Abortion
Abortion is defined as the abrupt termination of a pregnancy through flushing out a fetus from an expecting mother. It involves inducing birth to an expectant woman before the whole pregnancy period is over. For the last few years, abortion has been a topic of debate where there are those who are in support while others strongly oppose the idea of carrying out abortion (Lee, 2010). Both those in support and those opposing the idea have both moral and legal reasons that support their choice thus making the debate an interesting one. Form my own perspective; abortion is morally permissible only if the woman’s life is at stake, in which case the woman and fetus have competing rights to life and the woman may protect her life. All other abortions are prima facie morally impermissible because from conception the fetus has a future like ours.
In order to make a sound decision on whether or not abortion is justifiable, it is important for us to ask ourselves several questions. Some of these questions are; Does the fetus /embryo have any moral and/or legal rights?, Is the fetus a human person? And what are the criteria of being a person? These questions are vital in making sound decision on whether or not abortion should be justified either legally or morally.
Before making a decision on procuring an abortion, it is important to understand that all persons have the right to life. However, there are contradicting statements on what life means and from what point does life begin. Those who are pro abortion argues that fetus is not human and thus a woman has absolute right to do what she wants with her body. However, this is not the case and every person should know that life begins at conception and thus a fetus is a human being. It is also important to note that it is legally and morally wrong to terminate life of either the fetus or any other human being. Carrying out an abortion entails killing a fetus which is a human being which is morally and legally wrong (Lee, 2010).
However, there are some situations upon which abortion could be permissible. At some point, there are situations at which there are conflicting interests between the fetus and the pregnant mother. Some of these situations are critical and at times can put the life of the mother at stake. There has been great debate on at what stage does a fetus become person. This is because there are those who argue that the fetus becomes a person at certain stage after birth or sometime prior birth. However under this context, we take the fetus as person since the point of conception henceforth and thus have absolute right to life.
According to Judith Jarvis Thomson, abortion should be morally permissible if the mother’s life is endangered. Thomson asserts that, even though the fetus becomes a person after conception, and has the right to life consists not in the right not to be killed, but rather in the right not to be killed unjustly (Lee, 2010). The assertion by Thomson implies that a woman has the right to terminate her own pregnancy if he does it in good faith and the fetus is not killed unjustly. Thomson argues that one’s life can be taken justly and that is morally right.
Another situation where termination of pregnancy is recommended is when the health of the mother is at risk. Even though the proponents of abortion believe that death to fetus is harmful and have similar rights like ours, it is at times difficult to maintain such rights especially when the right of the fetus conflict with that of the mother. Stone is one of the renowned advocates of abortion (Lee, 2010). According to Stone, ” death seriously harms the fetus and so the fetus has a right to life because death deprives the fetus of conscious goods which it is the fetus’s biological natural to make itself have “. However when a woman’s health is at stake or they will give birth to child with abnormality, then abortion would be better for the mother and for the baby. If we know the child will be born with defects then there is no point in having the mother keep the baby if she chooses not to.
Although there are several critics that oppose abortion claiming that it denies the fetus its person hood, it is important to consider the health of the fetus and that of the pregnant woman. There are certain circumstances under which the baby’s condition is questionable and could transfer the problem to the mother. Continuing a dangerous pregnancy could be disastrous to both the mother and the fetus and under such circumstances, initiating an abortion is morally permissible (Lee, 2010). For instance, a diabetic mother is likely to give birth to a child with multiple defects as opposed to non-diabetic women. A woman with heart disease should also be discouraged to carry pregnancy since continuing with such pregnancies would put both the mother and the baby at risk.
Those in support of abortion argue that unwanted pregnancies are very stressful to women carrying them. It is for this reason that they assert that women have a right to decide on what to do with their bodies. Unwanted pregnancies could be as a result of rape, illnesses or being too young for parenting. This gives women a chance to abort unwanted pregnancies for several reasons. Thomson explains this phenomenon with a hypothetical situation which suggests that women have the right to do what they want with their bodies (Lee, 2010). This hypothesis is based on the famous unconscious violinist that tends to imply that a right to decide what to do with one’s body outweighs a “right to life.” Since the fetus is unconscious, there is tendency to believe that the fetus does not qualify to be a person and thus procuring an abortion does not entail abortion. This phenomenon can be further stressed by Marjorie Reiley Maguire definition of personhood. This philosopher defines personhood to begin at a point where the mother accepts pregnancy. These philosophers confirm that abortion is morally permissible if its continuation will be putting either the life of the mother or the child at risk.
In conclusion, it is important to understand that most of the federal governments are legislating laws aimed at discouraging abortion. However, it is important to note that women have the right to chose what to do with their bodies (Lee, 2010). It is important to note that women should only be allowed to carry pregnancies which they accept and do not pose any risk to either the unborn or the pregnant. Proper definition of human or in other words the beginning f life should be clearly determined to enable wise decisions in matters pertaining to abortion. This is because every human has right to life but these rights should not hinder the right of others. It is for this reason that women should be allowed to carry out abortions especially if their life/ health is at stake. It is also essential to note that advocates of abortion are aware that abortion is morally wrong but women should be given a chance to do what is good for them and their unborn babies.
Works Cited
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