It is clear by reviewing the article that the author is very much concerned with the well-being of women at this particular time. She mentions that some “doctors showed themselves more interested in protecting themselves than in caring for their patient.” McLaren also goes into detail with examples to show how the doctors would threaten their patients. Like for instance, Stewart Murrow threatened his dying patient Jennie Young that he would not treat her for septic poisoning if she didn’t name the person who performed the operation. Another case is the Sarah Robins affair where she was stimulated with drugs so as to declare the person who performed the operation. Some doctors saw themselves as the authorities. If a woman were dying in a hospital as the result of a bungled abortion, a statement was taken if only to protect the doctor and the hospital staff. This is why McLaren feels it wasn’t fair for women that doctors were too concerned for their reputation rather than the women who needed their help. McLaren also argues that methods of contraception were very expensive, for example the condom.
Annotated Bibliography: Birth Control Healthcare professionals are faced with a multitude of ethical and legal conundrums. Since the introduction of birth control in American history, healthcare professionals have been put in situations to either follow their own moral and ethical beliefs, or choose to follow the law and give healthcare services
In this important section of a woman’s body, unfortunately women do not have the extensive freedom to make whatever decisions appropriate for their own bodies. Although society claims and advocates that women have free will regarding their bodies and decisions, there is criticism and regulations that block women from making choices without disapproval and judgment. The access and usage of birth control, cesarean section births, and abortion do not deliver reproductive justice to women, as they do not have full control of their own bodies. Due to the limiting access of birth control, women of various cultural and class backgrounds had to substitute this by using other, less effective methods. In hospital settings, doctors may not always listen and comply to the wishes of the mothers rejecting cesarean sections, as in the 1984 case, “staff at a Chicago hospital forcibly tied a pregnant Nigerian woman who had declined a c-section to her hospital bed with leather wrists and ankle restraints” (Cool). Although situations today are not this extreme and cruel, women are still continued to be coerced into having unnecessary c-sections due to medical intervention. With the unnecessary doses of epidural and pitocin, women should have the right to refuse to subordinate to one’s preferences and needs. Terminating a baby is considered as an illegal and punishable act in
Another pro-life group is known as the Pro-life Action League. This group holds prayer vigils outside abortion facilities and provides sidewalk counseling to women and/or couples seeking abortions. The goal of this is to provide abortion alternatives, counseling, access to pregnancy resources, etc. This group is also involved in public
“Fifty-six percent of women surveyed reported being pressured by medical professional to prevent ”The rate of sterilization found in this study was twenty-three percent overall, is slightly less than the twenty-five percent rate found in the previous similar study” (Boroditsky, Fisher and Sand). “Minority women, who more frequently experience unintended pregnancy, may choose tubal sterilization in response to prior experiences with an unintended pregnancy” (Unintended Pregnancy …). Doctors should not sterilize anyone who is not able to make the decision on their own and let them decide for them self. “Take steps to ensure all women enjoy full sexual and reproductive rights and have access to full range of acceptable reproductive health service” (Forced sterilization).
Introduction While wrongful birth claims have generally been accepted by the courts, the tort of wrongful life, despite its long history, has not had the same success. In 2006 a majority of the High Court of Australia (HCA) followed the lead of many other jurisdictions and held that ‘wrongful life’ claims were not possible under the common law of Australia. A wrongful life claim is one brought by a disabled child against their mother’s medical practitioner for negligent pre-natal care. The negligence claims arise as a consequence of failing to warn the mother that the child may suffer some form of disability. As a result, the abortion of the child is not carried through. The argument is not that the medical practitioner caused the disabilities, but rather that their negligence resulted in the child being born – meaning that the practitioner is responsible for the child’s very existence. The rejection that this cause of action exists means that plaintiffs such as Alexia Harriton, who suffers from blindness, deafness,
“Sir James Clarke’s Female Pills” and other similar products were part of a class of patent medicines targeted at women and advertised as a cure to a universe of “painful and dangerous diseases incident to the female constitution” (Fig. 5The Daily Globe 1856). They offered hope for women in search
Feminist Despair in As I Lay Dying The modern world is in the midst of reconstructing gender roles; debates about contraception, reproductive freedom, and female inequality are contentious and common. The majority now challenges the long established assertion that women’s bodies are the eminent domain of patriarchal control. In the past, a woman’s inability to control her reproductive choices could come with ruinous consequences. Proponents of patriarchal control argue against reproductive independence with rhetoric from religious texts and with anecdotes of ‘better days,’ when women were subservient. Often, literature about childbearing fails to acknowledge the possibility of women being uninterested in fulfilling the role of motherhood.
NARAL moved its headquarters to Washington, D.C to be closer to political life to share their ideas and be persuasive to influence the government and change laws about the opposition of abortion. After a regular meeting in 1969, The Planning Committee announced the purpose of NARAL as: “NARAL, recognizing the
If a woman concedes to voluntary sexual intercourse, she has incurred a responsibility to care for the fetus, since she is responsible for its existence and subsequent dependence on her body for sustenance. Consequently, she has a moral obligation to sustain it until birth, an obligation that ought to be legally enforced by proscribing abortions. (Manninen 41)
The Ethical Issues of Abortion 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.
Disabled, underage girls who are involuntarily sterilized in Australia Sterilization has been a way for the government to exert control and has been throughout history. On a global level, sterilization has been used but most practices have been abolished in the 20th century as they the impacts of such a practice
Women make up just slightly over half the U.S population (US Census Bureau, 2010) and should not be even considered a part of a minority group. The female population should acquire the same equal research attention as men do, especially when it comes to health issues. The unavoidable, yet quite simple realities of breastfeeding, menstruation, menopause, along with pregnancy require special scrutiny from medical experts. Those medical specialties are generally referred as gynecologists or obstetrics, who focus on the exclusive needs of a female’s reproductive health throughout their lifespan. Historically, the health needs of women have been disregarded as well as their fundamental rights. However, over the past few decades, it has grabbed the media and the government’s attention causing some major changes in support of women’s rights and health care.
IVF raises many of these difficult moral issues. If the above conceptions about the nature of ethics were correct, however, discussion of these issues would either be futile (because morality is a matter of personal choice or opinion) or superfluous (because morality is what a divine or secular authority says it is) (Walters 23). In this paper, I want to suggest that it is not only possible, but also necessary to inquire into the ethics of such practices as IVF because the fact that we can do something does not mean that we ought to do it.
According to the findings by Mariotti (2012), the psychosocial and emotional components are an integral part of every woman’s pregnancy, and she can make decisions of whether to sustain life in her own uterus or end it (p. 269). At the same time, numerous studies have questioned the personhood of the fetus to provide well-evidenced approaches to evaluation of its social and legal status. Does a woman provide it with all necessary resources and substances like a donor? Does she have a right to extract it from her body in case she does not want to give it life, has some health care issues that put her and the baby at risk, or carries a fetus that was the result of a rape? All those questions are easier to ask than answer, but women should have the right to do with their body everything they want.