Essay about Abortion Should Be Llegal

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.

Women may have an abortion for a variety of reasons, but in general they choose abortion because a pregnancy at that time is in some way wrong for them. “Abortion is the removal of a fetus from the uterus before it is mature enough to live on its own” (Kuechler 1996). When this happens spontaneously we call it a miscarriage. Induced abortion is brought about deliberately by a medical procedure that ends pregnancy. Legal abortion, carried out by trained medical practitioners, is one of the most common and safest surgical procedures. “About 1.5 million American women choose to have induced abortions each year. Less than 1% of all abortion patients experience a major complication associated with the procedure” (Kuechler 1996).

While parts of both may be true, both cannot stand side by side as completely true when discussing abortion. As they stand today, fetus rights and female rights are incompatible in arena of abortion. Even the “other side” agrees that the two cannot stand shoulder to shoulder. In a chapter entitled “Abortion Does Not Violate Human Rights”, Christian Beenfeldt quotes Brian McKinely when claiming that female rights have a higher precedence than fetus rights: “It’s actually quite simple. You cannot have two entities with equal rights occupying one body. One will automatically have veto power over the other.” So one question remains, which more important, fetus rights or female rights? The winner of this question can be decided by one simple factor: is the fetus to be considered a true, living human being at the point of conception, or does true human life not begin until after birth? A clarification should be made here, however. In this paper it will be assumed that everyone involved in this debate considers a newborn child to be a human being. That is, at the moment of birth, a child either becomes a human being or continues to be a human being; regardless of the fetus’s life state before birth, it will be assumed that all agree that birth “confirms”, so to speak, the life and human existence of the newborn.

The debate about the legality of abortion involves debating the legal status of the fetus. If the fetus is a person, anti-choice activists argue, then abortion is murder and should be illegal. Even if the fetus is a person, though, abortion may have justified as necessary to women’s body self-govern but that wouldn’t mean that abortion is automatically ethical. Perhaps the state can’t force women to carry pregnancies to term, but it could argue that it is the most ethical choice.

Much of the ethical debate stemming from this topic lies with the issue of personhood. Personhood is a concept that defines what is it is that makes a person a “person”. There is no established criteria for this concept and it can vary depending on one’s belief. Patil, Dode & Ahirrao (2014), argue that the concept of personhood is the bridge that connects the fetus with the right to life. If one considers the fetus a person then ethically abortion is wrong. If the fetus is not a person then abortion is ethically acceptable. The issue on personhood mirrors the subjectivity of abortion debate.

Abortion is a controversial topic that has led to many arguments. Many people believe that abortion is permissible and others believe that it is impermissible. The anti-abortionists argue that the fetus is a person so it is immoral to kill an innocent person. On the other hand, the pro-choicer argue that the fetus is not considered as a person. In the article, “Why Abortion is Immoral” Don Marquis argues why abortion is wrong.

One of the nine reasons found that we should not legalize abortion is the laws against abortion kill women (Kilinger). Many women are killed each year during childbirth, but almost four times more women are killed when they have an abortion (Lowen). Women need to know the health risks involved with abortions before making that choice. Having an abortion has many long lasting effects such as: emotional disorders, blood infections, and an increase in breast cancer (Lowen). The leading causes of death for the women who had an abortion are infection, hemorrhage, bowel injuries, clotting disorders. If air was to get to the amniotic fluid, or fetal tissue to get into the woman’s blood stream they would die (Kilinger).Sometimes abortions are not effective, and

The moral status of the fetus has been uncertain throughout Western history and beliefs “that abortion is a moral matter and that, in principle, abortion is always wrong.” (Becker. Pg. 152) Abortion has been linked to murder due to beliefs that the fetus is “moral equivalents of the child it will become.” (Luker,

“Abortion is the spontaneous or artificially induced expulsion of an embryo or fetus” (Abortion, 2002). An artificially induced abortion is the type referred to in the legal context. Abortions happen in different situations. The question comes when is it the right or wrong choice. The root question becomes the moment a fetus becomes a person and entitled to rights. The fetus could be a person at conception, during the pregnancy, or at birth. The deciding moment differs from the Pro-life group and Pro-choice group. After critically analyzing four different arguments about the pros and cons of abortion, one will be able to understand the ethical, moral, and

Abortion is the act of disposing of an embryo, fetus, unborn baby (Abortion). There are two primary types of abortion; spontaneous and induced. Spontaneous abortion is an accidental death of an unborn baby. This can happen for multiple reasons like infections, drugs, diseases, and so forth. This type of abortion is mainly known as a miscarriage. But the main type of abortion we will be focused on during this paper is induced. Induced abortion is a completely deliberate murder of an innocent child. This dispelling of a fetus is done in several different ways and different times. We will be going through all of the different subcategories of induced abortion such as RU486, suction, D&C, D&E, saline, prostaglandin, hysterotomy, and D&X. All of

When faced with the choice of life or death, most people would choose to live. In fact, most would not want someone else making that decision for them. They would claim that as a living and independent entity it is solely their choice as to whether they continue to live or not. While this concept may seem fairly straightforward, there seems to be some great debate when it is applied to abortion. For many, they will maintain that the fetus has the right to life no matter the situation. There are some who will argue that abortion is morally permissible in specific circumstances and there are even those that will claim that abortion is always permissible. Why is there such a great divide? A major factor that plays a part in this is whether abortion involves more than one life. Because determining the beginning point of life is such a complex and emotional debate, there will be the same allowance in this paper as there was in Judith Jarvis Thomson’s “A Defense of Abortion”. As she eloquently put it “I propose then, that we grant that the fetus is a person from the moment of conception” (p. 721). This will allow for a look into the moral debate of abortion from a more grounded stage. As discussed early in Thomson’s paper, most of the debate on abortion rests on whether the fetus is alive or not. Whereas the focus should be on the many other aspects of pregnancies that may lead to a mother wanting an abortion.

I am going to argue that its is right to claim that, even if a fetus is a person, abortion is still permissible when one’s risk in health/stability/happiness is threatened. I believe that any woman, who houses the fetus inside her body for estimated nine months have the right and the choice to abortion when it is for one’s health, stability and happiness for both the mother and the unborn fetus.

Several research findings indicate that increased rates of death related to abortion complication are as a result of unintended pregnancy, especially among teenagers. According to the United Nations Population Fund annual reports, a total of 6.8 million teen pregnancies occur annually across the world. Among these pregnancies one in five is unplanned therefore half of the unplanned pregnancy end up as induced abortion .research further reveal that there are a lot of misconception among young people about contraceptive (UNFPA ,2010).

The philosophical aspects of the abortion debate form two logical arguments, which oppose and support abortion. These arguments are based on what is ethical and the rights of an individual. The view that abortion should be illegal rest on the moral right of the life of a human being at or near conception killing an embryo is unjust since it violates the right to life (Hershenov 129). Therefore, the law should prohibit violation of the right to life. The view that abortion should be legal, generally argues that women have the right to control what in their body. On the same note, it explains that they have the right to control what happens on their body. In addition, it argues that abortion is a just act and the law should not criminalise the act of controlling one’s body and its life support functions (English 234). Philosophical literature has to kinds of argument regarding the morality of abortion. One of the families of argument asks the question whether the embryo has the right to life. It bases its argument on the moral status of the embryo and it would be wrong to kill an innocent human being. In the matter concerning abortion, philosophical litterateur has two kind of argument and this paper will tend to defend the abortion. Therefore, it will support Judith Jarvis Thomson argument in relation to abortion. In other words, the paper will argue that it is just to have an abortion.

Moral rights have played a role in our society for the better. These rights help make us equal and have brought up value in every person life. Moral rights should be viewed as something that should protect us from unfair judgment. In other words, these rights should give us a sense of equality in which we are all equal and given a good opportunity in life and more importantly the right to life. One of these major moral problems includes abortion in which a fetus life is taken away without having to live his/her. Some argue that a fetus hasn’t fully developed but in the future this problem has destroyed the chance for human moral rights as they take chances away for a human life to live. These fetuses should still be viewed as a human being. This should be solved because it should be part of our moral rights. Happiness and morality are independent and go together because being morally responsible and trustworthy will make a person happy.