Abortion Analysis

January 7, 2001

Abortion is the expulsion of an embryo or fetus before it can survive independently of its mother, and especially refers to abortion that is induced. 

Human beings develop gradually inside the bodies of women, from fertilized egg to embryo to fetus to newborn. There is no obvious time in development separating each stage. The death of a fertilized egg does not seem the same as the death of a person.

When does an embryo or fetus become a person? A plausible line of separation is at birth, or, better, when the fetus becomes viable.

Premature babies that are viable are at the same stage of development as viable fetuses. Of course, viability also depends on medical technology and so is not a constant stage of development and differs in societies at different stages of such technology.

The question is if an embryo or fetus is worthy of protection as a person, an innocent person. If it is an innocent person, abortion is a crime with a victim. If it is not a person, no crime can be involved. 

A person can mean just a human being or it can mean a rational and self-conscious mind. Presumably, there is a stage of development when a fetus starts to have a rational and self-conscious person. There is also a stage of development when a fetus becomes a human being. Such stages are likely very near the time when a fetus is viable. 

Before the fetus is viable, rational, self-conscious, and human, a women's right to abortion is a matter of personal choice (and therefore persons favoring this right are called pro-choice), since there is no crime. The Supreme Court granted women the right to abortion of nonviable fetuses on the basis of a right to privacy, a fundamental freedom stated in the U.S. Constitution.