Abortion and Disability

There are many factors that are taken into consideration when determining if abortion is morally permissible, or wrong including; sentience of the fetus, the fetuses right to life, the difference between adult human beings and fetuses, the autonomy of the pregnant woman, and the legality of abortion. Don Marquis argues that abortion is always morally wrong, excluding cases in which the woman is threatened by pregnancy, or abortion after rape, because fetuses have a valuable future. Mary Anne Warren contends that late term abortions are morally permissible because birth is the most significant event for a fetus, and a woman’s autonomy should never be suspended.

If medical tests have proven that the child will be born with severe handicaps that would greatly reduce the quality of life or endanger the fetus, the opportunity to terminate should be available. Allowing abortion because of fetal disability may actually benefit the child in the long run, by saving it from a life full of unnecessary complications. This, however, is a very controversial reason and is not generally accepted by many people due to moral reasons.

Access to emergency contraception has been heavily debated issue, because there has to be a balance between protecting healthcare providers’ religious and moral beliefs on one hand, and providing a uniform standard of care and maintaining patients’ rights on the other. This principle gives a significant approach to the analysis of ethical questions arising from the general obligation to preserve human life, and the limits of that obligation.

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.

In 1973, the case of Roe v. Wade took place. Abortion issues were discussed during this time and it was determined by the Supreme Court that the idea of conscience clause be initiated (Berlinger, 2008). Conscience clause legislation provides legal protection for health care workers that choose not to participate in treatment of care, if it violates their moral or religious belief (Berlinger, 2008). Beliefs on abortions, is an example of how the conscience clause legislation may cause a dilemma. The physician does not believe in abortions and during a routine visit the doctor discovered that the patient is experiencing an ectopic pregnancy. Although the patient is currently asymptomatic, the physician understands that this puts the patient’s health at risk. What would the physician do to handle the situation? Under the conscience clause law, this physician would be protected, as performing an abortion goes against their religious or ethical beliefs. The physician would have to consider that although this goes against their beliefs, the patient’s health is at risk and subsequently cause an ethical dilemma. From the patient’s view, this law may be intrusive and violate their constitutional right of choice (Berlinger, 2008).

The technology of the world today is fast-paced, fascinating, and extremely helpful in many cases. The ever-changing field of medical technology has changed and/or saved the lives of countless people. Doctors are able to perform procedures on patients today that were unheard of only 5 years ago. However, not all procedures and practices may be biblically ethical. Christians must decide which procedures are God honoring and which ones are not, especially when infertility is involved. Dr. Rae mentioned five theological foundations for bioethics that believers should evaluate in order to discern the uses of technology in the interference of the natural process of conception. Dr. Rae’s list consisted of the following: Dominion Mandate, Impact of

Case Study 2 Analysis of “The Schiavos” and “Fetal Testing for Down Syndrome” Terri Schiavo was a young woman who was in a persistent vegetative state (PSV) for nearly 13 years. Her husband fought to have her feeding tube removed to allow her to die naturally, but her family contested his fight, claiming that Terri was responsive, healthy and interactive. Although her autopsy results confirmed what her husband has been arguing, that she was blind, unable to communicate, or interact and without purposeful interaction, her family continued to contest that she was responsive, (Schiavo Autopsy). Terri’s case involved the application of passive, involuntary euthanasia by allowing her natural death after the cessation of her tube feedings. Evaluation

Mid-South Women’s Health Center considers the ethical aspects of issues that impact the discipline of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health. This document represents the results of carefully researched and considered discussion. This material is intended to provide material for consideration and debate about these ethical aspects of our discipline for member organizations and their constituent membership.

However this paper is designed to focus on other morally problematic aspects of fetal research. The first is that fetal research as it is now carried out today in the United States violates the human dignity of the unborn through violating agreed upon principles governing organ donations generally. Secondly the legal and moral restrictions imposed on fetal research not only have failed to secure ethical research but the nature of the research itself gives an incentive to morally problematic behavior.

By a hospital following these principles they are adhering to the moral teachings that flow principally from the natural law where the Church has derived its understandings of the nature of the human person, of human acts, and the goals that shape human activity (USCCB, pg4). It is these two principles that rob a hospital from providing the adequate care that is essential to women because the Church has very strong views on how people should live. Therefore, if a woman who may need a dilation and evacuation (i.e. abortion) to save her life even with a doctor’s recommendation, she will herself denied that right.

The topic of abortion is very controversial. Many believe that an abortion is morally wrong while others think that everyone should have a choice whether to keep the baby or not. Shafer-Landau states in the introduction of The Ethical Life, “morality is the code that we should live by” (Shafer-Landau 1). Many different religions have different point of views whether abortion is morally right or wrong. Many different people have questions about how we ought to live and what we should believe (Shafer-Landau 1). I personally sit on the fence whether abortion is right or wrong because I can agree with certain points from both pro-life and pro-choice but, for this paper, I’m going to support the pro-choice side of abortion. I believe everyone who is having a baby should have a choice to abort it if that is what they want.

Because abortion is an ethical issue in society, there is always a source of ethical framework. There are several ethical frameworks used in this article. I chose

An Abortion is the deliberate dissolution of a human pregnancy, most often implemented in the course of the first 28 weeks of pregnancy. Individuals in the general public are pro-life and more or less are pro-choice. Some people feel abortions are becoming more and more justified. Others who consider America’s moral principles and standards feel the carnage of an unborn fetus is ethically wrong, consequently death is morally wrong. Abortion has developed into a debatable topic in American society.

The principles of ethics can assist in finding a middle ground on reproductive technologies by forcing the healthcare provider to consider first the patient and their well-being above all else, yet keeping in consideration the benefits and morality of the care they are giving. More often than not, there are more than two sides to every argument, especially when it comes to the latest reproductive technologies. “To obtain justifiable resolutions of these

In today’s society, us as humans have many different ideologies, but more importantly have ethical standards that we live by, or most of us do. Ethics is important in everyday life, from having morals to what you believe in. You have to think about if my action was morally permissible or impermissible. Was my action wrong or right? All of this comes into play when we talk about ethical issues we have throughout our lifetime. Many of us consider us as Christians, which you believe in the Bible, but yet we tend to still have sexual intercourse or intoxicate our bodies with poison, according to the Bible. We can be hypocrites about our ethical believes! With many couples who can not have children, more and more Assisted Reproduction is being used.