Abortion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 16

Abortion - Essay Example The focus in the essay "Abortion" is on this operation that allows a woman to put an end to a human life. Abortion gives a woman the right to terminate a pregnancy if she feels that she is not in a position to give birth to a child owing to emotional, psychological, social, medical or financial reasons. There are people who say that abortion is immoral and should be made illegal because it violates the rights of a fetus (Maguire 155). These people believe that actually speaking human life does not begin at birth, but it begins right from the time when two people conceive a fetus. Hence, a fetus is as much a human as any other individual. Thereby, by the virtue of being a human, a fetus does have the right to life and aborting a fetus deprives it of the right to life (Maguire 155). So women should not be allowed to have an abortion and if possible, abortion should be made illegal. However, on a closer analysis, one finds that this line of argument is also utterly wrong and faulty. Even if one assumes that a fetus is a human and has the right to life, the rights of an unborn fetus could not be given precedence over the rights of a woman who carries that fetus. No individual can be given a right over another individual’s body. Hence, it would be logical to say that a fetus does not have the right to occupy a woman’s body and to draw sustenance from her body, against her wishes and desires. Therefore, the right to life of a fetus is subject to the will and intentions of the woman that carries that fetus.