A Paper On Defending Abortion

For some religions e.g. Christianity this is considered murder due to the Christian belief that life begins at conception. For Jews, however, a different attitude is taken. Within the first forty days of gestation an embryo is considered “mere fluid” (Talmud). Because they are not considered “nefesh” abortion is not seen as murder. Past this stage in pregnancy, although the foetus is still not “nefesh” it has some human status. Although intentional abortion isn’t mentioned in the Tenach, accidental abortion is simply seen as an injury to the woman, not murder.

Abortion is immoral. The statement "a woman has a right to her body" has two weak points. First, unlike her

In order to survive, the fetus needs continued use of the mother’s body but this infringes on the mother’s right to life, because other people do not have a right to use another’s body, and therefore abortion should be permissible according to Thomson.

If it is morally wrong to harm a human conceptus , then abortion is wrong except where the mother’s life is in danger

In Thompson’s “A Defense of Abortion” she tries to answer the question: “Is voluntary abortion ever permissible?” Throughout the paper, she uses a variety of thought experiments in order to parallel pregnancy due to rape, accidental pregnancy, and pregnancy that threatens a mother’s life, among many other situations. Using these examples, she illustrates her main point: that unless a fetus has a right to demand it, the mother is not morally required to make large sacrifices to keep the fetus alive. Therefore, abortion is permissible in cases where the mother is pregnant against her will or when the cost of keeping the fetus is high. The main objection to her argument is the fact that she relies heavily on the reader’s intuition to reach

The author argues that abortion can be done to save a mother’s life. For example, if a mother has a health problem that will not allow her to carry the pregnancy then abortion should be done in order to save her life (Feinberg and Shafer-Landau 28, 29). Furthermore, she argues that even though abortion is presumed as killing a child, the refusal to perform an abortion to an ill mother similarly results in the death of the mother. So it is unfair to the mother as both of them have equal rights to life and no one is inferior to the other (Feinberg and Shafer-Landau 642). In addition, the author states that the extreme view that abortion is killing/murdering an unborn child is false (Feinberg and Shafer-Landau 30). In a like manner, if a pregnancy poses a death risk to a mother, she has the right to defend herself even if in doing so involves killing the unborn child.

In the Judith Jarvis Thomson article on “A Defense of Abortion”, there is a lot of arguments that she points out as to why abortion of a child is not entirely wrong. She gives examples and analogies as to what could happen in a case of a woman when she becomes pregnant and is ill, and an abortion is necessary. She gives the readers various points of view on the issue of abortion, and is not seeming to be persuasive to be for or against abortions. It seems as though she is letting the reader understand all angles of the issue and giving the reader a chance to judge for themselves on if abortion is right or wrong considering all factors on what is morally and immorally correct.

Whether or not abortion is permissible has held controversy for several years. Many people believe it is impermissible to have an abortion because the fetus is a person, therefore, it is murder. Judith Thomson proposes that abortion is permissible. With both sides, there comes several different objections. I will argue against Thomson’s argument that abortion is permissible and show that it is, in fact, impermissible.

Thomson’s argument seem to have some minor problem. For example he claims to support abortion, however, he isn’t completely sold to the idea. Thomson states “I do not argue that it is always permissible”, this statement challenges the clearity in Thomson’s Argument because he seems to agree with both sides and this makes his argument unclear. If Thomson really agrees with abortion then, he should accept a mother decision to either keep the baby or abort

Abortion is forbidden unless the mother’s life is at stake in which case it becomes a personal decision

The United States Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade made abortion legal in America. Abortion is ending a pregnancy prematurely. Abortion is usually executed during the first and second trimesters of the gestation period. Women have the right to get an abortion during the first two trimesters, but the state decides whether are not to allow abortion during the final trimester. Abortion is not said to be murder by the United States government, but many people believe that abortion is indeed murder. The big question in whether abortion is murder and if it should be illegal or not points to when a fetus becomes a living being. If the fetus is a living being at conception then abortion is murder in all situations, but if the fetus is not considered

     There are other instances in which abortion should not be permitted and it definitely would be murder in my eyes. For instance if a women is having an affair and becomes pregnant, she has no reasonable basis for aborting that child other than her husband. Also, at times women use abortion as a birth control which is morally wrong and should not be allowed. There can be a scanning process on why the abortion is taking place. Why is it not that the doctor performing the actual abortion is considered a

Abortion is tremendously unethical, just like murder is highly immoral. Many religions oppose the idea of abortion; Christianity considers abortion to be a sin under all circumstances; Hinduism considers abortion to be a form of violence. In addition, when the woman decides to have a sexual intercourse with a man without any proper use of contraception, she knows that pregnancy will result. If the mother did not want the baby in the first place or if she could not take on the responsibility of the baby, then she should not get pregnant just to later on kill the unborn innocent child in her womb. Abortion can not only harm the baby, but can also cause physical and psychological damage

Is abortion a criminal act or not, it depends entirely on the laws of each country regulations, countries have national prohibition and permission. However, it is permissible to be understood that abortion must be done at the medical facility and have a valid state license, rather than have an abortion right in anywhere and by any way.

1.Abortion would only be permitted when it was a danger to the mothers life, was a result of rape or incest, or the child would be born with a disease (Bachman).