Ethics Project - Need Help

[Heat]

Hey guys. I am here today to ask for help.

So I have my Ethics project that I previously mentioned on this forum due on Thursday next week, and I have yet to start it. The topic is Abortion, which I am pro-choice(and in opposition to most of my classmates positions).

I go to a Christian school, and the deck is basically stacked against me.

Today during Ethics I was arguing about Abortion because of another presentation, and we had back and forths and the entire class basically started dismissing my position as incorrect by default after they failed to present a counter-argument, including the teacher. The teacher actually laughed and mocked one of my arguments and when I questioned him he said "Well you can't make comparisons to life because there's nothing else like it", basically saying for the meer fact that I am trying to make an analogy my analogy is incorrect by default. He even said something which I found shocking even for him and when I questioned him on why he was giving special rights to the unborn child, verbatim, no exaggeration said "Well for a period of time whilst a woman is pregnant, she gives up her rights". So i'm pretty much screwed, with beliefs like that.

I don't doubt he will grade my presentation down even if there's nothing wrong with it, if he finds my arguments to be edgy enough. I've heard stories from other people, like, a lot of stories.

I picked this topic thinking it would be fun as I love debate. I love challenging people's ideas, or, more recently have become more outgoing about doing so, and more confident in my own beliefs. However, I kind of screwed myself. If I were to present as being anti-abortion and go with the status-quo at my school, I would be essentially rendering myself submissive to someone in a higher position of power out of fear of the consequences. That is not what I stand for, period. However, on the other hand....I need this grade. Bad. It counts for like 40% of our total grade which is utterly ridiculous imo. I'm going to continue with my position, but just wanted to give context as I am here asking for advice.


I've come to the conclusion that I need some really good arguments, and have to remain very respectful when presenting. Here's the thing, I don't even dislike my teacher. He's always been a nice person, and i've always been mutually nice back. However he has expressed multiple times how strongly he feels about this issue, so you can guess, i'm pretty nervous to challenge him as he is the one who controls my grade. Yes, if he becomes corrupt and grades me unfairly meerly because he disagrees I could go to the principle or someone higher up and claim victim, but i'd rather avoid taking it out of proportion, not only would that be extreme measure to take, but it would ruin any relationship I had with the teacher.



So here's what i'm asking. I need some advice. I have tons of arguments, but don't know how to say them, and would appreciate more from anyone willing to help. I also want to avoid just saying "This is wrong because the bible says ___". Now obviously, I hope none of you think you are required to help me, or that any of this should be done for anything other than out of desire to help someone in need. Do not feel bad for not contributing. I am not here to beg, but meerly ask if anyone has the time and energy to spare to help me over the weekend.

If anyone is willing to help, feel free to post your argument down here, and if someone wanted to help me even more, you can pm me and we can chat on skype. Again, i'm not here to beg. I don't want help at someone else's expense.

Finally, if anyone's curious, here's the format of the presentation:




Thank you all, and have a wonderful day.

[SteelCurtain]

Maybe it would help to outline the position you want to argue, and we can help you refine it?

[TheRocketSurgeon]

Certainly, you have the "laws" on your side. Talk about the rulings given by the US Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Pennsylvania, about the nature of the First Amendment's implied right to privacy, and how it includes the right to bodily integrity-- choice.

I'd spend a lot of time couching my solid information (the Court said _____) with your belief in the Constitution, a hard thing to argue against, and with phrases like, "One need not believe in the practice of abortion in order to believe others must be free to make their own choices in this matter, in the same way that one need not believe religious practice is a good idea but should and must respect others' right to practice it freely."

As for the ethics part, I'd focus on the "balancing test" between any potential rights of the "unborn" (I hate that word) and the notion that women are or should be deprived of rights. I have personally used the analogy of two twin brothers, to help get past the emotions of the practice of abortion... if the firstborn convinces the secondborn to drink something which destroys the latter's kidneys, so the younger brother is dying in a hospital, and could only be saved by a donated matching kidney from the other brother, we may consider it an moral act for the brother to undergo the surgery to have his good kidney removed and donated so that the younger one can live... but it is completely unethical and illegal to invade his bodily integrity against his will in order to force him to undergo that surgery at risk of his own life.*

Point out that it is not a black-and-white issue, as some have tried to assert on both sides, and that all such issues of balancing of liberties require a lot of "grey-area" thinking, which is why the Court goes into such detail in their reasoning behind a decision like Roe. In other words, be very careful not to sound like you are condemning people who feel emotionally invested in the "Pro-Life" side, but invite them to consider the nature of why it is called "Pro-Choice" and not "Pro-Abortion".

In other words, hammer on the ethics of denying American citizens' right to bodily integrity over an asserted-but-undemonstrated right of the "unborn". It's why I use the brothers example... we certainly agree that Brother #2 has a right to live, but few would argue that it is or should be legal to use Brother #1's body to keep #2 alive unless he consents to do so, even though Brother #1 is the reason #2 is dependent on him for survival.

Just my $0.02 on the matter.

Edit to Add: I say "at risk of his own life", above, because there is not only a risk of dying from kidney removal surgery, but also from childbirth and from an abortion. However, the death rate for childbirth in the USA is roughly 8.8 in 100,000 (according to the CDC, over 600 women die from attempting childbirth every year), while the rate of death from abortion is only 0.6 in 100,000. It is literally fourteen times more dangerous to give birth, which makes it an ethical point to force people to do one or the other.

http://health.usnews.com/health-news/fam...udy-claims