Ethical and Legal Aspects of Abortion - Essay Example

Abortion is the process of terminating a pregnancy, and it became a debatable topic in American politics, in the 1970s. The first abortion lawsuit to be filed in a renowned American Supreme Court was that between Roe and Wade (Gold, 2005). A woman by the name of Jane Roe argued that her pregnancy was because of rape, and wanted to terminate the pregnancy. The court then ruled that she had the constitutional right to abortion since this right was based on an implied right to personal privacy as stipulated in the Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments (Francome, 2004). The court argued that a fetus is not a living human being, but a “potential life”. Therefore, it does not have its own constitutional right.  However, the court further clarified that the right of a woman to perform an abortion depends on the pregnancy stage. For example, a woman’s privacy is highly valid during the first trimester and the state cannot regulate abortion for any reason. The state then has the power to regulate abortion during the second trimester to protect the woman’s health, and the court prohibits abortion during the third trimester to protect a fetus’ potential life except when the doctors recommend abortion to protect the woman’s health and life (Basu, 2003). This paper, therefore, primarily aims at describing the ethical and legal issues surrounding abortion, in the United States of America.

Though abortion is considered an unethical practice, in most societies, there are certain cases when doctors are forced to go against societal norms and legal issues and perform an abortion. These include when the pregnancy is due to rape and incest when there is a severe fetal deformity, when the life of the mother is threatened, and when the mother’s health is not in a good condition. In relation to these issues, doctors have argued that there is no single occasion in which the intentional killing of an unborn baby is justified. They believe in the divine law that life begins at conception, and there are no provisions that support the intentional killing of an innocent human being. However, doctors claim that sometimes abortion is recommendable in order to relieve the suffering of both the mother and the unborn child. For example, when the mother’s life is truly threatened, during pregnancy, and the doctors establish that both the mother and the child cannot simultaneously survive, then saving the mother is given more priority than the child. If the pre-born child unintentionally dies in the process of saving the mother’s life, then this is consistent with pro-life ethics and is ethical (Fry et al. 2011). Doctors further argue that most medically necessary abortion is not always directed to save the mother’s life. For instance, when the mother suffers breast cancer and needs immediate chemotherapy to survive, and this treatment is likely to kill the unborn child, then the doctor will always recommend a therapeutic abortion. Therefore, doctors usually reconcile their own beliefs with their professional duty in relation to the abortion issue by arguing that if the unborn child dies in the process of treating the mother to save her life, then the death is not intentional and truly not unethical.

There are a number of beliefs and considerations when considering the legality of abortion, and these include the age of viability at conception, when the fetus has a heartbeat, and at birth (Fry et al. 2011). For example, J. Glover and Peter Singer present different opinions when determining the age viability of a fetus. According to Glover, it is logically impossible to establish a point when to consider a fetus as a person, and attempting to do so is like trying to determine the point at which cake mix turns into a cake (Fry et al. 2011). Singer, on the other hand, suggests that a person is someone who is capable of planning his or her future, and because a fetus is unable to do so, it should not be considered as a person (Fry et al. 2011). In this context, Singer bases his argument on the notion of personhood thus supporting the justification of abortion. However, according to my opinion, I feel that Singers' suggestion is flawed since it fails to include young children and babies. In this relation, I mean that babies and young children are too young to plan for their future or even anticipate something. It, therefore, implies that they lack personhood, and according to Singer, they do not deserve to live.

In conclusion, there are both religious and legal aspects to ethical debates over abortion. The decision to perform an abortion is usually a difficult issue. This is because it touches upon a number of fundamental ethical questions such as the nature of rights, personal autonomy, the nature of personhood, human relationships, and the level of a  state’s power over personal decisions. This, therefore, indicates that the abortion issue should be taken seriously enough to determine its various components and analyze them with as little injustice as possible.