The Ethical Dilemma On Abortion

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.

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

The topic of abortion is very controversial. Many believe that an abortion is morally wrong while others think that everyone should have a choice whether to keep the baby or not. Shafer-Landau states in the introduction of The Ethical Life, “morality is the code that we should live by” (Shafer-Landau 1). Many different religions have different point of views whether abortion is morally right or wrong. Many different people have questions about how we ought to live and what we should believe (Shafer-Landau 1). I personally sit on the fence whether abortion is right or wrong because I can agree with certain points from both pro-life and pro-choice but, for this paper, I’m going to support the pro-choice side of abortion. I believe everyone who is having a baby should have a choice to abort it if that is what they want.

Abortion has been a debating issue for many decades. Most of the countries, permit abortion, however, some religions and countries consider abortion to be morally and ethically impermissible. In Canada, the abortion was legalized in 1988 based on the fact that the law should not force a women to carry a fetus beyond her priorities as it would interfere with her body and her own securities towards life. Many would argue against this view by stating that a fetus does have a right to live and thus, abortion is morally wrong. I believe that abortion is morally and ethically permissible as long as it does not violate significant rights of others.

Abortion is a topic that is controversial to many. There are people who believe that abortion is a sin and that women who do this, are vile and sickening humans. Women get abortions for many different reasons and that should be their choice. It is no one else’s decision because it is not their body that is going to have to go through that.

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.

A woman named Susan had recently found out that her unborn child had Downs Syndrome. She had asked the advice of a professor he had informed her that it would be immoral to have the baby as the baby would suffer and cause her suffering as well. When a woman is faced with the dilemma of having to choose whether to keep a child or abort it, it can become a very hard ethical decision. With this being said, though, we should never take the life of an innocent child. All children are gifts from God and even though they may be born with a handicap or disability that does mean that they do not have the right to live a happy life. There are two options that a woman has and that is to carry the baby to term and give the child up for adoption or carry the baby to term and raise the child herself. There are several people that would love to have a child and are unable to conceive so by giving the child up for adoption this could provide a loving family with a child. If she chooses to keep the child and raise the

Abortion is a widely discussed topic that has opened a moral debate on whether it should, or not, be allowed. The purpose of this paper is to analyze a case study which will be addressed from a Christian based worldview. Additionally, since abortion is a controversial subject, it is necessary to take into account the potential resolutions of the issue, and how they can be contrasted to Christian values and core beliefs.

In the article Ethics of Abortion, much of the pro life argument seems to be

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

Abortion is wrong because it is the murder of a human being. Abortion continues to be a moral and ethical dilemma for all those involved. The American Nurses Association (ANA) Code of Ethics states, “nurses have the ethical and moral obligation to promote and protect life.” Still, debates continue, opposing the belief of life against the principle of autonomy and a woman’s right to regulate her body. It is disputable that the right to have an abortion is a right to dominate one’s body, but the death of the fetus is an inevitable result of the termination of that pregnancy (Religious studies online, n.d.). One million two hundred thousand abortions are done yearly in the United States from weeks 9 to 21+ of gestation (Pro Life Action League). Nevertheless, nurses, no matter how caring and compassionate, their individual education, culture, religion, past, gender and even age will influence the care that is given to their patients (British Journal of Nursing, 2015, p. 345). With that, if a nurse assists with the procedure of abortion, is he or she going against the Code of Ethics for Nurses? No matter if the nurse assists with the abortion or not certain rules for privacy must be followed. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) Privacy Rule protects the patients’ health information, even those experiencing unwanted pregnancies (Simmonds & Likis, 2011, p. 794).

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.

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.