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LEGALIZING ABORTION

BEL 313 : ASSIGNMENT 2

NAME : IZANUR FARHANIM BT MOHD NIZAM MATRIX NO. : 2009842118 PROGRAM : AC110 GROUP : ACD5TC LECTURERS NAME : MADAM MASLIZA MAT ZALI

Legalizing Abortion
Throughout most of the continent, abortion is commonly practiced since long before the recorded history. It is a subject that often causes controversy. Technically, abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal from the uterus of a fetus or embryo before fetal viability. However the term may be defined more broadly to include any termination of pregnancy other than birth. The term abortion is commonly referring to end the induced abortion of human rather that non-human pregnancy (Wikipedia, 2011). The article Keep Abortion Legal by Steve Harry, firmly supports the legalization of abortion. The author affirms us that legalizing abortion could bring many advantages than disadvantages. Hence, abortion should be legalized in order to provide benefits to the society. The argument stated by Harry contains fallacies that clouded the truth about abortion. In my point of view, the arguments raised by him are arguable and does not have strong points to persuade people to agree with the statements.

In the argument of unwanted child in the article, the author has committed a fallacy of veiled threat. The author states that society pays a price when it forces women to have children they don't want. Not necessary all the unwanted child will turn out to be a resented baby. Plus, the cause of declining of crime rates couldnt be directly caused by the legalization of abortion. There could be other contributing factor that causes the declining crime rates. Think about it again. Isnt killing a human being is a crime? According to the Quran, on the Day of Judgment parents who killed their children will be under trial for that crime, and their children will be witnesses against them (al-Quran, Surah al- Takwiir 81:89). The legality of abortion only increases the rates of crimes without being judge by the society. If the baby is unwanted, there is always a better option than abortion. If the mother could not provide a better life for her baby, she could always give it up to someone that really needs. The National Council on Adoption stated that there are 200,000 couples who desperately do want your baby but each year there are only 25,000 babies to adopt (Abortiontv.com, n.d.).

Another fallacy used by Harry in the article is appeal to authority. The argument by Harry that stated in the article appeal to authority to the report of the Guttmacher Institute and the World Health Organization (WHO) because it has conducted a statistical study on abortion

rate worldwide according to the countries restriction to abortion. Harry wants to persuade us to consider Guttmacher Institute and WHOs study in addressing the issue of access to safe and legal abortion. Since Harry appeal to the authority of Guttmacher Institute and WHO, he wants us to believe in its finding that says the effect of the illegality of abortion causes more maternal death. The author cannot simply find their conclusion is true just because they claim authority in this subject. The author also couldnt prove the legalization of abortion could safe more women from maternal deaths

One of the fallacy conveyed by Harry is questionable effect. The cause of the many deaths of women who abort their children does not directly caused by the banning of abortion. Therefore, it is fallacious to conclude that legalization of abortion may reduce these death. The illegality of abortion is merely a conducing factor that pushes women to seek abortion through unsafe methods, however, it is never the cause of increasing maternal death. The womens decision to abort the baby itself that caused the large number of maternal death.They would not have died of unsafe abortion method if they did not decide to abort their child. After all, abortion is never safe. It does not only kill a living baby but also causes women to suffer physical and psychological harm such as post-abortion syndrome, cancer of the breast, or even death (The Effects of Abortion on Women Research, 2009). Even if the law legalized abortion, it does not guarantee that maternal death will not happend. Assuming that abortion is legalized, more women would be encouraged to abort. Consequently, this will only contribute to increasing maternal death. Clearly, whether abortion is legal or illegal, the process always cause adverse effects to the mother. Moreover, the mothers life is at stake while it mercilessly kills the unborn child.

In my point of view, abortion should not be legalized as it brings a lot more disadvantages than benefits to neither the mother nor the society. Furthermore, only Allah, the creator of all can create decide our faith. The moment of death has been fixed in advance by Allah. Our bodies belong to the Creator and neither men nor women have the right to treat them as they wish. This includes all or part of our bodies and anything else arising from contraception. The situation is clearly expressed in the Qur'an where we are told that in the sight of Allah killing a human is a very serious matter (al-Quran , Surah al-Maidah 5:32.). Also, abortion causes the mother to hurt physically and emotionally. According to Endres (n.d.), infections and internal bleeding could be resulted from abortions. Besides, having abortion incline the possibility to get breast cancer by 50%and could cause pregnancy failure

later in life. Not only that, the women will be emotionally hurt by realizing that they took an innocent life. For instance, women may have thoughts of committing suicide after having an abortion. On the whole, abortion should not be used as a means of birth control. The unwanted pregnancy caused by the social causes should be dealt appropriately and if need arises temporary means of contraception should be available to marriage couples. Abortion should be limited strictly to medically indicated causes, which constitute a small amount of abortions carried in demand and for social reasons.

References :

1. Wikipedia : Abortion. (2011). FL: Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.Retrieved August 7, 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion 2. Al Quran. Translation. Retrieved August 8, 2011, from http://quran.al-islam.com. 3. The Effects of Abortion on Women Research. (2009). Retrieved August 9, 2011, from http://kemablog.wordpress.com/2009/01/15/the-effects-of-abortion-on-womenresearch/ 4. Endress, A. (n.d.). The Physical And Spiritual Effects Of Abortion. Retrieved August 9, 2011 from http://www.cirtl.org/endres96.htm.

5. A better choice. (n.d.). Retrieved August 9, 2011 from


http://www.abortiontv.com/Choices/otherways.htm

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