One of the major points of controversy in the abortion debate is whether or not the fetus is a human being and whether or not the fetus is a person with equal rights under the law. For those who don’t believe that a fetus is a human/person, there is nothing morally wrong with ending a pregnancy through elective abortion. For those who understand the fetus to be a human being with personhood, like you and me, abortion is a grave moral wrong equivalent to murder.
What is a fetus?
The term, fetus, is Latin for “little one”. An embryo develops into a fetus at the 9th week of pregnancy. “Embryo” and “fetus” are simply terms used to describe a stage of human development, similar to infant, toddler, or adolescent.
Is an embryo/fetus a human?
The scientific community almost unanimously agrees that a human life begins at the moment of fertilization, when a male sperm fertilizes a female egg. In 2021, The National Library of Medicine performed a study where they surveyed 5,577 biologists from 1,058 academic institutions around the world, asking them when human life begins. Overall, 96% of these biologists affirmed the view of fertilization. It is not a religious belief that human life begins at fertilization, it is a scientific fact.
It is logical to believe that human beings are in fact human from the moment of conception, because what else would they be? Human beings reproduce other human beings, just as cats reproduce cats and dogs reproduce dogs. This is a fundamental law of nature, called the law of biogenesis.
Image Source: Textbook: “Embryology: Constructing the Organism” edited by Scott F. Gilbert & Anne M. Raunio.
Early embryos/fetuses are conclusively human, but they are also alive. Organisms don’t grow unless they are alive, and it is well known and documented that the embryo/fetus is growing rapidly inside his/her mother’s womb. The Lozier Institute has a wonderful resource called “The Voyage of Life” that details the incredible journey of human development from conception to birth. Explore this resource here. To be logically consistent, one must consider why an abortion would even be necessary to end a pregnancy if the embryo/fetus was not alive and growing in the womb.
Through the lens of modern science and reason, it is clear that a fetus/embryo is not merely a “clump of cells”, as some abortion supporters claim, but a living, growing human being.
Is the embryo/fetus a person?
Many who support abortion concede with the above points that an embryo/fetus is a human being, but do not agree that the embryo/fetus is a person with equal rights and protections under the law.
It is important to consider the dangers of viewing a particular group of human beings as non-persons. Throughout human history, when subsets of human beings are not considered to be persons with rights and protections under the law, atrocious evil has occurred.
“Think back to slavery or the Holocaust– both of these cases displayed an instance in which the state determined the ‘level’ of personhood afforded to certain groups of human beings.”
For example, in the context of American slavery, enslaved African Americans (under the Three-Fifth’s Compromise) were legally counted as three-fifths of a person when determining a state’s population for representation in Congress. This group of human beings was not given the equal protection under the law that they deserved, and therefore suffered great injustice and abuse.
Human beings obtain personhood at the moment of conception. This conclusion affirms that abortion is morally wrong because it allows for the murder of one group of vulnerable human beings due to arbitrary factors decided by the state. African Americans faced discrimination on the basis of skin color, while the unborn face discrimination on the basis of their size, location, level of development, or degree of dependency on their mother. Sadly, many today recognize the grave moral injustice of American slavery, but proudly promote abortion.
For the Christian, the Bible makes clear that God views the unborn as full persons. He “knits them together in their mother’s womb”. He cares for them, makes plans for their future, and participates in a loving relationship with them. If God views the unborn child as a person, who are we to argue?
“For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Psalm 139:13-16
But, this position is not primarily a religious one. It is a logical one. Listen to this video of Dr. Christopher Kaczor, Professor of Philosophy and author of the book ‘The Ethics of Abortion: Women’s Rights, Human Life, and the Question of Justice’, explaining the meaning of personhood and how it applies to unborn children.