Abortion – Critical Thinking
New Charter University
Abstract
What subject has been more controversial for the last several decades than abortion? Since the decriminalization of abortion in 19731, thousands have been performed every year in the United States. Whether you are a pro-life or right-to-life supporter, or a pro-choice advocate, there are compelling arguments. Both sides use proven statistics, as well as emotional appeal to establish their points. Pro-choice groups speak to the rights of a woman to choose what she wants to do with her body as a matter of freedom. Aside from personal choice, they believe that there are certain circumstances where abortion may be required due to medical reasons. Pro-life proponents
…show more content…
Reproductive choice is a personal liberty.
Is it socially responsible to force women to birth children they cannot support financially or emotionally? The responsibility of raising a child is the biggest decision most people will make in their lifetime. Not only is there a huge financial commitment that a mother may not be able to meet, but the time, effort and emotion that are required to raise a child may not be within reach. Is it socially responsible to force women to birth children only to raise them in substandard circumstances and give that child a poor quality of life?
Additionally, abortion may be necessary to terminate pregnancy when the embryo will develop into a child with sever medical problems or birth defects. Again, we must consider the quality of life of the parent, as well as the offspring. How can someone be forced to produce an unhappy burden? Not only would a developmentally delayed child be an excessive strain on the parent, but a strain on society as a whole. They will likely grow into an unproductive adult rather than a beneficial member of the community. How can a parent be legally forced to raise a child in this case? Who benefits? If the embryo is terminated prior to consciousness, then it is as if they never existed at all and no harm has been done, however, if they are forced to subsist they will become a sad,
One of the most controversial topics over the years, and still today, is abortion. Is abortion murder or not? When does a fetus become a human? There are no answers to these questions. Everyone individual has their own beliefs on whether or not abortion is justifiable. Abortions have been performed throughout many of centuries. Recently, there has been a number of court cases that has changed the legality of abortions, especially in the United States, for example Roe v. Wade. Even religions have changed their views on abortions over the course of the years. In the abortions wars there are two parties, pro-life and pro-choice. Pro-life believes that abortion is murder and is completely immoral. Pro-choice,
When touching the subject of abortion, one must consider that there are two sides battling for control. That is right, abortion has literally turned into a war zone where even the unlikely of individuals do the unthinkable. Each side has their motives and methods for contradicting the other. For instance, there are cases and events that support both sides of this issue.
If medical tests have proven that the child will be born with severe handicaps that would greatly reduce the quality of life or endanger the fetus, the opportunity to terminate should be available. Allowing abortion because of fetal disability may actually benefit the child in the long run, by saving it from a life full of unnecessary complications. This, however, is a very controversial reason and is not generally accepted by many people due to moral reasons.
Rape related pregnancies requires further studying as it is a significant issue and requires more attention. To date there is a lack of empirical research showing how many women choose to terminate rape related pregnancies but studies remain showing that on average 1% of women who terminate their pregnancy is due to rape (SOURCE 4, 6, 8). Though research on terminating rape-related pregnancies is understudied, there is a vast amount proposing that women who seek to terminate their pregnancy as a result of rape do so later than those who were not raped (1, 2, 4) As discussed earlier, rape is an underreported crime. With an average of 1 in 3 women seeking post assault medical care, abortion may be the first time women with rape-related pregnancies access care after an assault (source
Women may have an abortion for a variety of reasons, but in general they choose abortion because a pregnancy at that time is in some way wrong for them. “Abortion is the removal of a fetus from the uterus before it is mature enough to live on its own” (Kuechler 1996). When this happens spontaneously we call it a miscarriage. Induced abortion is brought about deliberately by a medical procedure that ends pregnancy. Legal abortion, carried out by trained medical practitioners, is one of the most common and safest surgical procedures. “About 1.5 million American women choose to have induced abortions each year. Less than 1% of all abortion patients experience a major complication associated with the procedure” (Kuechler 1996).
Pro-life activist argue that abortion leaves women suffering psychological and physical damage. This arguments are mostly based on peer-reviewed studies published by several medical journals. For example, they used a peer-reviewed study published in BMC Medicine in 2005 that stated that even after five years of the pregnancy termination, women had higher anxiety scores. Also, a peer-reviewed study published in 2002 by the
The issue of abortion is one of the most sensitive and controversial issues faced by modern societies. This issue leads to topics of whether abortion is right or wrong, if it is the actual killing of a person, and what actually defines the moral status of a fetus. In this paper, I will be arguing against Bonnie Steinbock, who believes that abortions are morally acceptable. So I will be supporting the view that abortions are not morally acceptable.
The topic of abortion and its legality is one that is strongly felt on both sides of the issue. This is one of the most heated arguments you can get into and if I am being fully honest I am a little nervous about publicizing my view point. But here is my research and arguments for whether abortion should be legal or not.
Abortion is topic to discuss here. Seeking a Common Ground is the only way to abortion debate. I do have great respect to all women. Like on power point men don’t get pregnant and don’t even realize that their women are pregnant but women always do know every single change on them. I would say, it is better to do abortion than suffer from family issue by having unplanned baby. It could mess the whole family and their career path. I know in certain place it can be immoral, illegal to do abortion after certain time from the pregnancy. People have to think how to provide good upbringing to their kids so it is better to go according to the plan. Therefore, finding a Common Ground is the best way to this problem.
The United States has been divided now over the issue of abortion for thirty-three years since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade in 1973. As of today, over 45 million legal abortions have been performed in the United States. Pro-choice advocates hold these 45 million abortions as being 45 million times women have exercised their right to choose to get pregnant and to choose to control their own bodies. To pro-life, or anti-abortion, advocates these 45 million abortions constitute 45 million murders, a genocide of human life in the United States propagated by the court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade. The debate over abortion in the United States is thus a debate of two extremes. One side argues from the personal liberty of the mother. The
Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy. Since 1973 abortion has been an important controversial issue within the United States. 1973 marks the year that the famous Rowe versus Wade case was decided before the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled that abortion be legal and available to all women. Legal abortions can be performed up until the sixteenth week of pregnancy, after sixteen weeks most doctors or clinics will not perform the procedure unless keeping the baby presents a medical risk to the mother. Even in these situations abortions are very risky after sixteen weeks.
Yet, it is your duty to look after your baby. As Kant suggests, if you
Who is to say that if all children ever conceived were born they would live happy, healthy lives? There are plenty of commercials on television proving that the world is full of starving children. So should we add to the population of starving children? For many women, the choice could be related to their own health. Women have the right to choose their own life over a child they would never see if they went through with the birth.
The controversy within the biomedical ethics topic, abortion, has two main proponents. The first is the view against abortion, also known as pro-life. The other view is rooted upon the belief of being pro-choice, or basically for abortions. These two different views are like two mathematical principles, in that although these two views have many differences, they also have larger similarities in the background. For example, when pro-choice activists support abortions due to unwanted pregnancies, the activists are not rallying behind the idea of sexual incompetency (pregnancies due to lack of birth control). Rather, they are supporting the idea that women have the right to choose what to do with their own bodies. In order to understand
It could be argued that as the child could not possibly survive independently of the mother, at least before approximately four months into the pregnancy, it is not yet an independent human being, but an attachment of the mother, therefore she should be allowed to terminate it, if this is what she wants to do to herself, as opposed to when the child is physically independent of the mother, when any potentially life ending action against it would be inflicted upon the child directly, not its mother (Kellough 35).