Divine law and natural reason exclude all right to the direct killing of an innocent man. However, if the reasons given to justify an abortion were always manifestly evil and valueless the problem would not be so dramatic. The gravity of the problem comes from the fact that in certain cases, perhaps in quite a considerable number of cases, by denying abortion one endangers important values to which it is normal to attach great value, and which may sometimes even seem to have priority. Pro-lifers do not deny these very great difficulties. It may be a serious question of health, sometimes of life or death, for the mother; it may be the burden represented by an additional child, especially if there are good reasons to fear that the child will be abnormal or retarded; it may be the importance attributed in different classes of society to considerations of honor or dishonor, of loss of social standing, and so forth. Pro-lifers say that none of these reasons can ever objectively confer the right to dispose of another’s life, even when that life is only beginning. With regard to the future unhappiness of the child, no one, not even the father or mother, can act as its substitute–even if it is still in the embryonic stage–to choose in the child’s name, life or death. The child itself, when grown up, will never have the right to choose suicide; no more may his parents choose death for the child while it is not of an age to decide or itself. Life is too fundamental a value to be weighed against even very serious disadvantages.
When does human life begin? According to physicians, biologists and scientists testifying before the United States Congress:
Conception (fertilizatio…
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…he Amedos. Medical A’s’,, 1W12/84, p. 20.
Hooker and Davenport. The Prenatal Origin of Behavior. Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 1952.
Noonan, “The Experience of Pain, New Perspectives on Human Abortion.” N.p.: A1etheia Books, 1981. p.213.
Reinis, Stanislaw and Jerome M. Goldman. The Development of the Brain. Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas Publishers, 1980.
Rockwell, P.E.,M.D. Director of Anesthesiology, Leonard Hospital, Troy, NY, U.S. Supreme Court, Markle vs. Abele, 72-56, 72-730, 1972. P.11
The Silent Scream. Cleveland, OH: American Portrait Films, 1984.
Tanner, J.M. and G.R. Taylor, Time-Life Books. Growth, New York: Life Science Life, 1965. p.64.
U.S. Congress. Subcommittee on Separation of Powers to Senate Judiciary Committee S-158, 97th Congress, 1st Session 1981. p.7
Cause and Effect Essay – Emergency Contraception Causes Abortion
Emergency Contraception Causes Abortion
Brown University associate professor of medicine, Ralph Miech, M.D., Ph.D., stated the abortive nature of EC in the Providence Journal on August 3, 1998: “This type of pill causes an abortion. From a pharmacologic perspective, this type of pill should be called an ‘abortion-after pill’.”
The question must be asked: “How is this contraception?” Women are being falsely led to believe that these pills are contraceptive in nature. But one of their common and intended modes of action is to prevent the development of the embryo, resulting in his or her death.
A major problem in this debate is the manipulation of terms. The FDA, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and abortion advocacy groups long ago endorsed a change in the definitions of “conception” and “pregnancy” to confuse the issue. Instead of equating conception with fertilization, and seeing a woman as pregnant if her body contains a living, developing embryo, they equate “conception” and “pregnancy” with the implantation of the embryo in the uterus 6 to 10 days later. Thus a drug or device that destroys the early embryo or disrupts its development is redefined as “contra-ceptive,” even though it is abortifacient in nature.
The new Preven regimen and similar so-called “morning-after” pills, which can actually be taken several days after intercourse, are high doses of ordinary birth control pills containing estrogen and progestin, which have long been known to inhibit pregnancy. In response to years of pressure from some medical and advocacy groups, the FDA recommended six brands of oral contraceptive pills in high doses (Ovral, Lo/Ovral, Nordette, Levlen, Triphasil, and Tri…
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…th the endometrium “could explain the majority of cases where pregnancies are prevented by the morning-after pill” (Wilks 154). Without implantation, which occurs about a week after fertilization, the embryo cannot develop and will die.
WORKS CITED
FDA Notice, 62 Fed. Reg. 861 [Feb. 25, 1997]).
Harper, C. and C. Ellertson. “Knowledge and Perceptions of Emergency Contraceptive Pills Among a College-Age Population: A Qualitative Approach.” 27 Family Planning Perspectives 149 [July-August 1995].
Stubblefield, P. “Self-Administered Emergency Contraception — A Second Chance.” 339 New England Journal of Medicine 41 [July 2, 1998].
Wilks, J. A Consumer’s Guide to the Pill and Other Drugs [1997]. Cites F. Grou and I. Rodrigues, “The morning-after pill: How long after?”, 171 Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol. 1529-34 [1994].