Abortion morally wrong

I have several problems with Ross Miller’s article, “Partial-birth abortions should be legal.” Every single word and sentence written contradicts itself throughout and misses several key points.

In the article, Ross argues that that no one knows when life actually begins, yet in the very beginning of the text, he admits himself that the fetus has life when he writes, “I am arguing for a person’s right to have a physician induce birth to abort a life” (emphasis added).

He later writes that “we cannot legislate when life begins,” but I ask why should we be able to legislate when life ends? Another thing that Ross failed to address is if a fetus has no life it must not be human; then why is it exactly an inconvenience?

It perplexes me greatly when pro-abortion people try to distinguish between a fetus and a human life. One argument they make is that a fetus is not a human because it cannot sustain life on its own; yet a one-minute old, premature baby kept alive by machines is a human. This does not make sense to me.

Many people have argued about when life begins. Even in this pro-abortion article, Ross writes about fetal viability which is the possibility that there is life in a fetus. If there is the smallest possibility, the smallest chance that life has been created in the womb, we should morally and ethically want to protect that life and not abort it.

Even though citizens have a right to privacy, that right is gone once it harms another person such as through theft, assault, and murder, all which are considered crimes. Abortion is murder because, as Ross stated in the beginning of his article, it takes away a life. A woman may have a right to privacy but not when it comes to murdering a person, much less her unborn child.

The government should ban any form of abortion; it would protect the most helpless victim there is and prevent the most horrendous act – the wanted death of a child.

Annalisa Stull

Consider ethanol as fuel

UWM has always been known as being a commuter school with about roughly 40 percent of the 28,000 students coming in from off-campus. With gas prices and tuition consistently rising, UWM students need to look for more effective means of saving money.

When I was a commuter student from Slinger, I was paying nearly $40 a week in gas prices alone, and if you tack on the amount of parking tickets it was more than I could afford.

It is hard for students to afford gasoline just to get to school. Hybrid cars are way too new and much too expensive, so what can we do? I think students should look more into the positive effects of ethanol fuel.

Ethanol fuel, which is an ethyl alcohol, corn-based fuel, uses a mixture of 90:10 ethanol to fuel ratio and has been proven to have fewer pollutants than gasoline. Not only is there less pollution, but it is cheaper, at an average of $2.50 a gallon, and gets much better gas mileage.

Michigan has been using ethanol fuels for the past few years and had reports of up to 90 miles per gallon back in 2002. Michigan uses a 90:10 ratio of ethanol gasoline mixture, which is compatible with about 70 percent of all the vehicles on the road today.

Not only are you getting better fuel mileage, the American economy will be increasing with your support of the purchasing of ethanol fuels. America is the second largest producer of ethanol fuels, which is made with bushels of corn from American farmers. This would mean more income to the economy by exporting fuel in a cost efficient way, for ethanol is made from renewable homegrown resources. From each bushel of corn, 2.7 gallons of ethanol can be derived, along with two other co-products such as distillers' dried grains, which is used for feeding cattle, and carbon dioxide, which has a range of industrial as well as commercial uses.

Also, the corn can still be used as a source of food. Currently, the United States makes 2.2 billion gallons of ethanol a year. This has the ability to not only bring in income, but also future jobs if more plants are started like the one in Caro, Michigan. The Caro plant is a state-of-the-art ethanol plant and is exactly what America needs.

The plant puts out 40 million gallons of ethanol a year and works with the farmers. The farmers who supply the plant are 30 percent owners. The company that built it owns the other portion of the plant.

This company is located in South Dakota, meaning that this is 100 percent American, and on average, 85 cents of every dollar you spend will stay in America. Some will be exported due to the mixture, but that is still a drastic increase if you look at how much money is leaving for crude oil.

In order to get better fuel efficiency, grow our country’s economy, and save money, we should look deeper into the United States adopting ethanol fuels. If you are a student who is looking for more cost-effective ways to get around, next time you see ethanol fuel, give it a try.

Kyle Swetzig

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