Ethical Issues With Abortion

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

When parents know the fetus is “special”, they may be chosen to terminate the pregnancy. Thus, in general prenatal screening helps to detect congenital disabilities but is also thought to be the 'remedy' selective abortion (Seller, 1976).

The Ethical dilemma is mental conflict in making the choice in the complex and uncomfortable situation, every individual faces the ethical decision making issues several times during the journey of life. The Down syndrome child abortion is most debated issue and difficult decision to make, therefore the resolving, evaluating and comparing the decision according to Christian Worldview and other options are very important.

The ethical dilemma is about abortion and Down syndrome. It is regarding a pregnant patient named Susan that has been trying for years and is finally pregnant with a baby that has Down syndrome. The doctor suggest aborting the fetus because it prevents the child living a life of suffering. Preventing this baby from living a life of suffering makes it difficult to make an ethical decision. It makes the scenario difficult because this child can be a blessing from God. This child may not necessarily have a life of suffering. It may just be the

Susan has being trying for many years to have a child but she couldn’t concide at any other time but the one that God choiced for her. It’s unfortunate that the doctors told her that her baby will be born with down syndrome, however that those not give her the right to distroye something that God has created in his own image. One way she can handle this issues is to pray to God for him to restore the health of child before delivery or she can listen to Richard whom, obvious does not believe in a God and regret her decision forever. This can be a difficult call to make for a non believer, because most of them think of the physical aspect of life, like Richard said it is be to end the misory of both the child and the mother.

There are many people with permanent disability’s that contribute to our society in very useful ways. In most cases, these people are viewed as being courageous. This kind of a reaction is typical but not always honest. There are a lot of people are uncomfortable around those that are considered “less than normal”. In her article The Abortion Debate No One Wants to Have, Patricia Bauer writes about Down’s syndrome and abortion. Bauer is a former reporter and bureau chief for the Washington Post.

"...Women who were denied abortions 'Felt more regret and anger' and 'less relief and happiness' than women who had abortions” (“Should Abortion”). This proves that being denied an abortion when needed or wanted can have devastating consequences on a woman's mental health. Women in these situations felt helpless and probably do not know what to do with their future. Finally, abortions give women the opportunity to not deliver a baby when it is revealed that it has a deadly or incurable disease. Fetuses can have anencephaly where the brain doesn't grow, limb–body wall complex where are the organs grow outside of the body, and Down Syndrome. "'Many couples... don't have the resources, don't have the emotional stamina, don't have the family support!' [to raise a child with Down syndrome]."

In the article, “Does Down Syndrome Justify Abortion?” the topic of abortion is presented along with Fetuses with genetic defects, which is one of the rare reasons for women or couples to decide on seeking an abortion. In the article as well as in the book, it is mention that there is a way pregnant women can find out if their child is going to have any abnormalities. In this case, in order to check if a fetus will eventually be born with down syndrome the mother can get an amniocentesis test. Then, the decision of the intentional termination of the pregnancy is a choice, where the women or couples need to choose, knowing that there are many risks with either decision.

Discovering you are pregnant with a child is supposed to be one of the best days of your life, but finding out your baby has the one extra 21st chromosome could change everything. Author and national correspondent for the New York Times, Amy Harmon, fights for children and families affected by the disease in her article, “Prenatal Test Puts Down Syndrome in Hard Focus.” Harmon recognizes in her article that raising a child with this disease is not easy. She provides evidence of this by including quotes and personal stories from parents and family members whose loved ones are affected by it. She illustrates a genuine passion for the growing number of parents that are “Convinced that more couples would chose to continue the pregnancies if they better appreciated what it meant to raise a child with Down syndrome”(Harmon). To better put it in perspective, an estimated 90% of women chose to have an abortion if they are given a positive diagnosis for Down syndrome.

Every woman should have their own personal choice on if they wish to abort their child or not, so if they choose to do so, people shouldn't be calling it murder. Some pregnancies come as a shock which could mean that they as a person might not be ready to be a parent, especially knowing that their child is going to have Down syndrome. Knowing that your child is going to be born with Down syndrome could be quite stressful for some women as it's quite a big responsibility to have, looking after a child has a big responsibility anyway, but just think how hard it would be if the child was to have something mentally wrong with them. Therefore women, as individuals, should have their own right on whether they want to abort their child or not.

Another huge controversy in abortion is whether it is right to abort a fetus whom possess a birth defect or severe and life threatening medical conditions. For example, in the case of Dana Weinstein who made the decision to abort when she found out that her baby suffered from multiple malformations of the brain. If she would have not aborted the baby, her child would have faced many struggles in the world including “intellectual and physical disabilities along with seizures that are difficult or hard to control with medication “(Kate Sheppard) .Dana was faced with the odds of giving birth to a child whom would suffer their whole life from constant seizures and depending on feeding tubes to stay alive. We cannot

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.

To conclude, I believe that abortion should only be considered concerning the best interest of the foetus because that is what is seen to be ethically right (by ending the possibility of suffering and low quality of life that the foetus may have to endure if it was to be born). Situation Ethics, devised by Joseph Fletcher could be a religious stance as to why the allowance of abortion for disabled foetuses may be in accordance to religious principles also. For example, dependent on the severity of a disability of a foetus, it might be reasonable to suggest aborting a foetus because it would be the most loving thing to do. Agape love, the kind of love Jesus had for everyone in which this theory teaches us to practice.

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