From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!ihnp4!ihnp1!dolan
Newsgroups: net.women
Title: Rational Argument Against Abortion
Article-I.D.: ihnp1.163
Posted: Fri Jan 28 09:13:55 1983
Received: Sat Jan 29 03:06:43 1983
Reply-To: dolan@ihnp1.UUCP (Mike Dolan)


This article will probably result in some flaming, but I ask that
you read what I have to say with an open, objective mind.  Then you
can decide to flame.

A recent article in this newsgroup indicated that the writer felt
that, given no definition of the start of human life, each person
should decide for him/herself the morality of abortion.  I wish to
offer a purely rational, non-religious argument for the humanness of
each person from the moment of conception.

A person of 85 years is accepted as human; a person of 5 years is
accepted as human; a person of 5 seconds of age is accepted as
human.  During the birth process, a child can begin to breathe even
before it is entirely out of the birth canal.  At what point does a
person become human?  What is the difference between a newly born
child who is still attached by its umbilical to the placenta which
is still attached to its mother's womb, and a child still within the
womb?  

I submit that there is no difference between a child who has just
been born and had its umbilical severed and a child which is just
about to be born other than the life-support system providing oxygen
and food to that child.  A newly born child depends upon its lungs
for oxygen and its own mouth and digestive tract for food.  It
depends upon its own bodily waste removal mechanisms, and it depends
upon the older humans around it for physical security.

A child which is just about to be born is depending upon the
life-support system of its mother's womb for oxygen, food, and waste
removal.  It depends upon the physical enclosure of the womb for
physical security.  Other than the difference in life-support
systems, there is no difference between a newly born child and a
child about to be born.  If the newly born child is human, and our
laws and human history have declared it so, then the
about-to-be-born child must be human too.

But then let us move backward in time as the baby was developing in
the womb.  What was added during that time that suddenly made the
baby a human being?  The only thing that the baby received from its
mother during the nine months that it lived inside her womb was
oxygen, food, waste removal, and physical security.  There is no
magical moment along the way when "something" happens to suddenly
transform the baby into a human being.  The womb is only a life-support
system that provides protection, oxygen, waste removal, and
nourishment for the nine month period.  Nothing else.

If the child is human 5 seconds after it is born, it must be human 5
seconds before it traverses the birth canal.  And because nothing is
supplied to the child during the nine month period when it is living
in its mother's womb, other than food, oxygen, waste removal, and
protection, then it must have been human from the very beginning of
its existence, the moment of conception.  There is no magical moment
when a child suddenly "becomes" human.  It always was.

There are many powerful emotions associated with the abortion
argument.  I ask that you consider what I have said objectively. 
Let the emotional part of you sit quietly aside while your
rationality examines my arguments.  If you can find an error in my
reasoning, please let me know.  I used to take a casual accepting
view of abortion until I forced myself to sit back and examine the
facts that I have referred to above.

You may decide to "flame on" now.  That is your privilege.  But
consider the tremendous urge to "flame" that is felt by those who
argue against the legality of abortion.  If one accepts the fact
that a child is truly a human being from the moment of conception,
then one must be truly, overwhelmingly horrified at the 15 million
abortion deaths that have occurred in the last 10 years.  Hitler's
holocaust had nothing on modern day America.

There are many social issues which arise when we accept the humanity
of the unborn child.  We must, as a nation, rise to meet those
challenges.  As a people, we are all trying to achieve the "rights"
that we feel are ours.  It seems that we have forgotten the meaning
of the word "responsibility".

Mike Dolan
Bell Labs   Room 1B-226
Naperville-Wheaton Rd.
Naperville, IL  60566

P.S. Thanks for taking the time to read and think about what I have
to say.