Nineteenth century America was one of orthodox views and traditional customs, abortion being among them. Abortion was seen as abnormal and taboo: it was not talked about, seen primarily as a religious and medical issue. As Callahan writes in Abortion: Law, Choice, and Morality, only “God has the right to take the life of the innocent; hence the direct killing of the innocent, without the authority of God, is always wrong” (310); however, Luker in The
Abortion and the morality of it has been a hot topic for years in the United States although it has been carried out for centuries in different cultures. Abortion is a medical procedure deliberately terminating a pregnancy. Abortions usually happen within the first 28 weeks of pregnancy and are considered an outpatient procedure. The first abortion laws were passed by Britain in 1803 and by 1880 most abortions in the U.S. were illegal, except for those that were performed to save the life of a woman. This exception to the rule gives insight into the battle that exists today and the ethical debate of abortion.
Thomson brings up the standard anti-abortion argument. Every person has a right to life. A fetus is a person. Which means a fetus has a right to life. Therefore abortion is wrong. Thomson does not understand the jump from a fetus having a right to life to abortion being wrong. She believes that the fetus being a person or not is irrelevant to the argument. And abortion is based more on the rights of the woman, fetus, and who has more of the right of ownership of the woman’s body (Thomson 47-48).
Abortion is one the most controversial topics in the United States. The issue at hand is should abortion be legal or not. It is highly debated with in both media and politics. According to History Channel, “Supreme Court legalizes abortion”, in 1973 the U.S. Supreme Court Case Roe V. Wade ruled that women have the constitutional right to privacy, thus legalizing abortion. This law gave women the right to terminate a pregnancy during the first two trimesters. This sparked huge controversy between pro-life and pro-choice believers. Both pro-life and pro-choice have numerous arguments to justify their opinions. In a report done by WebMD, “Abortion-Reasons Women Choose Abortion,” nine out of ten abortions are performed within the first twelve weeks. Abortion should be legal because it is a women’s constitutional right, mental and physical health, and other.
In “A Defense of Abortion” by Judith Jarvis Thompson, Thompson works to argue that even if a human fetus is considered a person, abortion is still often morally permissible. This paper will work to explain Thompson’s positions on the different accounts of the right to life, and to provide an evaluation of them and explain why they are not plausible, specifically regarding three of the analogies on-which she based her entire argument: the violinist, the coat, and the case of Kitty Genovese, as well as to explore a logical counterargument and explain why it’s stance is impermissible.
Philosophy 101 12/8/2011 An Argument That Abortion Is Wrong. The purpose of this essay is to set out an argument that abortion is wrong. Some claim that only in “rare” instances, such as rape or within a few days of contraception, abortion is acceptable. I will agree that there are certain circumstances that abortion is more “acceptable” than other times, albeit however few and far between these instances arise. Instances that make abortion more “okay” are rape, and once it is discovered that the mother's life is in danger if she were to carry the baby the full term of the pregnancy. The basis for my argument comes from reading two opposing essays on abortion , in regards to whether it is “right” or wrong, “A defense of Abortion” by Judith
Death Before Life: The Moral Permissibility of Abortion In her article, A Defense of Abortion, American moral philosopher and metaphysician Judith Jarvis Thomson uses analogies to explain scenarios in which abortion is morally permissible, even when the fetus is granted personhood at conception. She addresses the argument that every person has a right to life, the fetus is a person, and therefore the fetus has a right to life; and the mother has a right to choose what happens with her body, but the mother’s right to decide what happens is not as strong as a person’s right to life and therefore, abortion is morally impermissible. She believes this to be incorrect based on the definition of the right to life-which she defines as the right
After reading the article, “Why It’s Become So Hard to Get an Abortion”, by Margaret Talbot, I am caught in the middle of pro-choice and pro-life. Talbot provides the reader with an even amount of examples explaining the beliefs of each stance. Being raised as a Catholic, my church has always preached to bring an end to abortion. Although, being a young female, I also feel we should have the choice. I think there is a way to respect personal beliefs and religion, while still being in charge of your body. This being said, I don’t agree with the act of taking the life of an innocent human without it being a medical necessity. This brings up another contrasting point, I believe that if the woman seeking the abortion doesn’t have the means to raise
Moral Permissibility of Abortion 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 Defense of Abortion In her argument on abortion, Judith Thomson discusses some major points about abortion. She deals with extreme cases and those extreme cases help us to realize a single perspective of abortion. For example, she talks about the violinist attached to you. In that example, you keep everything constant and focus on a single point, violinist being dead if you unattached him. This way of thinking would provide partial answers. That is, in real life moral issues are combined of different extreme cases. This is where the flaw in her argument is. Her argument misses out the fact that such extreme cases do not occur alone. They occur in interconnection with other extreme cases. To However, you have an emotional attachment to your baby. Furthermore, you do not have the responsibility of looking after the violinist. Yet, it is your duty to look after your baby. As Kant suggests, if you
For nowadays, the justification of abortion because of economic reasons is just heinous. Unfortunately, many people is in this case. The mother just do not have the correct way to raise a child on their own and they see abortion is the solution.Now while this concluding paragraph may sound like
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.
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.
Does a women’s right to choose to have an abortion outweigh a baby’s right to be born? The controversy at hand is whether the rights of a women outweigh the rights of a baby, and whether a mother should be given the rights to pursue a procedure like an abortion.
Introduction Ethical justification of abortion is a controversial subject consisting of numerous significant theories that have been presented based on studies and researches. Basically, abortion refers to termination of pregnancy through removal of the undeveloped fetus. Seemingly, the act is highly condemned by majority sociologists and health practitioners due to