Is an Aborted Baby Only Potential Life ? Essay -- Argumentative Persua

Is an Aborted Baby Only "Potential Life" ?    Simmons says in Personhood, the Bible, and the Abortion Debate:   The genetic definition of personhood confuses potentialities with actualities. Potentialities are certainly important but they do not have the same value as actualities. "An embryo is not a person but the possibility or the probability of there being a person many months or even years in the future," Charles Hartshorne has argued. "Obviously possibilities are important, but to blur the distinction between them and actualities is to darken counsel." The same point is made by John Stott in saying that the decision to abort for reasons of maternal health is "a choice between an actual human being and a potential human being." This sentiment prevails among millions in our country. What about abortion - does it kill a living human life or only a "potential" human life, as Simmons believes. Is it a matter of private morality, like deciding which church you're going to attend, or is it a matter of public morality - a matter of civil rights? If there's a victim involved, it's a civil rights issue. Is there a victim involved in abortion? There are many who say that there is not, 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 oppose abortion any more than they would oppose tonsillectomies or appendectomies. But is that the case? Developments in the science of fetology have given us greater opportunities than ever to learn about the preborn. We know that the baby has a completely different circulatory system than the mother, and often a different blood type. He or she has a completely different genetic code. We know that by t... ..., Philadelphia: W.B. Sanders Co, 1954. Collins, V. J.   Principles of Anesthesiology. Philadelphia, PA: Lea & Fabiger, 1976. Hamlin, H. "Life or Death by EEG." Journal of the Amedos. Medical A's',, 1W12/84, p. 20. Hooker and Davenport. The Prenatal Origin of Behavior. Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 1952. Noonan, "The Experience of Pain, New Perspectives on Human Abortion." N.p.: A1etheia Books, 1981. p.213. 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.