Did Dr. Seuss get it Right?

This is a brief informal paper on abortion that I wrote for one of my classes last semester. My professor did not care much for the content but she still gave me an acceptable grade. Enjoy.

“A person’s a person, no matter how small.” These are perhaps some of the best known words in children’s literature. They were written in 1955 by a man named Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss.

            The words of Dr. Seuss are simple, yet convey a powerful message. The convey that from the moment of conception a baby is a person and that he/she is endowed with the same inalienable rights as everyone else.

            The topic of abortion and fetal personhood has created a great political and ethical divide in this county. People identify as either being prochoice or prolife and argue amongst each other about who’s right.

            Well, which side is right? Is the fetus only tissue, or is it a person?

            Often times when a couple finds out they’re pregnant, they rejoice and

tell their family and friends. The news is usually received with joy and words of excitement are exchanged.

            There are also occasions when the woman miscarries and they experience a time of deep sorrow for the loss of their child.

            When the couple does not want the baby however, there is no excitement or joy. The couple is upset and often times decides that abortion is the best option.

            Is abortion really the best option though?

            Adolf Hitler thought that it would be best if he murdered millions of Jews during World War II because he believed that they were not human beings. He thought he was doing the right thing. Does that make his actions justified?

            Each day 3700 abortions are performed on women in this country who believe that they are doing the right thing. Since abortion has been legal in this country over 56 million of them have taken place.      

            Recently, doctors have been able to use 3-D ultrasound images to show facial features, fingers, and toes on a baby during the first trimester of pregnancy. These images show the baby moving around and even mimicking actions that an already born child would do, such as sucking its thumb.

            Bills have been passed in some states banning abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy because the baby can feel pain. If doctors have proven that babies can feel pain only half way through the pregnancy, than what’s to say that they can’t earlier?

            There’s a common saying that goes, “seeing is believing.” The fetus in the womb certainly looks and acts like its counterparts that have been born! There is also a famous Latin phrase; “cogito ergo sum”, which means “I think, therefore I am”.

            If the child in the womb was incapable of thinking, then how would it know to flinch when it feels pain or stick its finger in its mouth?

            The evidence points overwhelmingly to the belief that the child in the womb is in fact a person. It appears to be a child and even acts like one, although it has never been outside of the womb.

            Abortion truly is the genocide of our time. We would not just sit around and let 3700 live babies be murdered each day, nor did we tolerate the inhumane treatment that Hitler gave to the Jews.

            “A person’s a person, no matter how small.” It’s time that we stand up for the lives of the most defenseless and live by those words.