As long as history can tell man has though of life as precious, as the ultimate sacrifice to give up, the ultimate gift to give, and the ultimate crime to take away. Laws have been placed in every nation against murder and the evil that it holds. Through it all though, special situational murders have been left to slide as not true murders, such as self-defense, killing in combat/war, and even abortion has been left to slip between the cracks of ignorance. Murder is murder; self-defensive murder can not be avoided or it is the slain man's fault. Abortion is easily avoided, prevented, and is in no possible way the slain victim's fault. With a clear mind, one can easily see that abortion is in fact murder, no matter what the excuse.
             Many myths and misconceptions surround abortion. One huge misconception is that the woman has a choice over her body, therefore it is her decision to choose to keep the unborn child or not. This is untrue if one looks at the situation logically. The child has half his mother's chromosomes, and half its father's chromosomes, so the child is independent from his mother, it has different DNA, which defines it as another form of life. The unborn child only is dependent on its mother for food and shelter. The child is merely living within the mother's womb separate, and independent (Schwarz 2). The other great myth about abortion, is that the unborn child is not alive. Well before that can be proved or disproved, what defines life in an individual? Life in Webster's terms is defined simply as "mode of existence". Webster's definition leads one nowhere, but out of the twenty-five people surveyed on what they felt was the essence of life: twelve felt a regular heart beat was the answer, eight felt brain waves where a sure sign, three figured it was movement, two were certain it was a sense of touch, as in heat, coolness, pain, and ect. (Twenty-five Anonymous). Accordin...