Abortion: A Contemporary Moral Issue - Research Paper Example

Abortion: A Contemporary Moral Issue (Abortion Exposed) Introduction Abortion, as the suggests, means to abort orfinish. An act of instantaneous slaughter of a human before the baby is born. It is becoming one of the most contemporary issues of the present time. For the past two decades, the issue has been debated regarding the ethical and moral concerns. To date no convincing results could be procured; rather it emerged as the most arguable of all the existing contemporary societal concerns of the present century (Web. "Ethics of Abortion: Is it Moral or Immoral to Have an Abortion"). Abortion poses an ethical, societal and therapeutic quandary that blends up poignant answers among disputants of the topic. Abortion is such an issue that carries two viewpoints encompassing choice and life. Life is present in the fetus right from the moment of conception, a fetus, or human embryo is considered to be a living individual. Due to the act of abortion, the individual is divested from the survival and hence abortion is considered to an act of murder. The view is supported by the Catholic Church, considering the responsibility to prevent every individual (Web. "Ethics of Abortion: Is it Moral or Immoral to Have an Abortion"). On the contrary, decision to give birth to the young one is the right of mother and there should not be any interventions, she has the responsibility of upbringing of the child. History reveals that abortion has always been a contemporary issue; the issue was prevalent even before the birth of Christ. Some traditional methods were prevalent to kill the unwanted fetus; it was a legal as well as political concern. Plato (428- 347 BC) and Aristotle (384-322 BC) maintained the outlook of abortion (Roos). Abortion: a Crucial Ethical Issue Abortion has been debated over the years on the political grounds to make a law in order to regard it as a murder or it should be left as a permissible issue leaving on the choice of the women. However, it cannot be denied that law must not legislate transience, the laws must be made for good and should be in the favor of women (Web. "Fetus, Humanity, Personhood: When Does a Fetus Become a Human Person with Rights"). 1. Pro-life 1.1 Could fetus be considered as an individual with rights? Debates related to abortion encompass the lawful eminence related to the fetus. Considering fetus as an individual, abortion is equivalent to the murder and therefore abortion is an illegitimate act. On the other hand, needful to understand that fetus is the part of womens body and any state cannot compel a woman to continue with the pregnancy if the woman is not willing to maintain it to the complete term. Thus, it should be an ethical choice and should not be considered as a murder (Web. "Fetus, Humanity, Personhood: When Does a Fetus Become a Human Person with Rights"). 1.2 Female possesses Moral Responsibility towards the developing Fetus! Improper use or failure of contraceptive means and womans concurrence to sex may turn out to be pregnancy, continuing with pregnancy may result in inviting plethora of responsibilities that a woman may not be prepared for, such pregnancy is said to be unwanted/untimely. Possibly this compulsion may not be adequately strapping to eradicate abortion as an alternative, on the other hand it might be sufficient to check at what time abortion could be made a moral choice (Web. "Fetus, Humanity, Personhood: When Does a Fetus Become a Human Person with Rights"). 1.3 Abortion: an immoral treatment to the fetus! Considering a fetus to be an individual itself provides it an ethical eminence. It is therefore manifested that abortion in the later stages of pregnancy is not performed as by that time fetus starts looking like a baby, like a defined human and hence it becomes more unethical to abort the baby (Web. "Fetus, Humanity, Personhood: When Does a Fetus Become a Human Person with Rights"). 1.4 Spiritual Debates over Abortion Every life is the gift of god and no one is provided with the right to kill anyone. Supporters and believers of such conviction could be against abortion. There are religious leaders who practice such doctrine but a forced pregnancy is also the violation of human (women) rights. It could be secular, but no religious values could promote an unwanted individual or development of mutinous child or an irresponsible citizen, as the child deprived of the sense of responsibility may turn out to be disloyal for society (Web. "Fetus, Humanity, Personhood: When Does a Fetus Become a Human Person with Rights"). 1.5 Standing of the Fetus Considering abortion as an ongoing debate all over the world, the issue is influencing various aspects of the human endeavor encompassing cultural, spiritual, political or moral. All these debates argue upon the legality of the issue "Abortion". The view that fetus has the same set of genetic material as an adult, brings to focus fetal rights. Thus, argument takes a different shape when the genetic aspects are considered (Web. "Difference between Genotype and Phenotype"). 1.6 What shapes an individual? The genetic aspects are not the sole creators of the individual; it is accepted fact of the laws of genetics that genotype together with phenotype shapes the personality of a person. The genetic aspect encompasses inheritance, while the phenotypic aspects comprise the influence of environment. Essentially, the fetus should be provided with a congenial atmosphere for the development and positive outlook, away from frustrations and dissatisfactions in life. This could only be possible if the mother is willing to give birth to the child, failing to take up the responsibility may germinate the seeds of disobedience (Web. "Fetus, Humanity, Personhood: When Does a Fetus Become a Human Person with Rights"). 1.7 Development of Brain The child must get proper nutrition as well as personal care for cognitive development and brain growth. Inappropriate nutrition and care may result in psychological implications. Essentially, mother is required to be prepared to take up the responsibility before giving birth to the child; inability to do so hampers cognitive development. If the mother understands that she is not prepared to take up all these responsibilities and opt for abortion then it should be promoted for the sake of the child (Gabriel). 1.8 Self-regulating existence It is argued that if a woman likes to lead an independent life shouldnt she be given the opportunity! Fetus is a life form, an individual, as long as it is attached to the mothers uterus it cannot lead an independent life, so the right to let the fetus live should be considered only with the consent of the woman, rightfully no one can pressurize women for a particular decision, if she finds herself unfit to perform all the required duties abortion should be permitted (Web. "Fetus, Humanity, Personhood: When Does a Fetus Become a Human Person with Rights"). 1.9 Essence In certain mythological beliefs every individual has a soul which comes with life, considering the fact that soul never dies, once life is germinated, one must respect the soul and should never disobey the commands that god has sent by means of the soul inside the body and therefore deeds like killing the fetus should be abandoned (Web. "Abortion"). However, history reveals that Tertullian and Plato were the firm believers about the entry of soul into the human body as soon as the baby is born, when the baby is in womb there is no soul inside it and soul enters the body with the first breath, however, Tertullian viewed fetus to be an impending human being. According to modern philosophy, as soon as the sperm joins the egg cell, the union results in birth of a living creature as this single cell is capable of directing the psycho-physical development of the entire individual (Web. "Abortion"). Further, the debate is taken to different route in the sense that if animals are protected why not human fetus be provided with all the rights! 1.10 Is Abortion a murder? If one considers fetus to be an individual then abortion is equivalent to the murder. In case of abortion, the abortion doers and the mother should be punished? There are various incidence highlighting the fact that the life of women is miserable, she is forced to take such a step, these consequences encompass rape, incent, forced sex, unprotected sex, illegal relationships, extra marital sexual relationships, living relationships, teenage pregnancies etc. Under such circumstances, women should be provided with the right to protect her body, position in the society and career to lead a respectful life. She is not being provided with any help from religion or from the social ethics. She has to bear this trauma and the resultant of the tragedy (the unwanted child) all thorough her life and therefore in order to avoid all the consequences drug manufacturers have made various pills capable of removing the conception within 72 hours to prevent the despondent position of the women in the society (Web. "Abortion"). Noteworthy to understand that society only modulates ethics and morals but when the help is truly desired the help seekers remain unattended, to overcome such circumstances, women have adopted abortion as the means to safeguard themselves from all kinds of worries and lead a life of respect and dignity. Women of today have understood the severity and the consequences of continuing with the unwanted pregnancies and they do want to lead a happy life and not a life of shame and guilt that society provides them with, therefore abortion has emerged as the most contemporary moral issue. As far as rights of fetus are concerned, it solely depends on personal outlook, but one must consider the financial burden of one more child as well as the implication of ever rising population and escalating population. It would be better for the legislative authorities to legalize abortion. Decision to opt for abortion varies from person to person, abortion could be traumatic but more distressing is to give birth to an unwanted child and bearing all responsibilities. One rule cannot hold true for all situations and for every individual. The psychological strength and supportive situations also pave the way in woman’s life to opt for abortion. Decision of the lady should be respected as she has to carry her life and responsibilities further. If the child is unwanted then the frustration of the lady may hamper the development of the child (Web. "Pros and Cons of Abortion"). Biologically speaking abortion could be performed only in the first trimester when the placenta attaches the fetus. The health of fetus therefore depends on the health of the mother. The notion of personhood is diverse from the notion of human life. Unless the fetus leads a separate and independent life, abortion cannot be correlated with the murder. Abortion is mostly carried out for unwanted pregnancies. It is a medical process and possesses less than 0.5% jeopardy of serious impediments (Web. "Abortion Arguments: 10 Arguments For Abortion, 10 Arguments Against Abortion"). 1.11 Religious aspects Abortion has been debated since ancient times, Aristotle presented his views about the issue as "delayed ensoulment". According to Ted Lockhart, "perform actions that we are maximally confident are morally permissible". This argument is known as the "moral certainty" argument (Web. "Introduction to the abortion debate"). 1.11 Ethical aspects It is not moral to give birth to the unwanted child and nurture the child with least botheration. In certain cases conception could be the result of contraceptive failure or a woman may not be prepared for; such cases demand legalization of abortion (Web. "Ethics of Abortion: Is it Moral or Immoral to Have an Abortion"). 2. Pro-choice 2.1 Personal ethics and anatomy of woman If a woman decides that she is not prepared to pursue the pregnancy then she can abort the pregnancy. Keeping the ethical assertion to herself, the anatomy of the body should also permit the continuity of the pregnancy. If the conception occurs at the later age around forty then the body anatomy of the lady does not permit for the continuity of pregnancy. In such cases, termination of pregnancy should be allowed. On the other hand, if a women is victimized, due to rape or forced sex, and if the result turns out to be pregnancy then also woman must be allowed to terminate the pregnancy. Moreover, if the incidence occur at the tender age and the girl is not willing to pursue with the pregnancy then it should be aborted. Thus, body anatomy of the lady becomes the chief elementary concern where ethics are really being measured and women are also considered to be democratic in a true sense. Autonomy should be given to the women to think about herself and also to consider her choice to carry the pregnancy to the term (Web. "Fetus, Humanity, Personhood: When Does a Fetus Become a Human Person with Rights"). 2.2 Moral value: to force a woman to pursue the pregnancy to the term? Is it ethical or legal to force any woman to continue with the pregnancy when she is not willing to? There could be various reasons to opt for abortion, may it be financial crunch where the woman understands that it is not feasible to bring the child to the world of miseries, or if the career of the woman is at its peak and she cannot afford to take leave from work and pursue with the pregnancy (Web. "Fetus, Humanity, Personhood: When Does a Fetus Become a Human Person with Rights"). It is not at all ethical to ignore the rights to speak and proceed just for the sake of the one who has not even arrived to the world. 2.3 Moral Principles and the Results of Sexual relationships: It is evident that pregnancy is the resultant of sexual act, in the present scenario sexual relationships are beyond the cultural paradigms and therefore women must also unbound sex from its consequences and should get the choice to pursue or not to pursue with the conception (Web. "Fetus, Humanity, Personhood: When Does a Fetus Become a Human Person with Rights"). 2.4 Ethical commitment of women towards the father of the fetus: Any pregnancy cannot occur without the male partner. It is therefore necessary to have a consent of the father as well before aborting the child. If the father agrees to take up the responsibility of the child, women gains confidence and believe on his words and pregnancy could be taken to the term. In the present era where relationships are fragile, women do not want to have any binding to forgo her career or liberty. Now-a-days living relationships are prevailing and under such relationship, the couple does not like to enter into any kind of bonding related to child (Web. "Fetus, Humanity, Personhood: When Does a Fetus Become a Human Person with Rights"). 2.5 To give birth to unwanted child is moral? It is unethical to kill the fetus right in the womb by means of abortion but if the act is not performed and when the child is born, it is likely that the child may remain unattended and uncared, as this child is the one who was not wanted by the mother and she has given birth to the child just to preserve the moral values. The unwanted child is not able to develop to the full potential and is liable to turn out to be rebellious. Creating such a child is moral? Ideally it is not and therefore, if the female does not want to give birth to the child she should not be forced. If a woman does not have time to be a good mother and chooses to abort the child the choice must be given a favor (Web. "Fetus, Humanity, Personhood: When Does a Fetus Become a Human Person with Rights"). Conclusion It is necessary to clarify that society is formed by humans, and individuals modulate all the ethics and morals but when the help is truly desired it remains unattended and therefore in the present situation women have adopted abortion as the means to safeguard themselves from all worries and to lead a life of respect and dignity. Women of today has understood the severity and consequences of continuing with an unwanted pregnancy and they do want to lead a happy life and not a life of shame and guilt that society provides them, it is therefore abortion has emerged as the most contemporary moral issue today. Considering the rights of the fetus, it depends on personal outlook, but one must consider the financial burden of one more child, the population burden that the planet can endure and therefore unwanted pregnancies must be prevented through abortion. Work Cited Abortion. Web. 25 March 2014. . Abortion Exposed. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. . Ethics of Abortion: Is it Moral or Immoral to Have an Abortion. Web. 25 March 2014. . Cline, A. Ethics of Abortion: Is it Moral or Immoral to Have an Abortion. Web. 25 March 2014. . Cline, A. Fetus, Humanity, Personhood: When Does a Fetus Become a Human Person with Rights. Web. 25 March 2014. Difference between Genotype and Phenotype. Web. 25 March 2014. . Gabriel, G. Child and Brain: The Stages of Development. Web. 25 March 2014. . Introduction to the abortion debate. Web. 25 March 2014. . Pros and Cons of Abortion. Web. 25 March 2014. . Roos, F. J. Abortion and the Early Christian Church. Web. 25 March 2014. . 10 Abortion Arguments: 10 Arguments For Abortion, 10 Arguments Against Abortion. Web. 25 March 2014. . Read More