Essay on Utilitarian View on Abortion

When touching the subject of abortion, one must consider that there are two sides battling for control. That is right, abortion has literally turned into a war zone where even the unlikely of individuals do the unthinkable. Each side has their motives and methods for contradicting the other. For instance, there are cases and events that support both sides of this issue.

Utilitarian’s believe that under certain circumstances an abortion could be justified. For example if the mother doesn’t have the financial means, utilitarian’s would understand living a miserable life would contradict the idea of maximizing happiness to all, including the mother who doesn’t have to carry the financial burden a child would bring to an already bad financial situation. Another case would be if the family knew the baby knows the baby would be brought into this world with a disability, why make him or her suffer (only if the disability could not be cured medically). The thought process for utilitarian’s is that if the child will live a miserable life, why make them live if the abortion could be done before the fetus is even developed into a baby. Utilitarian’s are much more flexible when dealing with an issue such as abortion if the circumstance allows for it and if it maximizes happiness to all, if not most. Therefore an abortion may be decided with the consideration of all in mind.

     The Utilitarian belief asks the question, what would be the best for the greatest amount of people? Or in other words, what would be best for the majority? In our natural history, Utilitarianism has had a huge impact on how the American society operates. All the decisions, as a nation, are decided by the majority. The most popular example of this would be the voting for a new president to lead the county.

Abortion is one of the most personal, widely discussed, and controversial topics in American culture today. In most cases, people on both sides of the argument take worthy and moral positions. Who can blame someone who wishes to prevent the termination of a teen pregnancy to save the life of an unborn child? On the other hand, who can blame anyone who advocates the soon-to-be mother's right to make such a personal, heartbreaking choice? No matter what she chooses to do, should anyone have the legal right to force her to bear an unwanted child? Most people in the US are pro-choice, and believe that abortion should be a legal, confidential decision that only a woman can make for herself. However, some are against the idea of

Utilitarianism is practiced by the use of birth control. Many women use birth control to help reduce the risk of becoming pregnant. In my opinion, I appreciate the use of birth control because it allows the female to determine when she is prepared to reproduce. Having the opportunity to chose decreases the rate of adoption, child abuse, and abortion. Although my opinion has great benefits other people's beliefs may lead one to think that it is not ethically correct. For example, believers of natural law may disagree with the use of birth control or methods of

Utilitarianism is a philosophical theory. It concerns how to evaluate a large range of things that involve choices communities or groups face. These choices include policies, laws, human’s rights, moral codes,

The simple definition of Utilitarianism is “the belief that a morally good action is one that helps the greatest number of people”("Utilitarianism," ). However, Utilitarianism is far from a ‘simple’ philosophy, and while there is no perfect doctrine when it comes to Normative Ethics, Utilitarianism comes the closest for a number of reasons. The first is impartiality; or rather equality of concern for everyone’s well-being. The second is that Utilitarianism is not based in religion. The third is that the Utilitarian school of thought includes non-sentient beings in the moral community .The last and most important reason is the idea of ‘moral flexibility’: the Utilitarian belief that no moral rule is absolute. Nor should it be.

Each day throughout our world, medical professionals suction thousands of babies from their mothers’ wombs through a procedure called abortion. The law protects and provides consent to both the mother and the medical professionals for these procedures. However, the babies seemingly have no right to protection or life themselves because of the argument regarding when a fetus is determined be human and have life. Pro-life author, Sarah Terzo, in a LifeSiteNews.com article, relays the following testimony supporting this from a medical student upon witnessing his first abortion, “Rejected by their mothers and regarded as medical waste by their killers, society allows these babies to die silently, with no recognition or acknowledgment of their

Very disturbing! Terminating the right of having an abortion for woman would only do more harm than good in my opinion, it would increase the poverty and mental health levels in the U.S.A. today. These horrific dilemmas, would then lead to more crimes, broken homes, families living on government assistance and so much more. As an ending result, I believe ethics on abortion brings upon several ethical theories, such as, natural law, Kant’s ethical theory, virtue ethic and a few more but one that stands out the most is of the utilitarian theory. I chose this theory, because a utilitarian would take into consideration if having an abortion would bring the greatest good as an outcome. Abortion is a personal decision, that woman deserve the right to

Abortion is a serious topic that people have been debating about for years. Everywhere you turn the topic of abortion presents itself, on TV, in the newspapers, in books and magazines. It already has, and will continue to cause, controversy for years to come. As long as abortion remains legal, pro-life advocates will continue to protest what they believe to be these horrible acts of murder.

The argument of abortion has been raging since the Supreme Court case, Roe vs. Wade, in 1973. This court case has divided the country into two factions: pro-choice and pro-life. Pro-life advocates argue that abortions are murder and extreme levels of child abuse. While pro-choice advocates believe abortions are a justifiable means to end pregnancies. The pro-choice argument is that the fetus is not yet a human being and its rights should not override that of the mother’s.

Utilitarianism is a consequentialist theory that judges an action on its outcomes and aims to maximize happiness. This means finding the action that generates the “greatest good for the greatest number”.

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.

Of all the legal, ethical, and moral issues we Americans continuously fight for or against, abortion may very well be the issue that Americans are most passionate about. The abortion issue is in the forefront of political races. Most recently the “no taxpayer funding for abortion act”, has abortion advocates reeling. Even though abortion has been legal in every state in the United States since the monumental Supreme Court decision, “Roe v Wade”, on January 22, 1973; there are fewer physicians willing to perform abortions today than in 2008. (Kraft) At the heart of the ethical dilemma for many in the medical profession is the viability of the fetus. And just to make this whole dilemma more confusing, according to the United States

The most common use of utilitarianism is by way of consequentialist moral theory. Consequentialists believe that an act’s rightness and wrongness depends solely on its consequences and nothing else. An act is right when the algebraic sum of total utility unit