Let’s examine the fetal development on a daily basis for the first 28 days of life – and then decide whether such an early abortion would be “harmless” or not.
Day 1: Fertilization: One little boy begins the first day of his life within his mother’s body. At this point, his father’s sperm and his mother’s egg combine to form a new human being who carries with him as much information as 50 sets of a 33-volume encyclopedia. This genetic information (DNA) will determine all of this little person’s physical characteristics and much of his intelligence and personality. (Moore 25, Davis 39, Sadler 3, Gasser 19, Arey 55, Patten 43, Rugh 2-7, Flanagan 41)
Day 2: Our little friend is now three cells big. His cells will continue to divide as he starts down his mother’s Fallopian tube towards her uterus (womb), where he will get the food and shelter he needs to grow and develop.
Day 6-7: Implantation into his mother’s uterus begins and all the while he continues to grow. As his cells multiply, they differentiate to perform specific functions-circulatory, muscular, neural and skeletal.
Day 14: Implantation is completed around this time and his mother misses her first menstrual period.
Day 20: His heart, brain, spinal column, and nervous system are almost complete and his eyes begin to form.
Day 22: His heart begins to beat.
Day 28: This little boy is now approximately 1/4 inch long – 10,000 times larger than he was only three weeks ago! The blood flowing in his veins is completely different than his mother’s.
Whoops!! The fetal development stops at this point because the expectant mother has elected to have an abortion after 28 days. Has a human life been destroyed?
Abortion actually terminates a human life. Physicians, biologists and scientists testified before Congress that human life begins at conception (fertilization). In Report, Subcommittee on Separation of Powers to Senate Judiciary Committee S-158, it states that “There is overwhelming agreement on this point in countless medical, biological and scientific writings.” Every abortion involves, either surgicallly or chemically, the destruction of a human zygote or a human fetus, and the subsequent removal of same from his mother’s womb. Therefore, every abortion ends a human life. (“US Congress”)
WORKS CITED
Arey, Leslie B. Developmental Anatomy. , Philadelphia: W.
Abortion Essay – Roe v. Wade and Morality
Roe v. Wade and Morality
Michael Pearce Pfeifer in “Abandoning Error: Self-Correction by the Supreme Court,” states the impact of Roe v. Wade on morals:
Seldom, if ever, has a single Supreme Court decision so decisively transformed American constitutional history or so altered the relationship between law and morals – both public and private. Roe v. Wade established within the Constitution a doctrine that has entirely legitimized what had previously been almost universally condemned: the practice of abortion on demand throughout the nine months of pregnancy.
Such precedent setting decisions are usually derived from the social, economic, political, and legal philosophy of the majority of the Justices who make up the Court, and also represent a segment of the American population at a given time in history. Seldom has a Supreme Court decision sliced so deeply into the basic fabric that composes the tapestry and direction of American law or instigated such profound changes in cherished rights, values, and personal prerogatives of individuals: the right to privacy, the structure of the family, the status of medical technology and its impact upon law and life, and the authority of state governments to protect the lives of their citizens.(3-4)
The far-reaching impact of Roe v. Wade derives from one cause: Every abortion involves, either surgically or chemically, the destruction of a human zygote or a human fetus, and the subsequent removal of that human life from his/her mother’s womb. Therefore, every single abortion ends a human life.
There are many who say that the preborn child is just a mass of tissue, a part of the woman’s body. If this were the case, then no one would have any reason to o…
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…oks, 1981. p.213.
Pfeifer, Michael Pearce. “Abandoning Error: Self-Correction by the Supreme Court.” Abortion and the Constitution: Reversing Roe v. Wade Through the Courts. Horan, Grant, Cunningham, eds. Washington,D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1987.
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