Partial Birth Abortion :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Partial Birth AbortionIn the continuing debates on the legality and morality of abortion, partial possess abortions have become a hot topic. What exactly is a partial birth abortion? atomic number 10 state legislation defines it as an abortion role in which the soulfulness performing the abortion partially delivers a living unborn peasant before killing the unborn child and completing delivery (1). firearm this definition may be fine for legal purposes, it still does not address the material procedures we still do not know what an actual partial birth abortion procedure entails.The most common procedure is called Intact Dilation and Evacuation, or D&E. D&E involves dismembering the fetus inside the uterine cavity and then pulling it out through with(predicate) the already dilated cervix (1) . Another less common, but more polemic method is the dilation and extraction method, or D&X. This procedure requires a woman to take medication several days in benefit to dilate the ce rvix. Once the cervix has dilated, she returns to complete the procedure. When she returns, the physician turns the fetus roughly in the uterus so that it is positioned feet first, and then delivers the fetus until only the calculate remains inside the mothers be. At this point, the physician punctures the base if the skull and suctions out the contents of the fetus head, causing the skull to collapse. The dead fetus is then removed from the womans body (2). In each case the head (or more) is left inside the womans body because in order for a birth to have occurred under common honor the head of the fetus must leave the mothers body. Under the current adaptation of the United States Constitution, a person must be born in order to be protected by the government, so by leaving the head in the mothers body the procedure is considered to be legally feasible (1).Proponents of a ban on partial birth abortions cite what they go through as the extreme cruelty of the procedures as v iolating the constitutional rights of the fetus. They believe that birth should be defined as occurring as soon as each part of the fetus torso above the navel is visible, or when any of the fetus body has left the mother (1). Many argue that since the fetus in doubtless alive during the procedure, the issue of whether or not an actual birth has occurred should be of little consequence (3).