Why Abortion Should Be De-Criminalized - Essay Example

Name: Course: Topic: Should abortion be legalized? Date: Should abortion be de-criminalized? Introduction In Australia, abortion is a state law subject, not a national law subject. The basis on which the issue of abortion is allowed in Australia differs from one state to the other. In each state, abortion is only legal to protect the woman’s health and life, although every state has a dissimilar definition. The debate on whether abortion should be decriminalized or not continues to separate Americans long following the US Supreme Court’s 7-2 judgment on Wade v. Roe proclaimed the procedure a basic right in 1973, January 22. Supporters, referring themselves as pro-choice, argue that abortion is a basic right that ought not to be restricted by religious or governmental authority, and which overshadows whichever right declared for a fetus or an embryo (Shrage, 2003). Opponents, or pro-life as they identify themselves, on the other hand, argue that personhood starts at conception, hence abortion is immorally taking life of a guiltless human being. Opposition to legalizing abortion Most abortion’s opposition is grounded on the basis that an embryo or a fetus is a creature, a person from the conception moment (Bowie et al, 1996). They have a basic right to life that ought to be protected. According to the Christian value, one of the commandments postulates that we should not kill. Abortion entails taking life from a human being hence defies God’s commandment. Those in opposition of abortion argue that abortion increases the potential of women developing cancer of the breast (Allen, 2009). In the first trimester of pregnancy, estrogen levels increase, resulting to growth of breast in readiness for a woman to breastfeed her baby. When this process is interfered with by abortion, cells that are immature are left within the woman’s breast, leading to a greater possibility risk of cancer of the breast. From 2006, eight medical institutes including the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute have identified the link involving breast cancer and abortion (Right to Life, 2006). Looking at the abortion issue, relying exclusively on ground which is a Deist’s requirement, it turns out obviously that abortion for the sake of convenience is not right (Allen, 2009). The major argument for this act’s proponents is that a lady has every right to her body. This is a correct and true statement. Every person has a right to do whatever they like to their own body (Rosenthal, 2007). On the other hand, the unborn baby, or the fetus, is a different individual. Although it is inside the mother, genetically, it is a distinct entity. From the conception moment, it is a completely distinct genetic body. Hence, the argument in support of abortion for convenience, or demand sake, that a woman is entitled to do as she please to her body, is not appropriate to the subject of abortion, because the body of the mother is dissimilar to that of the fetus, or the baby (Right To Life, 2006). Considering abortion for medical grounds where the life of the mother is in danger that ought to be left to the judgment of the doctor, mother, and family (Rosenthal, 2007). It is actually correct, the unborn baby and the mother are two different individuals, but under such tricky situations, it is beyond doubt a personal decision for the people involved directly. It is a horrifying decision that ought to be made (Rosenthal, 2007). Why abortion should be de-criminalized Childless people by choice are occasionally described as selfish, or irresponsible. However, one can argue that having a child or children is essentially meaningful without supporting this, because, after all, in the happy state of the existence of extra valuable stuffs to do that can be placed into one existence. Parenthood, particularly motherhood, even if considered to be essentially valuable, certainly assumes loads of a person’s adult life, not leaving any space for a couple of other valuable pursuits (Hursthouse, 1991). But a number of women who prefer abortion instead of having their child, and a couple of men who support their partners in choosing abortion, are not averting parenthood for other pursuits’ sake, but for the value of enjoying good time, or for the hunt of some false idea of the ultimate self-realization or freedom. Not only might destiny make the dream come to reality, or devastate it, but a person’s own connection to it might make it impracticable. Good marriages, in addition to promising children, are likely to be destroyed by merely one adult’s extreme command for perfection (Hursthouse, 1991). Abortion is acknowledged by the American Medical Association (AMA) as a medical procedure when carried out by a licensed doctor in accordance with good standards of medical practice (Boonin, 2003). There are nearly 1,800 qualified physicians who offer services of abortion in the US. These qualified physicians, not doctors, ought to have the power to make medical judgments concerning abortion. Contemporary procedures of abortion are safe. Thus, the risk of a woman dying as a result of abortion is not more than one in 100,000. But, the possibility of a woman dying due to child birth is 13.3 deaths in every 100,000 pregnancies (Boonin, 2003). Additionally, a fertility study of 10,767 women in 1993 by the Joint Royal College of General Practitioners and Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists established that women who had not more than two abortions experienced similar potential in fertility as the ones who had not more than two normal pregnancies (Berlatsky, 2011). With regards to safe abortion medically speaking, a case in which a woman’s life is put at stake due to pregnancy, for instant, a mother has some medical condition like high blood pressure that compromises her life, the best option that the doctor will take is to terminate pregnancy so as to save the woman’s life (Right To Life, 2006). This of course is on a good course. The woman would rather be saved. Another case is the reality that pregnancy is not merely one among several physical states does not imply that a person can never consider it in that perspective without presenting a vice. When a woman is in a very poor bodily health, or depleted from childbearing, or obliged to do jobs that are physically demanding, then she is not described as callous, self-indulgent, or irresponsible in case she ought for abortion principally with a perspective of avoiding pregnancy as the bodily condition that already is (Hursthouse, 1991). To go all the way through a pregnancy when someone is completely worn out, or when a person’s job entails crawling down the tunnels carrying coal, as several women during the 19th century were forced to do, is maybe heroic, but individuals who are not able to attain heroism are not essentially vicious. That they are able to perceive the pregnancy just as eight months of despair followed by days of exhaustion and agony, and abortion solely as the blessed run away from this viewpoint, is totally reasonable and does not display any disrespect for human life or petty approach to motherhood (Hursthouse, 1991). Another reason why abortion should be de-criminalized is because every child is a wanted child. Incase women are obliged to carry pregnancies that are unwanted to them, the consequence is unwanted children (Allen, 2009). When these children grow up, they are time and again seriously disadvantaged, and occasionally predisposed toward wicked behavior to others. This in turn is not good for families, children, or for the nation as a whole. Children need families who will take care of them. Above all, they need love. Conclusion In conclusion, I support the idea that abortion should be de-criminalized. An inclusive worldwide study concerning abortion has affirmed that rates of abortion are same in nations where it is lawful and those where it is illegal, implying that prohibiting the act does not do much to discourage women pursuing it. In addition, the researchers established that in nations where abortion was legal, it was safe, but risky in nations where it was prohibited and performed secretly. Worldwide, abortion makes up 13% of deaths of women in the course of pregnancy and delivery, and for each 100 live births, there are 31 abortions. Due to the safe abortion procedures provided by qualified medical practitioners, abortion should be de-criminalized so as to deter the unsafe practice of abortion after all. Bibliography Allen, AL, 2009, Atmospherics: Abortion Law and Philosophy, On Philosophy in American Law, 184-192. Berlatsky, N, 2011, Abortion, Detroit, MI, Greenhaven Press. Boonin, D, 2003, A defense of abortion, Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press. Bowie, GL, et al., 1996, Twenty questions: an introduction to philosophy, Harcourt Brace College Publishers, Fort Worth. Hursthouse, R, 1991, Virtue Theory and Abortion, Philosophy & Public Affairs, Vol. 20, Issue 3, pp. 223-246. Rosenthal, E, 2007, Legal or Not, Abortion Rates Compare, Retrieved on 18 February, 2013 from: Right To Life, 2006, Abortion in Australia into the 21st Century: facts, current trends and a way ahead, New South Wales, Right to Life. Shrage, L, 2003, Abortion and social responsibility: depolarizing the debate, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Read More