The most commonly argued point when determining the morality of abortion is that of personhood of the fetus. The most frequent question asked is “At what point does an embryo or fetus become a person?” Most Pro-Life groups will tell you that personhood begins at conception, whereas the majority of Pro-Choice groups will say that the ability to survive outside of the womb is necessary to be a human being. However, to answer the question on morality of abortion, several other points have been made that disregard the question of personhood altogether, which will be further discussed here. The Pro-Life opinion for the most part entails the belief that …show more content…
Possible survival of a fetus outside of the uterus begins at 20 weeks gestation. A baby is made by the choice of a woman to carry out a pregnancy of a developing fetus to full term, at which point a baby is born. To have an abortion is to stop the “process by which an embryo or fetus is made into an infant” and a woman should be able to choose whether or not she will make a baby. (Nall) There are increased risks posed to a woman that carries a pregnancy to term as opposed to the risks involved in having an abortion. Women who carry a pregnancy to term face a “risk of death 11 times greater than the risk of death via abortion, and those with unwanted pregnancies have a higher incidence of mental health problems” whereas no such mental health risks exist for a woman that has an abortion. (Abortion Debate). In Abortion and the Concept of a Person, English offers consideration from both perspectives as she deems the question of personhood to be rather irrelevant. She suggests that even if the fetus is a person with