Abortion And Ethical Dilemmas

One of the most frequently debated topics in bioethics is the morality of abortion, or the ending of a pregnancy without physically giving birth to an infant. Often times abortions are categorized into either spontaneous, a natural miscarriage; induced or intentional, which is premeditated and for any reason; or therapeutic, which albeit intentional, its sole purpose is to save the mother’s life. It seems however that moral conflicts on issue mainly arise when discussing induced abortions. In general, people universally agree it is morally wrong to kill an innocent person and in some people’s eyes induced abortions are the intentional killings of innocent persons, thus making them immoral. However not all individuals view fetuses as persons and consequentially argue it is not morally wrong to kill them.

There is a vast number of ethical theories, whether or not you believe in those theories is a matter of opinion and personal belief. For this reason, people can take the general concept of a theory and explain it in a way that aligns with their beliefs. Personally, I feel as though there is some truth in most, if not all, ethical theories. Though, there is one theory in particular I have taken a liking to; and this theory is egoism. Egoism, in the most general terms, is a theory in which a person is motivated by their own self-interest to further their wants or goals. This theory can be interpreted in a number of ways, one of them is that it is considered selfish. Egoism, is not necessarily selfish in that it may be in your own self-interest to do something for others. To help further explain my understanding of egoism, I’d like to bring up the topic of abortion. The debate over abortion has been going on for a while. As time goes by, my opinions on the topic have changed, especially when I learn about the different arguments each side makes. I will take some arguments from both sides to help explain egoism. Through my explanation on my understanding of egoism, I will ultimately express my views on this social issue as well. Though it is important to keep in mind that my main goal is to explain each side of the debate through the views of an egoist and whether or not each side is morally sound.

Before researching on abortion issues, I never imagined it to be such controversial and debatable case because the problem arises from the very early stages of analyzing what administrative ethics would answer. I became overwhelmed to start because my mind became blurred on legality and ethics of abortion as early as defining administrative ethics: “well-based standards of right and wrong prescribing what public administrators ought to do in terms of duty to public service, principles, virtues, and benefits to society”. Ethics triangle is grounded on duties in the center with principles, virtues, and benefits to society augmenting it. Duties of public administrator involves those ‘obligations taken on while assuming a position’. They might

There are many common pregnancy alternatives, but most often the resulting decision is abortion because it is effortless. Abortion is endings a women’s pregnancy by removing or forcing a fetus or embryo from the mother’s womb before it is able to survive on its own. Not all abortions are purposely done some are spontaneous like when a women that has a miscarriage. Rather abortion is done purposely or naturally it is a worldwide complication as to it being wrong or right. Abortion is an ethical issue that will be analyzed according to a personal worldview and Christian worldview. Ethical thinking will be examined by value-based decisions that address abortion from the perspective of a Christian worldview and comparing it to a personal assumption by addressing ethical dilemma, core beliefs, resolution, evaluation, and comparison.

Abortion and the morality of it has been a hot topic for years in the United States although it has been carried out for centuries in different cultures. Abortion is a medical procedure deliberately terminating a pregnancy. Abortions usually happen within the first 28 weeks of pregnancy and are considered an outpatient procedure. The first abortion laws were passed by Britain in 1803 and by 1880 most abortions in the U.S. were illegal, except for those that were performed to save the life of a woman. This exception to the rule gives insight into the battle that exists today and the ethical debate of abortion.

Is our society’s strict adherence to religious freedoms costing the lives of innocent children? The Christian Science Church rely on the Establishment Clause and The Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment as granting themselves and their children exemption from medical intervention. But because of their insistence in relying solely on prayer for the healing their sick children, approximately one child a month in the U.S. is known to die from an illness that would have been curable had they had medical attention. 1 Religious liberties of parents might protect their beliefs, but it should not protect their conduct of denying the rights of a child to his or her life.

An ethical dilemma is a debate between two moral principles, where two sides can dispute about what is wrong or what is right. However, there is no real answer to an ethical dilemma. Is it a “simple” matter of what one believes in? The best answer would be, in ethics, it is not always simple. Ethics have a propensity to engage in moral reasoning, performing critical examination of different beliefs, in order to determine whether they should be accepted or rejected. Abortion is considered an ethical dilemma. It is examined by two different groups, which have two different perspectives; Pro-Life versus Pro-Choice.

Over the course of time, there have been many debates dealing with religion and various laws. A concern that has arisen from these debates was the denial of health care for these religious families, and how it would impacts the children. There are many various opinions on this topic ranging from a strong belief in the healing powers of God to a strong stance that the refusal of health care results in child abuse. These self healing parents believe that medicine is not need to heal themselves or children. Instead, they believe that God is all they need to be healthy. However, should the religious belief of these parents give them the right to refuse health care for their family? While these parents should be allowed to express their

An 18 year old girl gets pregnant and can’t decide whether to keep the baby or have an abortion. Her parents are very religious and do not believe in sex before marriage therefore would not take to kindly to their daughter being pregnant.

In our society, there are many ethical dilemmas that we are faced with that are virtually impossible to solve. One of the most difficult and controversial issues that we are faced with is abortion. There are many strong arguments both for and against the right to have an abortion which are so complicated that it becomes impossible to resolve. The complexity of this issue lies in the different aspects of the argument. The essence of a person, rights, and who is entitled to these rights, are a few of the many aspects which are very difficult to define. There are also issues of what circumstances would justify abortion. Because the issue of abortion is virtually impossible to solve, all one can hope

Abortion is wrong because it is the murder of a human being. Abortion continues to be a moral and ethical dilemma for all those involved. The American Nurses Association (ANA) Code of Ethics states, “nurses have the ethical and moral obligation to promote and protect life.” Still, debates continue, opposing the belief of life against the principle of autonomy and a woman’s right to regulate her body. It is disputable that the right to have an abortion is a right to dominate one’s body, but the death of the fetus is an inevitable result of the termination of that pregnancy (Religious studies online, n.d.). One million two hundred thousand abortions are done yearly in the United States from weeks 9 to 21+ of gestation (Pro Life Action League). Nevertheless, nurses, no matter how caring and compassionate, their individual education, culture, religion, past, gender and even age will influence the care that is given to their patients (British Journal of Nursing, 2015, p. 345). With that, if a nurse assists with the procedure of abortion, is he or she going against the Code of Ethics for Nurses? No matter if the nurse assists with the abortion or not certain rules for privacy must be followed. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) Privacy Rule protects the patients’ health information, even those experiencing unwanted pregnancies (Simmonds & Likis, 2011, p. 794).

Patients in the United States have a right to refuse care if treatment is being recommended for non-life-threatening illnesses according to the Washington School of Medicine (2012). The simple task of refilling a prescription, or choosing to not get a flu shot are all acts of not following through with treatment mechanisms. Patients often times refuse medical treatment for far more reasons than just religious beliefs. Subconscious emotion reasons about side effects, pain, healing time, and the procedure itself scares patient’s away (Washington School of Medicine, 2012).

Abortion is a highly-debated topic of whether it is ethical for a woman to decide to have one. Abortion is any of various surgical methods for deliberately terminating a pregnancy. When we speak of abortion today, we mean induced abortion performed by trained doctors, not including miscarriage (MacKinnon & Fiala, 2015). Some current methods of abortion are morning-after pill, mifepristone, uterine or vacuum aspiration, dilation and curettage, saline solution, prostaglandin drugs, hysterotomy, and partial birth abortion. Abortion involves questions about rights, happiness, and well-being, as well as the status and value of human life. The people who think it is ethical to have an abortion stand on the Pro-choice side and the people who think it is unethical stand on the Pro-life side. The liberal view of abortion supports abortions and the conservative view opposes abortion. There are many legal, religious, and medical conflicts that are included in the debate over abortion. The arguments made from both sides help us better understand whether a woman should have an abortion.

Our society is filled with numerous ethical dilemmas. We are consistently bombarded with ethical issues daily. At times, these ethical dilemmas are virtually impossible to unravel. I believe the topic of abortion is one of the most difficult and controversial issues in today’s society. It is also the one people are most passionate about as it continues to be scrutinized by two groups, holding fast to different perspectives; Pro-Life versus Pro-Choice.

Abortion as an Ethical Issue In recent years, abortion has become one of the world’s most discussed ethical issues. This has made a huge impact on both men and women’s lives. There are many different views on abortion dating back from the Old Testament to the present day. I intend to show you all of abortion’s conventional arguments.