Is Abortion Ethical and Should it be Legal?

Hi. I’m Lone Candle, and I’m gonna tell you what I think about abortion!

You should be able to determine someone’s opinion on whether or not abortion should be legal by the answer to three questions.

One, what is a human life? We all agree murder is wrong. This means there’s something of special value in a human life so that ending one is a great sin. But what makes us human? What about us do we value so much that we want ending this thing to be a heavily punishable crime?

The answer to this will help one determine where in the baby-making process that thing growing inside a woman should count as a human.

The second question is how certain are you about the answer to the first question. Is it a baseless opinion? An opinion with strong logic behind it but an opinion never the less? Is it a fact?

If you believe human life begins at conception and you believe that as a fact. Then we’re done. You think that right when the sperm enters the egg a human being with all the special value we grant a human is created. If this is true, then of course killing it is murder and should be illegal.

But if you’re less certain, then there may be room for a third question to have impact. That is, to what extent do you think government should intervene and punish people for actions whose morality is ultimately an opinion?

If you think life begins at conception, but feel like that is an opinion, and…