ONE: THE BASIC MORAL QUESTION

A. The main basis for the Pro-Life position: the reality of the child in the womb.

1. The CONTINUUM ARGUMENT. The life of each person is a single continuum, of which the time in the womb is merely the first phase. "I was once a child in my mother's womb."
2. THE SLED ARGUMENT. The only differences between a born child and a pre-born  child are:

SIZE
ENVIRONMENT
LEVEL OF DEVELOPMENT
DEGREE OF DEPENDENCY

Or: The child in the womb is merely:

SMALLER
IN A DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENT
LESS DEVELOPED
MORE DEPENDENT

These are the only differences and none of them are morally relevant. Nor should they be legally relevant.
3.  Statement by 200 doctors: By the end of the seventh week there is a well-proportioned small-scale baby.

B.  Some objections and replies:

1. "Draw a line at viability."

* The child is  already viable before this! He is merely not viable in our environment.
* Viability is a measure of bodily status in relation to environnient; it has nothing to do with being a person. Viability could never turn a non-person into a person.
* Viabality  is constantly changing with technology and is relative to the development of Medicine where the mother and child happen to be.  A child not viable in the jungle might be viable in the USA.
* Child is not viable now before 24 weeks or so because his lungs are not yet sufficiently developed. And this date is being reduced  with further medical developments.

2. 'Draw a line at birth."

* Birth is merely a change of location and of method of air and nourishment intake.
* Birth could never turn a non-person into a person.

3. "The being in the womb is only biologically alive; it is not a person since it cannot think rationally  or communicate intentionally."

Distinguish BEING a person and FUNCTIONING as a person.  A person sound asleep or in a coma cannot function as a person: he or she cannot solve complex problems, make difficult decisions or carry on a  conversation.  But he or she still is a person...he or she has the being of a person.  Essentially the same thing applies to the pre-born child: he or she has the being of a person, although he or she cannot function as a person.  The pre-born child has the basic inherent capacity to function as a person, which belongs to his nature as a person, to his essential being as a person.  It is in the process of development.

C. The beginning of a person's existence  at conception-fertilization: this is a "Radical Break:"

1. Sperm and ovum have the genetic code of the father and the mother; the child has his or her own
2. Sperm and  ovum are each at the end of their existence; the child is at the beginning of his existence.

An objection: "The zygot is too small to be a person."
Reply: Size is relative. Imagine a giant who could hold planet earth in the palm of his hand like an orange. To him we would be very, very small!  Dr. Suess: A person is a person no matter how small."  There is no such thing as a "fertilized ovum".  What results from conception-fertilization is not some kind of ovum - or sperm,  but a new human person, one of us.   "I was once a tiny zygot."

D. Another important basis for Pro-Life: It is wrong to intentionally kill an innocent person.

* The horror of child abuse, especially when it is the killing of a child, is repeated in every abortion.
* We may not do wrong to further our goals, or even to bring about a good.
* We must show respect for persons, for all persons,  young and old, very young and very old.
* Compare: Abortion and Kamchadal, the  thrusting of a sword into the abdomen of the mother to kill the child.
* Abortions occur because we are bigger and stronger than the child and so we can impose death on him or her.  Abortion is simply  taking advantage of our superior strength.

E. An objection: "Every child should be a wanted child.   No unwanted child should be brought into the world."

Replies:

* The child is  already in the world.   A woman's womb and the child in it are part of the world.. Unwanted is not a characteristic of a child: it is we who are sometimes unwanting.
* Should we kill off all "unwanted" people?
* Who are we to decide for the child whether life is worth living? Abortion means imposing the will of some on others by brute force, a terrible violation of basic human rights.
* Adoption, not abortion.

Therefore, the reality: there is a child in the womb.  Abortion kills that child.

F. Why abortion must be made illegal:

1. The child  in the womb deserves  the same protection of law that the rest of us have.
2. Not to give the child this protection is discrimination. It is in effect saying to the child:  "You don't count because you're different from the rest of us.  You're too small, you live in a different environment - and besides, you can't defend yourself".
3. Abortion is the most important  civil rights issue of our time.  And we are failing  now as we failed for well over a century after the creation of this nation with regard to slavery  and equal protection under the law for all human beings.
4.  "Pro-Choice"?  The "pro-choice" position is really a  denial of any choice for the child.  It is saying to the child: "You don't count because it's OK to impose death on the child if you want to.
5. Making abortion illegal can also be a protection for the many women who  do not  want an abortion, but who feel that they are forced into it,  that they have no other choice.
6. Full legal protection for all pre-born children: no exceptions.
7. The goverrnment  cannot be neutral on this issue. It either protects the alleged "right" of a woman to "choose", or it protects the real right of the child to live.

G. Some objections and replies:

1. "Don't force your religion on us".  The equal protection of all persons is a civil rights issue that transcends the many religious traditions.  It is not a religious issue, but a scientific and legal issue.
2. "I am personally opposed to abortion, but I don't want to impose my values on others."  Try this with child abuse, discrimination on the basis of skin color, discrimination  against women, etc.
3.  "There is no consensus on abortion."  Protecting basic human  rights does not depend on, and cannot wait for a consensus. Did  Dr. Martin Luther King wait for a consensus? Rather, his leadership is what helped create a consensus.
4. "Keep abortion safe and legal."  Abortion is not safe for the child. It Is the brutal killing of the child. Abortion is not safe for women, either.  Please see David Reardon,  Aborted Women: Silent  No More. (Chicago: Loyola Press, 1987) Since abortion was legalized, more women have died of abortion! (See p.292)  Stephen Schwartz  is the author of The  Moral Question of Abortion (Chicago; Loyola Press,  1990)

GS