Ethical Issues Related to Abortions - Essay Example

Your full full April 27, Abortion Before going into the discussion regarding ethical issues related to abortions, let us get a better understanding of what abortion actually is. “Abortion is the intentional termination of a pregnancy after conception” (Head). Abortion in medical science is a process in which doctors, with the approval of the pregnant women, kill the fetus in order to terminate the pregnancy. “Abortion can lead to problems later in life as after all you are tampering with your body and obstructing the natural course of happenings” (Godbole). Abortions are either first trimester abortions or second trimester abortions (Ravichandran). First trimester abortions are caused due to genetic abnormalities, uterine abnormalities, or placental abnormalities, whereas second trimester abortions are caused due to trauma, hypertension, or increase in the cervical incompetence. Depending on the status of fetus, there are two different viewpoints regarding abortions. The people who consider abortions legal believe that fetus is not a person and a woman has the right to decide whether she wants to carry on with the pregnancy or not. Whereas the other side believes that fetus or embryo is a life within a woman, and killing a fetus is same like killing a human. There exist some ethical issues related to the decision of a woman to abort her pregnancy. Let us discuss some of those issues in some detail. Status of Fetus Fetus is an unborn form of a human whose development takes place inside the womb of a woman. The decision of a woman to abort the pregnancy is ethical if the fetus is dead and the woman do not feel any kind of movement inside the womb, whereas if the woman starts feeling some movements inside her womb, it means that the fetus is alive and in such cases, abortion is considered unethical in many societies. Some of the conditions in which abortions become ethical and make sense include dead fetus, abnormal structure of the fetus, and threat to the life of the mother. Rape of Forced Sex Rape or forced sex, makes abortion an ethical decision because the pregnancies, which occur due to rape, are without the consent or will of the woman involved in the incident. Therefore, a woman holds the right to terminate her pregnancy because neither she was ready for pregnancy nor she had any will for that. In the United State of America, people view rape or forced sex as the valid reasons of abortion. However, in Southeast Asian countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, majority of people does not consider abortion ethical in any case because they have little awareness of the ethical dilemmas related to abortions. People belonging to such countries are usually more concerned about the issue rather than the cause of abortion. Whereas, in the European and American countries, people are very much aware of all issues related to abortion and they take the decision to abort the pregnancy based on valid justifications, such as, rape, forced sex, abnormal structure, threat to the life of the mother, and some other reasons. Health of Mother “An abortion can happen spontaneously as a result of complications during a pregnancy, or it can be induced” (Nordqvist). Threat to the life of the mother justifies abortion. The act of abortion becomes legal for both the woman and the family of the woman if the life of the woman falls in danger due to pregnancy. Life of mother is always more important than the life of an unborn child. A number of cases occur all over the world where doctors recommend the families of the pregnant women to let them drop the pregnancy because of the threat associated with the life of the mother due to some complexities related to the pregnancy. In such cases, the decision of terminating the pregnancy becomes ethical because it saves the life of the woman who can give normal birth to babies in future. Divorce Divorce is one of the major factors behind the increase in the number of abortions that take place all over the world. When a woman faces separation from her husband, in most of the cases it becomes very difficult for the woman to raise her child because of her unstable financial conditions. In such cases, women are left with no other choice than terminating the pregnancy. However, it is not a very valid reason for abortion and cannot be considered ethical if we view the situation from ethical perspective. Many countries give special allowances to such mothers who are unable to raise their children due to their financial conditions. The United States of America, the Great Britain, and many other European and American countries have implemented effective policies to support low-income families in raising the children. Therefore, killing the fetus just due to the fear of low income is completely illogical and unethical. Unprotected Sex Unprotected sex is another reason, which makes abortion unethical. In cases, where couples forget using pills or condoms during sex, chances of pregnancies increase. If a woman becomes pregnant due to unprotected sex, it is not ethical to terminate the pregnancy because in that case, the pregnancy occurred due to carelessness of the woman. The fetus maintains the right to take birth once it starts developing in the body of a woman. A pregnancy, which occurs due to one’s own carelessness, should not result in abortion. It is very unethical to terminate such pregnancies because it is like snatching a person’s right to live just because of one’s own carelessness. Therefore, the better way for the couples is to make use of contraception instead of killing a fetus, which starts developing inside the body as the result of unprotected sex. Another way for such couples is to let the fetus grow inside the womb and once it takes birth in form of a baby, the couple should hand over the baby to the deserving couples who do not have any child. Summing it up, abortion is an act of terminating a pregnancy by killing the fetus developing inside the womb of a woman. There are many ethical issues related to the act of abortion. Abortion is considered ethical in some cases, such as, abnormal structure of the fetus, dead fetus, or poor health of the mother. All other cases, such as, divorce, poor financial strength, unprotected sex, or not being ready for an added responsibility do not provide any ethical base for abortions. Works Cited Godbole, Medha. “Abortion Arguments.” Buzzle.com, 26 Oct. 2010. Web. 27 Apr. 2011. Head, Tom. “What is Abortion?.” About.com, n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2011. Nordqvist, Christian. “What Is An Abortion?.” Medical News Today, 14 Apr. 2009. Web. 27 Apr. 2011. Ravichandran, Sriram. “Abortion: Causes And Clinical Features.” Ezinearticles.com, 26 Mar. 2011. Web. 27 Apr. 2011. Read More