Prompt: Some people are actively involved in promoting and supporting a cause, such as the release of international political prisoners or protecting the environment. Is there a cause you actively support? Write an essay convincing readers to support that cause.
Few things are as precious to a woman as carrying a child inside of her. It is a gift for some women and a blessing to others. Yet, there are some women who view this gift as a curse bestowed upon them. For women with this mindset, a simple option to solve this problem is receiving an abortion. But, are you murdering the unborn child inside of you, or are you just getting rid of an embryo? When does a fertilized egg stop being a cluster of cells and becomes a human child, complete with natural human rights?
In the first trimester of a fetus’s life cycle, a women experiences ovulation. During this time, the chances to become pregnant are high. Once a sperm cell enters the vagina through sex, it travels up the Fallopian Tubes to fertilize an egg cell. A zygote is formed after this conception. Once a zygote is formed, the chromosomes of the sperm cell combine with the egg cell, resulting in the future baby’s gender. If the combination is XX, then it denotes a girl and YX denotes a boy. During the first 4 weeks, the embryo begins to rapidly develop and a process called differentiation occurs and produces the various cells such as blood cells, kidney cells, and nerve cells. Then, in the 5th week, the first heartbeats begin to take place and the umbilical cord begins to develop. The blood is now pumping through the four heart chambers and other organs are beginning to develop. The embryo becomes a fetus at the end of the 8th week. By the end of the first trimester, the fetus now has developing vocal chords, hands, legs, early organs, facial features and has probably started to suck its thumb.
In the second semester, the fetus develops even further. A mother can now feel kicks as the baby moves around the uterus. In the 16th week , the fetus is now learning to breathe and 6 gallons of blood is getting pumped into its heart a day. Nourishing the fetus is the woman’s placenta, which delivers nutrients from the food the woman eats to the fetus, as well as any harmful substances the mother may consume. By the 22nd week, the fetus can now hear conversations in the outside world and the brain is rapidly developing. By the end of week 27 and the 2nd semester, the fetus can now hear, has developed the eye retina, and is growing larger and longer every day.
The fetus is almost fully developed by the 3rd trimester. Its head is now proportional to its body and fat continues to accumulate under the skin. It’s also more sensitive to changes in light, taste, and smell and its brain can now control breathing and body temperature. In the next few weeks, it will go down the uterus to get in the birthing position. The bones begin to harden and strengthen, however the skull is still soft. It is safe for a baby to be born in the 35th week because it is around the 35th and 36th week that the baby moves into the birthing canal, causing the mom discomfort when walking. Once the amniotic sac breaks (water breaks), the mother goes into labor. In an average time span of 16 hours, the mother will push the baby out her body and voila! A child is born.
A different path is taken for women who choose to have an abortion. When women choose to have an abortion, they end their pregnancy with either medications or surgical procedures. The medications all work in their own way, but the ultimate product is the loss of the fetus (baby). Abortion is often chosen by teenage mothers who aren’t ready to be parents or women who will not or cannot have a child in her life. Although there can be complications, having an abortion is safer than child birth.
However, is abortion murder? Some advocates against abortion argue you are killing a life, even if it is unborn yet. Prochoice advocates argue that precisely because it is unborn, it is not yet human and thus cannot be murder. Yet, when a pregnant woman is killed and so is the unborn child, the crime is a double-murder. Abortions usually occur in the first two trimesters. By the end of the first trimester, the fetus already has a developing heart, brain, and limbs. By the end of the second, its heart now beats, it has hearing ability, and moves around the uterus. A living human is defined as having a beating heart. The fetus’s heart beats during the time an abortion can still be preformed.
A fetus’s development is a long and arduous journey. A human is growing little by little in a women’s stomach. Abortion is a procedure that destroys that life. Yes, I do believe abortion is murder. If the fetus has a heart, then it is already considered a human, especially once that heart starts beating. The fetus can’t cry out or argue its rights but because it is a human child, it has the same rights as a 1 year-old infant or 99 year-old man. It is not a question of ethics; it is a question of if you were that unborn child would you have wanted to be aborted? Fight against abortion because a woman can choose, but a baby cannot.
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