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Erin Forsberg
March 29, 2017
Ms. Wenick
English Foundations |
Elie Wiesel and Abortion

It is quite difficult to think about the world as if you were not alive, as if you had not

been born. You would have no great accomplishments, no family, no friends. Those against the

purposeful termination of a fetus believe strongly that no life should be taken away. They believe

that hundreds of thousands of lives are taken away each year before they are given a chance to

live, grow, achieve or create. When a child is killed, so is the future. Others may believe that it is

the choice of the mother. That because it is their body, it is their decision. Elie Wiesel would be

against the killing of any unborn baby no matter the circumstances due to the loss of life he

experienced throughout his life in the concentration camp.

The issue of abortion surrounds the procedure and whether or not it should be legal.

Abortion is the purposeful termination of human pregnancy resulting in the death of the fetus. It

is a common choice taken into consideration by mothers who are unwilling or unable to care for

or raise their child. The issue is very controversial when it comes to laws. As of 1973, the

Supreme Court of the United States made the decision in the case of Roe v. Wade to legalize

abortion throughout the country (Roe). Though it is legal in the United States, abortion is illegal

in many other places around the world including Ireland, Chile, Philippines, and Iran

(Mackintosh). Many areas have limited the legalization of abortion to few circumstances

including endangerment of the mother, health of the fetus, or in cases of rape.

The two sides of this debate, pro-life (the anti-abortion side) and pro-choice (the

pro-abortion side), argue whether the mother is able to decide the fate of the child, or if the child
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must live due to its lack of voice. The pro-choice side stands by the fact that the mother has a

choice on what happens to the child, and gets to decide when, or whether she wants to have

children. The Roe v. Wade 1973 law states that, We, therefore, conclude that the right of

personal privacy includes the abortion decision, meaning that it is the decision of the mother

and it remains a private and personal opinion. The law then goes on to state, but that this right is

not unqualified and must be considered against important state interests in regulation (Roe).

These laws can be can be changed and regulated in each state, however none of the states have

currently chosen to do so. Abortion is now a right and personal decision that can be made by the

mother. Another opinion that may be on the side of pro-choice is that if abortions were to be

illegal, people would go against the law and get an unsafe, illegal abortion. In the year of 1955,

experts predicted that there were up to 800,000 illegal abortions occurring each year. After the

legalization of abortion in the Unites States by the Roe v. Wade law, the number of illegal

abortions greatly decreased, as people were now receiving safe and legal procedures (Crates).

The pro-life side of the issue may come from the standing point that a fetus is a human

being with rights, and killing them through the process of abortion is and should be thought of as

murder. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, some legislation has

defined the unborn child as a human being under fetal homicide or "feticide" laws. Such

legislation is under names such as the Fetal Protection Act, the Preborn Victims of Violence Act

and the Unborn Victim of Violence Act. 38 States currently recognize the unborn child, or fetus,

as a homicide victim (Fetal). Because of this, it is believed that the unborn baby is a living

human with rights to live. In addition, it is against many religious morals to kill another human

being. Those who are religious or follow religious values would be against the intentional death
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or killing of any child. Because of these things, many chose to believe that the fetus is a human

being with the rights to live.

Everything Elie Wiesel did was for his faith and his religion. Why did I pray? Strange

question. Why did I live? Why did I breathe? (Wiesel 4). Everything that he knew was from his

faith. Everyday of his childhood Wiesel would study his religion and devote himself to it. He

uses the words live and breathe in comparison to his devotion to his faith. As if they were

just as important as his will and need to live. He also refers to it as a strange question as

though he did not know of a world in which praying and religion was not present. Even as

Wiesel began to lose sight of his faith in the concentration camp, his religious conscience begins

to ensue him with regret and guilt. After making the decision not to fast for Yom Kippur and

eating his soup and bread, he feels a void growing inside of him, as he knows he has done wrong

in going against God and his faith (Wiesel 69). Even in the worst of situations, everything Wiesel

did and every decision he made while in the concentration camp was in deliberation with his

faith. Everything came back to that.

Witnessing the death of the young pipel was another thing that influenced Wiesel's

opinions and view on the world. The young assistant was hanged after accusations of sabotage

along with two other men. Everyone in the camp was forced to watch the death of the 3 people.

However, the young boy was too light and was not instantly killed. The people watched in

silence as the boy dangled from the rope, watching him take his last breaths. Wiesel used

delicate and beautiful and an incredible sight (Wiesel 63) to describe the young boy before

his life and innocence was taken away. Although that was not the first public hanging or death

that Wiesel had witnessed, it impacted him forever. Following the death of the child, he begins to
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believe that God is no longer there; that he too is hanging there (Wiesel 65). The fact that

something so horrific was allowed to happen caused Wiesel to question something he so strongly

believed in. That night, the soup tasted of corpses (Wiesel 65). The memory of the life and

innocence being torn from the young boy right before his eyes left a bad taste in his mouth. He

did not understand how something against his religion and morals was being allowed to happen

so easily.

Elie Wiesel would be against the process of abortion due under any circumstances to the

violent nature of the act. It is a strong religious belief that a human being shall not be killed by

another. As someone very dedicated and committed to his faith, Wiesel would be against the

killing of the fetus because of this. He felt a deep regret when going against his faith in the worst

of circumstances and would be strongly opposed to the idea of violating his faith further in the

form of intentionally killing a fetus. It is clear that Wiesel would feel this way considering the

reaction received after witnessing the death of the pipel. Elie Wiesel was disgusted and shocked

that something like this was truly happening and no one was trying to stop it. He would be

supportive of the life of the fetus and do what he could to stop the killing of innocent beings.

The death of an unborn fetus in the form of abortion fetus is something that is commonly

debated in many forms. Whether it is over the fetus right to live, or the mothers right to privacy

and her own decisions. Coming from a strong religious position in addition to having a first hand

experience with death, Elie Wiesel would be against abortion. The obvious controversy of the

argument is not insignificant. The decision on to have or not to have an abortion will determine a

large aspect of the future.

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Work Cited

Roe v. Wade. No. 113. Supreme Ct. of the US. 11 October 1972.

Mackintosh, Eliza. "Abortion Laws around the World Range from Bans to Personal

Choice."CNN. Cable News Network, 25 Jan. 2017. Web. 07 Apr. 2017.

"Fetal Homicide State Laws." National Conference of State Legislatures. NCSL, 4 Mar. 2015.

Web. 7 Apr. 2017.

Crates, Willard, David Grimes, and Kenneth Schulz. "The Public Health Impact of Legal

Abortion: 30 Years Later." Guttmacher Institute., 06 Dec. 2016. Web. 07 Apr. 2017.

Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York, NY: Hill and Wang, a Division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux,

2013. Print.