Fetal Pain And Abortion Essay

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).

Science can work only in the testable world and not say what rights humans should be given. People in the medical field always talk about how the baby, while still in the mother’s womb is considered a potential life. Some doctors call it “potential” to make it seem that it not yet a human life, and not a unique person. We tell ourselves this so that we do not have to live with the guilt of murdering another human being. Many people talk about the rights of the women, but what about the right of a child to a full life. Is Personhood is determined by man’s ability to bestow it, or are we separating humanity from the person? Many studies have estimated since the legalization of abortion in Roe vs. Wade case of 1973, that over fifty-five million babies have been killed.

However, the question frequently comes about regarding at which point of fetal development can the fetus be given “personhood.” The standard pro-life argument asserts the claim that life is present from the point of conception; a fetus possess similar physical characteristics to that of an infant such as a genetic codes that are necessary and sufficient conditions for being human, making the claims of abortion morally akin to murder. Mary Anne Warren and Judith Jarvis Thomson provide a pro-abortion argument, asserting that abortions do not take

Another argument is abortions are painful for an unborn child to go through. While most abortions are usually done prior to the end of the first trimester there are abortions that are done in the second or third trimester. The medical community has different views on whether or not an unborn child can feel pain before 20 weeks. Some doctors will say a child can feel pain at as soon as eight weeks while others will say they won’t be able to feel pain until after the 20 weeks mark.

About 12,000 or 1.3% of late term abortions performed in this way have happened after twenty one weeks more than halfway through a 40-week pregnancy “ ( Guttmaccher institute). While the doctors perform this brutal abortion tactic the infant is subject to severe pain. Robert.J.White MD.,phD informs, “ An unborn baby at twenty weeks gestation”is fully capable” of experiencing pain...without question ,[Abortion] is a dreadfully painful experience for any infant subjected to such a procedure”( White,2014). While the infant is the situation of abortion, it will feel pain. Doctors have insured that there is no way to perform a late term abortion as to where the infant would have a painless

A fetus is not physically attached to the woman carrying it but more importantly its well being and health depends on her health as well. They are separated and acquire separate identities only at the time of birth. Pain can be perceived in infants only after 20 weeks according the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal. The reflex actions present before this period do not indicate any ability to feel pain. Abortions are almost always performed before 24 weeks.

As a result, society is using “personhood” to define when a child could be described as an assortment of organs. Researcher, Carl Sagan, estimated that at 6 months a child could be considered to be under the category of “personhood.” Clearly personhood was created to justify the means of abortion. Such ideas were never expressed in the bible. On the contrary, the bible describes personhood as reaching self-actualization. Self-actualization comes from knowing their lord and savior. These two terms are their exact opposite, both may define life but neither would agree on the subject of when a “baby” or “fetus” becomes a human being (The Christian, n.d.).

Another major issue regarding abortion is if a fetus feels pain. A study by Stuart G. W. Derbyshire examines the development of the fetus to decode when pain is acknowledged. Pain is “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage” (Derbyshire, 2006, The Content of Pain). Working with this definition, one can derive that an understanding of the senses and emotions should be present at some cognitive level to feel pain. Therefore, pain becomes a learned response instead of a natural one because the association between the senses and the reaction is not yet learned. “This is likely to strike anyone as strange because it is simply not how we intuitively believe pain to be… Not only has the biological development not yet occurred to support pain experience, but the environment after birth, so necessary to the development of pain

Starting with the practices of abortion, which also depend on the number of weeks a woman is pregnant, the first is a medical abortion, which can be preformed within the first 50 days of a woman’s pregnancy by using a drug called “misoprostol” (Stutter Health). This causes an abortion without the need of surgery or a vacuumed (Stutter Health). The second form of abortion is the surgical abortion, this is perhaps the most common occurs by the 13th week of a pregnancy (SexInfo Online). This procedure starts with vacuuming out the uterus while the mother is under a mild amnestic (Stutter Health). While this procedure is being performed, medical professional Maureen Condic has concluded that fetuses can feel pain during the act of an abortion, “There is universal agreement that pain is detected by the fetus in the first trimester"

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.

The first ethical issue will be right to life and abortion. Abortion remains controversial and a highly debated subject. The ethical debate concerning abortion is the considerations of a woman’s autonomy and the rights of the woman and the unborn child. The parent/ child relationship and assessing the best interests of potential children also provide considerable scope for ethical discussion. (Jones K, Chaloner C 2007). A factor in the ethical future of abortion is the perception of morality, or of actively ending the life of an unborn human being. This process of deductive reasoning explains the most common anti-abortion argument: First, the fetus is an innocent human being. Second, it is morally wrong to kill an innocent human being and lastly, it is morally wrong to kill a fetus. This reasoning can also be applied to support a viewpoint to those who support abortion. First the fetus has no moral status. Secondly, it is not morally wrong to destroy that which has no moral status. Lastly, it is not morally wrong to destroy a fetus.

Who do we consider a living, human person? Questioning the nature of humanity itself is where we can begin unraveling a complex topic like this one. The two main arguments for and against abortion are based upon whether the unborn fetus can be seen as human or not, and whether this humanity can be compared to the humanity of the mother. New

A long on-going subject that has been greatly debated in our society is abortion. Many people argue that because the baby in the mother’s womb is not alive, aborting him or her is not considered a murder. However, others say that as the baby’s heart and brain are the first things to develop, the baby is technically alive and killing it would be a murder. As soon as the baby has a heartbeat, it has life. Abortion has many characteristics of a murder, including the killing of one human being by another, it’s unethical, and it is done without the consent of the person.

Abortion is always argued with different cases and play a main role in medical ethics (blackwell.,p291).It is evidently reasonable for some to argue that in moral situation, abortion is a murder and it should be illegal, while others may claim that abortion is woman’s right when concerning on autonomy ( The abortion debate in Australia). Opponents of making abortion legal claim that abortion is a kind of murder on extend of moral situation. It is always regarded as a sin to kill a person who is no aggressor in most moral communities (new ethics 1). Fetus is a biologically human as it is not just a part of the mothers, such as a lung or a kidney. On the contrary, it is obvious that fetus is human due to he or she has genetic code of human and human parents as well (abortion myth p5). Moreover, it has potentiality to be a person with primary moral worth (text book p210-211). As Gillion (new ethics) pointed out, every person has his right to life, especially he is not an aggressor. This point is also been pointed by (Rebecca and john,Blackwell p204), “embryos has a right to life” .The fetus is innocent and