There are many ethical dilemmas in the world today such as euthanasia, performance enhancing drugs, pornography, abortion and more. Someone’s worldview is often a big contributor in the decisions they make in regards to the dilemma. Abortion is one of today’s most contested ethical dilemmas (Beattie, 2011). Susan is a mother that is debating whether she should have an abortion or not. Her ethical dilemma case will be analyzed and compared from a Christian worldview perspective and other worldly perspectives.
Ethical Dilemma
In this case, Susan has finally gotten pregnant after trying for many years. After some testing, she is told that her baby has Down Syndrome. Susan asks people for advice and is told to abort the baby from a respectable doctor and professor. Despite all the opinions to have an abortion, Susan is still uncomfortable with making that decision and isn’t sure what she should do. If she chooses to abort the baby, she may never have the opportunity to have another baby again. If she chooses to keep the baby, she may have a very challenging life ahead of her.
There are many things that make this decision hard for Susan. She wants to do what is right for her as well as what is right for the baby. Susan has been trying to get pregnant for many years and finally has the opportunity. She does not what to given that up. In addition, she has been given advice from two respectable people to abort the baby. Susan probably feels that if a doctor and professor are
Abortion is never an easy decision, but women have been making the choice for thousands of years. It has become a large dilemma since 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court passed a law making the procedure legal, and an even larger controversial issue. The controversy is divided into “Pro-Choice” and Pro-Life” views. Pro-Choice supporters believe that the woman should have to choice whether to abort or not. Pro-Life supporters believe that it should be illegal to abort and preformed. However, there are many ways for this procedure to be performed. Abortion still remains today a controversial issue, by who should determine if it is the right thing to terminate a pregnancy or not and by how the procedure should be preformed.
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.
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
(Psalm 127:3) Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward. “Abortion is wrong, God doesn’t approve of ending a life just because a person has regrets about how things turned out”, (Genesis 6:6-7). In this scenario it is the parents choice to decide what they want to do but according to Christian Worldview beliefs about God and Humanity, God creates every human and it is only his right to take the life and abortion is simply a murder and God does not allow this. However in this issue Susan got pregnant after trying for long and the fetus is Down syndrome, therefore bring that child into world is suffering but it is also a matter of concern that God gave a life inside her after a long time, maybe it is a God’s blessing to her. Just by knowing that the child will born with some disabilities it is not wise to stop the heat beat of child, Susan should not listen to anyone but just to her heart and belief in God and move forward with her
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.
The ongoing dispute of abortion has condemned the idea of women aborting their unborn child. Whether it be lack of support, critical physical or mental health, rape, or not being ready for such responsibility - all women have a reason for having an abortion. Therefore, women should have the free will to do what proves necessary and beneficial to themselves and their pregnancy.
I was raised Christian, where it is considered a sin to abort a child in the eyes of God. For ethical scenario 2, her consequences are very disappointing and difficult but also very understandable. Anyone could see clearly that this child would be a reminder of her tragic situation.
In America, abortion is an age old argument and most Americans have sided with being either Pro-Choice or Pro-Life. But what happens when it comes down to aborting only one of the fetus twins or triplets? In David J. Ayers article, “Abortion’s Slippery Slope: The Two-Minus-One Pregnancy”, Ayers explains the rare medical procedure when a women wants to abort one of her fetus twins. This twin reduction is a way for mothers to use their constitutional right of choosing how many babies she wants. But what are the basic medical ethics when it comes to choosing which baby is aborted? The choice comes to the decision of the doctor and the mother, the baby’s location, sex, and health. Abortion in itself is a battle with a mother’s conscience. Having to choose, is a lifelong choice that can affect a mother in this conscience struggle.
As people become aware of the seriousness of becoming pregnant they begin to question the side of pro-life vs pro-choice, however pro-choice allows the mother decide what to do with her body and does not mean agreeing with abortions. Women who decide to not keep the baby are often judged because of their decision without knowing their situation and background. Some may argue that the innocent has no fault, although that is true some are always blinded by their beliefs that they are not allowed to see the bigger picture based on the decision that is made, whatever the decision may be. Because of the Roe vs. Wade, it was legally written that women have the right and are advised to terminate the fetus within
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.
After trying for many years, Susan finally gets pregnant. Unfortunately, a blood test confirms that her baby has Down syndrome, and her doctors suggest she abort the fetus. Susan has a successful career and wants to maintain a healthy balance between her career and family. Yet she feels very uncomfortable with abortion. She seeks some advice from Richard, an influential professor of evolutionary biology who has spent his career seeking to further human potential and minimize human suffering. When Susan asks Richard if she should abort the fetus or give birth to a baby with Down syndrome, Richard replied that human beings should increase happiness and decrease suffering in this world, and that therefore he would suggest that she abort, though he also stated that she must make this choice for herself. Richard emphasized the lifelong suffering of both the child with Down syndrome and Susan as the child’s caretaker and stated that it may be immoral to bring a baby into the world if she knew the kind of suffering the child would experience. In fact, Richard suggested that perhaps the most ethical course of action would be to prevent this baby from living a life full of suffering. (This scenario is based on the
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
why a woman may choose to have an abortion. The woman may not be in a
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.