How are religious and ethical principles used in the abortion debate?
Abortion has been legal in the United Kingdom since the Abortion Act of 1967, which was further amended in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act of 1990, lowering the length of pregnancy in which it is legal to have an abortion from 28 weeks to 24 weeks, owing to advances in medicine and a decrease in the age of viability of a foetus. There are four criteria which allow women to have an abortion, as long as they have the consent of two doctors, involving risk to the physical or mental health of the mother or the foetus or mental health of any existing children. In 2004, 95% of abortions in the UK were certified under the statuary ground of risk of injury to the
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Overall, Thompson’s analogies help to illustrate the pro-choice stance in the abortion debate which is key to religious and ethical principles. On the other hand, the idea that the foetus has the right to life and the mother cannot overrule this is key to Roman Catholic beliefs and pro-life supporters who argue the foetus is an innocent human being and the mother should not have the right to terminate a pregnancy.
Not all Christians have the same moral stance in the abortion debate. Firstly, Roman Catholics believe that life begins at conception and therefore, as the Bible says ‘You shall not murder’, abortion is always wrong as it is the murder of an innocent life. Catholics believe in the sanctity of life and that life is sacred and belongs only to God. In the Bible it says ‘Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, before you were born I set you apart’ and Catholics take this to mean that life is uniquely and divinely ordained even before conception – ‘for you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mothers womb’ and that each new life is not a potential human being but a human being with potential. The Second Vatican Council ruled that ‘life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception’ and even in extreme situations, such as rape, abortion is never an option. For example, a Roman Catholic Archbishop said the abortion of twins carried by a 9-year-old rape victim would mean excommunication for
The issue of abortion has always been a controversial one for citizens of the United States. Abortion is the practice of terminating a pregnancy after the embryo has been planted in the uterus (Abortion). An individual’s stance on this controversial issue categorizes them into one of two very different groups. An individual who feels that a woman should not have an abortion- due to moral or religious views- is said to be “pro-life”. Coincidently, those who feel that a woman should have the right to choose abortion are said to be “pro-choice”. “Pro-life” supporters point to the practice of abortion as an immoral one. Supporters state abortion is immoral because it takes away the rights of the unborn fetus, since activists consider human
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.
This topic is also argued in different religions. The Catholic Church believes that abortion is murder and no person born or unborn should be unwillingly killed. Murder is against the Ten Commandments and a serious crime. They believe that abortion is wrong and just as bad as murder. Many Catholic protest abortion by holding protests outside of abortion clinics.
Overall, the killing of a child is wrong, no matter whether it is in a
Thompson starts by expressing " a baby is a man and that executing a man is, basically, murder, and along these lines ethically off-base." Thompson utilizes numerous analogies that can be contrasted with
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.
Thomson’s argument, “A Defense on Abortion,” is a piece written to point out the issues in many arguments made against abortion. She points out specific issues in arguments made, for example, about life beginning at conception and if that truly matters as an argument against abortion. Thomson uses multiple analogies when making her points against the arguments made against abortion. These analogies are used to show that the arguments made do not really make sense in saying it is immoral to have an abortion. These analogies do not work in all cases, and sometimes they only work in very atypical cases, but still make a strong argument. There are also objections made to Thomson’s argument, which she then replies to, which makes her argument even stronger. Her replies to these arguments are very strong, saying biology does not always equate responsibility, and that reasonable precaution is an important factor in the morality of abortion. There are some major issues in her responses to these objections.
Thompson’s first account of the right to life follows a scenario where a woman is pregnant but will die if she carries the baby to term. Thompson makes it clear that for the sake of argument she will consider a fetus a human from the point of conception, therefore giving the fetus a right to life equivalent to that of the mother. In the scenario given, however, Thompson argues that the mother is logically able to make an act of self-defence in order to save herself, and since both her and the baby are innocent, bystanders may not intervene to stop the killing of the fetus. Thompson reasons that perhaps the extreme view of abortion may be reduced to state that abortion is permissible to save the mother’s life, but the mother must perform the abortion on herself in order for it to count as an act of self-defence. However, by leveraging the coat analogy, Thompson proves that it is logically
Abortion can be defined as the fact of removing out the fetus from the woman within the twelve weeks of pregnancy. Abortion debate has always been one of the most discussed issue in our society. Like any other serious issues, conflicts arising with abortion causes people to divide themselves into two different categories which are: Pro-abortion and Anti-abortion. Thompson on one hand thinks explains abortion can be morally permissible under some circumstances. In her article she mentioned different strong arguments such as: another person autonomy is not stronger than someone right to life. She was kind of complicated because depending on the circumstances, she was for and against abortion. While trying to support her claim, she used a creative
In Judith Jarvis Thompson’s article “A Defense of Abortion” she explores the different arguments against abortion presented by Pro –Life activists, and then attempts to refute these notions using different analogies or made up “for instances” to help argue her point that women do have the right to get an abortion. She explains why abortion is morally permissible using different circumstances of becoming pregnant, such as rape or unplanned pregnancy.
One of the toughest issues to debate in our world today is abortion. Abortion is the induced termination of pregnancy before the fetus can survive. Nowadays, abortion affects all people, not just the mother and the baby. There are moral, ethical, health-related, political, and religious aspects that affect how people feel towards abortion. By looking at religion and its views, one can see just how hard it would be to argue in the pro-choice position of this debate.
God, God has a purpose for every life and so if you destroy a life how
or not to have the child she is carrying. The Bible does not say much
So from this we can safely say that Catholics view, and have always viewed, abortion as evil. Then again, we are relying on something uncertain -- how you determine the humanity of a being. Clearly Catholics do not view a fetus as a human being.
no time limit if there is a high risk to her life or if the foetus has