Carl Sagan on Abortion

Paper Summary:

This paper provides a critical look at Carl Sagan's article "Abortion: Is it Possible to be Both Pro-Life and Pro-Choice?", which provides both sides of the religious and scientific arguments that are currently part of the abortion issue in American society. The paper points out that Sagan provides a two-fold analysis of the science and theological definitions of life and how this acts within the social conflict between pro-life and pro-choice factions in their differing objectives for legislation on abortion. The paper also points out that Sagan seeks to promote the importance of why compromise and balance between these two factions are important in American society and for the creation of legislation on this issue. The paper concludes that, although Sagan provides a mastery of the scientific facts that are part of modern research of life in the womb, he is decidedly biased in his reliance on science.

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Summary
Discussion and Analysis
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"The central issue for Carl Sagan is understanding the debate between the religious (pro-life) and the secular scientific (pro--choice) factions that currently debate the issue of abortion. Sagan argues for the issue of pro-life arguments that determine that the life in the womb is 'alive' at first conception, which Sagan refutes by imposing a more scientific point of view that life is not an issue related to conception, but that there is a longer history for human life since the beginning of the Earth, nearly 4.6 billion year ago (201). Yet with science, the clarity of these issues do not always refer a more valid sense of where and how life is determined within religious values. For pro-lifers in the American Christian culture, the idea of conception takes on a human characteristic that must also be taken into account due to missing details of current incomplete scientific evidence that equally philosophize on the nature of life."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Beckwith, Francis. "Answering the Arguments for Abortion Rights?: Part Three: Is the Unborn Human Less Than Human?" Christian Research Journal, Spring 1991. Evangelical Christian Library Database. 1 April, 2007. <http://www.ccel.us/Beckwith.1.html>
• "Justice Blackmun, J.--Opinion of the Court--Section X." Abortion Law Homepage. 1 April, 2007. <http://members.aol.com/abtrbng/410b5.htm#p*163>
• Sagan, Carl. "Abortion: Is it Possible to be both Pro-Life and Pro-Choice?"

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