Ethical Considerations For Abortion

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.

Texas is a key state when it comes to looking at abortion policy, and the laws surrounding it. The fight for a women’s right of choice regarding her body came about in Texas in 1969 with the supreme court case regarding a women’s right to an abortion. Now, in 2016 the state of Texas continues to fight with congress regarding issues surrounding women obtaining an abortion. The HB2 bill, which people from all over the country are fighting both for, and against, is in the eye of the camera as Texas implements some of the strictest rules yet regarding who, when, where, and how abortions can be performed.

Before 1973, abortion access was determined by state legislature for each individual state with no consistency across the United States. Some states allowed abortions but most state statues heavily restricted or completely banned abortion. The restricted states would generally only allow abortion in the event of rape, incest, fetal anomalies, or the woman’s life is at risk. The state of Texas enforced a state statute that made it illegal for an abortion to be performed unless the woman’s

Although the Supreme Court will rule on the Texas laws soon, passing a bill in Congress to make it illegal for federal, state, and local governments to restrict a woman’s right to abortion would once and for all protect a woman’s privacy and right to

In 2013, North Dakota state legislature passed a slew of regulatory laws with regards to abortion. (Davidson) Once a fetal heartbeat could be detected, abortion was prohibited. An abortion could not be sought solely because of fetal “genetic anomalies.” And, abortions could now only be performed by physicians who possessed admitting privileges at a hospital in the area. This last law threatened Red River Women’s Clinic, the state’s only abortion provider, as the three doctors they employed at the time commuted from Minnesota and Colorado. (Nelson)

Women’s reproductive rights were on center stage when a case from Texas made its way to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court heard the case Roe v. Wade, and nullified a Texas law making it illegal to abort a fetus during a pregnancy, for any reason.2 The court moved a traditionally state-regulated policy into a federally protected right for women.3 What some legal analysts feel is odd, is the arbitrary way the justices decided the first-trimester timeline, and if the Constitution can recognize right to privacy.4 The ruling was a split decision, and has still kept the country split in their

The issue of abortion is notoriously controversial. Since the Supreme Court’s 1992 ruling in Casey v. Planned Parenthood, states have enacted different restrictions on the procedure. These restrictions vary from state to state. Nineteen states currently have laws prohibiting partial-birth abortion, and forty-one states strictly prohibit abortions except in cases of life-endangerment. One particularly incendiary area of abortion law is that of public funding. However, as of this year there are only seventeen states that cover abortion procedures through public funding. In this paper we will discuss federal abortion legislation, while describing the laws and political ideologies of the following states: Texas, California, New

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.

The Supreme Court ruled on Monday, June 27, 2016 to end the restrictions on abortions in the state of Texas. Recently, the state passed a law that would require Abortion Clinics to have the same standards as Ambulatory Clinics in the state. This sounds entirely reasonable, considering the safety and well-being of the women who need to use an Abortion Clinic may, if under grave distress, need access to a more stable medical facility. However, due to the nature of the limitations and the many clinics that closed in the lapse of time this law went into effect in the state of Texas to the present day in which it was found unconstitutional women have needed to travel further for medical attention than cautiously safe and accessible. The issue for

The ethical dilemma in this scenario is the parent’s decision to abort the child and if the genetic counselor will or will not perform the genetic test. The parents both have a defective gene that causes dwarfism, which they do not want to pass on to their children. The parents had decided before the appointment that they were going to abort this child if he has two of the defective genes or even if the child does not have one of their mutant genes. They wanted the child to be a dwarf just like themselves.

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.