborn child from a newborn do not determine what or who they are.

How dependent a person is on others to survive does not make any impact on whether or not they are an individual human being, either. There are people in nursing homes and hospitals throughout the world who could not survive except through the help of other people, yet their humanity is not questioned. Being independent is not a criterion for being human.

An infant, no matter how small, is an individual human being with a life worth preserving, and needs to be recognized as such. The right to life is not something that is given by the choice of any human being, association, or government, it is a natural right endowed upon all of us by our Creator. Abortion is one thing that should not be overlooked by anyone. Fetuses are more than a debate; they are individual, unique people.