The Moral Permissibility Of Abortion

Abortion’s legalization through Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade, has allowed for one in three pregnancies to end in abortion. This means that 1.5 million abortions are performed in the United States each year (Flanders 3). It ranks among the most complex and controversial issues, arousing heated legal, political, and ethical debates. The modern debate over abortion is a conflict of competing moral ideas and of fundamental human rights: to life, to privacy, to control over one's own body. Trying to come to a compromise has proven that it one cannot please all of the people on each side of the debate.

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.

If medical tests have proven that the child will be born with severe handicaps that would greatly reduce the quality of life or endanger the fetus, the opportunity to terminate should be available. Allowing abortion because of fetal disability may actually benefit the child in the long run, by saving it from a life full of unnecessary complications. This, however, is a very controversial reason and is not generally accepted by many people due to moral reasons.

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.

In this essay, the morality of the abortion of a fetus will be discussed in a drama involving a married couple named Deb and Derek (Smolkin, Bourgeois & Findler, 2010). For clarification purposes, we must first define the topic of this discussion; abortion is defined as the act in which a female voluntarily terminates her pregnancy where this act is legally permitted (Warren, 1973). Deb who is 16 weeks pregnant discovers that the fetus she is carrying will most likely be born mentally challenged (Smolkin et al., 2010). As the drama unfolds, the couple ponders the negative impact this child will have on their business, marriage as well as the quality of life that their child will experience if it is carried to term (Smolkin

In the article, “Does Down Syndrome Justify Abortion?” the topic of abortion is presented along with Fetuses with genetic defects, which is one of the rare reasons for women or couples to decide on seeking an abortion. In the article as well as in the book, it is mention that there is a way pregnant women can find out if their child is going to have any abnormalities. In this case, in order to check if a fetus will eventually be born with down syndrome the mother can get an amniocentesis test. Then, the decision of the intentional termination of the pregnancy is a choice, where the women or couples need to choose, knowing that there are many risks with either decision.

Abortion is a horrible thing, weather the baby is going to have problems or not, it shouldn't be aloud. Every child should get a chance to live, Just because it may have Down syndrome or autism etc doesn't mean that it shouldn't get a go at life. Iceland is about to become the first country where no one with Down syndrome are born as 85% of their women are terminating the pregnancy. The CBS news website quoted that “Iceland has two people with Down syndrome born each year.” This

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.

Living in a world set up and built for able bodied people, it’s difficult for a disabled person to be brought up and adapt to carry out even the most simplest of everyday tasks. Aborting a disabled foetus may not intentionally be biologically discriminating, but instead, weighing up the consequences of continuing with the pregnancy until the stage of giving birth, taking into account what life will be like for the foetus in the future.

When faced with the choice of life or death, most people would choose to live. In fact, most would not want someone else making that decision for them. They would claim that as a living and independent entity it is solely their choice as to whether they continue to live or not. While this concept may seem fairly straightforward, there seems to be some great debate when it is applied to abortion. For many, they will maintain that the fetus has the right to life no matter the situation. There are some who will argue that abortion is morally permissible in specific circumstances and there are even those that will claim that abortion is always permissible. Why is there such a great divide? A major factor that plays a part in this is whether abortion involves more than one life. Because determining the beginning point of life is such a complex and emotional debate, there will be the same allowance in this paper as there was in Judith Jarvis Thomson’s “A Defense of Abortion”. As she eloquently put it “I propose then, that we grant that the fetus is a person from the moment of conception” (p. 721). This will allow for a look into the moral debate of abortion from a more grounded stage. As discussed early in Thomson’s paper, most of the debate on abortion rests on whether the fetus is alive or not. Whereas the focus should be on the many other aspects of pregnancies that may lead to a mother wanting an abortion.

Another reason why some women have abortions is due to medical problems that they think or know they can’t handle. The fetus might have been hurt by exposure to high levels of toxic chemicals, medications that might be dangerous to the fetus, alcohol, drugs, etc. They may cause the fetus to be genetically damaged. Some girls become pregnant at a very young age, when pregnancy can be dangerous. The fetus has a genetic defect or other health problem. Virtually all of the couples who find that the fetus suffers from Down's Syndrome, or a similar defect, elect to have an abortion. The woman may develop

Abortion is the termination of pregnancy before birth, resulting in, or accompanied by the death of the fetus. ("Abortion," Encarta 98). In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade, dramatically changed the legal landscape of American abortion law. The result of the ruling required abortion to be legal for any woman; regardless of her age and for any reason during the first seven months of pregnancy, and for almost any reason after that. ("Status of Abortion in America"). In the Roe v. Wade case, Roe (Norma McCorvey), had claimed she was gang raped and attempted to have an abortion in Texas. ("Roe and Doe"). After hearing the case, the Supreme Court ruled that an American’s right to privacy included the right of a woman whether or not to have children, and the right of a woman and her doctor to make that decision without state interference, at least in the first trimester of pregnancy. ("Celebrating 25 Years of Reproductive Choice"). The moral issue of abortion—whether or not it is murder—has been debated since it was legalized in 1973. Roe v. Wade has been one of the most controversial Supreme Court decisions of the 20th century. ("Roe No More"). More than two decades since the Supreme Court first upheld a woman’s right to abortion, the debate over the morality and legality of induced abortion continues in the United States. ("Abortion," Encarta 98). Abortion is one of the most divisive and emotional issues facing United States policy makers today. ("Economics of

“On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion”, an essay written by Mary Anne Warren, defend abortion in any stage of a woman’s pregnancy (pg 468). Warren argues that the potential to become a human being is not the same as being human and deserving the same right to life (pg. 468-472). This essay asserts that in order to be human, one must possess five particular traits (pg. 470). These trait are consciousness, reasoning, self-motivated activity, the ability to communicate, and awareness of oneself (pg. 470). Warren claims that since a fetus has not yet acquired all of the traits, then that fetus is not human and therefore does not have the right to life (pg. 470).

It is the mothers desicion to abort, therefor the baby doesn’t have a say in anything that happens. They are just a little baby, barley bigger than a sesemeed seed. They cant fight for his life or make a desision. They have their whole life ahead of them, maybe they could have been someone very important, they could have found cures for the thoughest diseases or maybe they could have found a new planet or even solved the world biggest mysteries . We will never know because they never got a chance to try, to try to help the world because they never got to see it.

Emily Jackson (2000) states in her article that disease and disabilities, which used to be simple and unfortunate acts of nature, could be increasingly regarded as a matter of voluntary choice. Couples can now decide whether or not to keep a pregnancy with known abnormalities. The research of Martie Bell and Zolinda Stoneman (2000) on the reactions to prenatal testing, show the primary reason for utilizing abortion was the belief the child would negatively affect the quality of life of their family. Couples are making a life or death choice as to whether to be burdened with a child with a disability. The argument that the quality of life of an individual with disabilities is far less, is unjust. Any child has the right to live a full and happy life.