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Arguments Against Abortion   Term Paper ID:35579 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: This paper argues that abortion is morally wrong.... More...

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Paper Abstract: This paper argues that abortion is morally wrong mainly because a fetus has as much right to life as any human being. The ethical and political positions that lie between pro-choice and pro-life arguments. Paper Introduction: Abortions Are Immoral The subject of abortion may well be the most intense and polarizingethical and philosophical issue of the our times because in LaurenceTribe\'s words it is a clash of absolutes Tribe There is inpractical terms no room for compromise While one may speak of theimportance of weighing the rights of the mother and the rights of thefetus in practical terms a woman cannot both carry a fetus to term andhave an abortion Other important social issues allow for a range Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. All those things that will make thisindividual unique are already present in the fertilized egg. If, however, there is a high probability that a woman's pregnancy will result in her death (as in the case of a tubal pregnancy, for example), then abortion is justified. A woman with a tubalpregnancy, for example, should be given an abortion and sympathy over theloss of a child she can never have. It is also astance that is politically problematic: Do those who want to save unbornchildren want to have to defend themselves against the legitimateaccusation of disregarding life - of murder even? It is this type of abortion that is the subjectof fierce political debate in the United States and that is the subject ofthis paper. And decide separately from their own beliefs. There is very little if any ethical concern over it (unlessthe miscarriage is caused by what some consider to be irresponsiblebehavior on the part of the mother). It seems highly Jesuitical to arguefor the rights of a fetus and not the rights of a mother. It has been estimated to occur in 15 to 2 percent of all pregnancies. (In the same way, one may value life but also believe that it ispermissible and moral to kill in self-defense or in war.) Each person mustdecide for himself or herself where to draw the line. I submit that human life is present throughout this entire sequence from conception to adulthood and any interruption at any point constitutes a termination of a human life." (http://www.gravityteen.com/prenatal/life_beginning.cfm). Itwould, of course, be naïve to argue that criminalizing abortion will bringabout an end to the practice. The issue of induced abortions, never long out of the news, has becomeeven more important recently because of the legalization in the UnitedStates of RU-486, which allows for non-surgical abortions, which makes"abortion on demand" all the easier to get. When abortion was a crime: Medicine, and law in the United States, 1867-1973. This is basic decency, and a truerespect for life. And veryfew argue that abortion should simply be used as a regular form of birthcontrol. Abortion Wars: A Half Century of Struggle, 195 -2 . While one may speak of theimportance of weighing the rights of the mother and the rights of thefetus, in practical terms a woman cannot both carry a fetus to term andhave an abortion. It is perhaps worth noting here that this paper is focusing on inducedabortions, which is the intentional ending of a pregnancy by the actions ofa doctor or midwife or other health professional (or in places whereabortion is not legal or not easily accessible by lay practitioners). However, this argument is untenable for those who believe that humanlife begins at the moment an egg is fertilized. Works Citedhttp://www.christiananswers.net/q-sum/q-life 1.htmlhttp://www.e-thepeople.org/about/news/8633647 /1http://www.empty-cradles.com/miscarriage.htmhttp://www.gravityteen.com/prenatal/life_beginning.cfmReagan, L. If a woman miscarries because shecontracts a serious case of the flu, the event is tragic, but there is nomoral or ethical element to it - in the same way that it is tragic ifsomeone is killed in an avalanche (http://www.empty-cradles.com/miscarriage.htm). Where there is no intention to end apregnancy there can be no claim of moral standing anymore than there areissues of morality in a car accident that ends in a broken leg. Spontaneous abortions are far more commonthan most people probably realize. This type of abortion is called a spontaneous abortion within themedical literature, although it is more commonly called a miscarriage bymost people. There is, as Tribe argues, no practical middle path between the choiceof carrying a pregnancy to term and ending it through abortion. Thousands of abortions occur naturally in the United States eachyear either because the fetus is not developing normally and so is rejectedby the mother's body (this happens in a number of mammals) or because themother is injured, or becomes ill, or has some pre-existing or underlyingdisorder that her from carrying the pregnancy to term. To say thatthe embryo, or fetus, is not really a person because it is not yetcompletely developed is no different from saying that a five-year-old childis not really a person because it too is not yet a completely developedperson. 34). Thefollowing citation makes a well-reasoned distinction between legality andmorality in the area of abortion and at the same time suggests at thecomplexity of blending passionately held personal beliefs with publicpolicy in a diverse society: "This is one of those issues that I am torn on, but the long and short of it is that I don't think that the government should be allowed to legislate morality and so abortions, at least in the first trimester, should be legal. But determining the morality of others through law is aproblematic business: Are we indeed without sin that we may cast stonesagainst others by criminalizing abortion? It shouldbe noted, however, that there is in fact a spectrum of opinion: Between pro-life and pro-choice positions lies a continuum of ethical and politicalpositions. Thepregnancy is ended because the pregnancy is unwanted or because it presentsa risk to a woman's health. Most people who believe that abortion is morally wrong, because it istantamount to murder, also believe that it should be criminalized becauseso long as it remains legal far too many abortions will be performed. Berkeley: UC Press.Solinger, R. Different pro-life people have different opinions on this issue.Some argue that no abortion should ever be performed and that if a womandies because of a pregnancy then she will treated more kindly by God and sothe sacrifice of her life will not have been in vain. This paper takes the position that abortion is wrong because afetus has as much right to life as any other human being. However,criminalizing abortion would certainly reduce the number of abortions thatare performed. There is, inpractical terms, no room for compromise. Abortionis actually a more general term referring to the termination of pregnancybefore birth that either causes, or is accompanied by, the death of thefetus. However,while there is some room for compromise, this paper in general argues thatabortion is morally wrong. (1998). If one considersabortion to be murder then one should believe that no woman should have anabortion. Politically, my feelings are meaningless and as a matter of mass public policy the legality of the act is separate from the morality of it. Many miscarriages occur very early, going unnoticed before a woman is even aware that she is pregnant. (At least for the thinking person.) Itis relatively easy to decide on one's own views on abortion; it is harderto decide what a stranger's legal rights should be. Abortions Are Immoral The subject of abortion may well be the most intense and polarizingethical and philosophical issue of the our times because, in LaurenceTribe's words, it is a clash of absolutes (Tribe 1992). Those who favorlegal abortions in general believe the fetus is only a "potential" humanbeing either until it is actually born or at least until it is viable, i.e.until it could live independently outside the mother's womb, something thatoccurs sometime during the last trimester of pregnancy(www.plannedparenthood.org). Berkeley: UC Press, 1998.Staley, Tony. Or, to put it another way, in such cases the intent is not to kill the unborn (though that is an unfortunate effect) but to save the life of the mother. We may now turn to the ethical questions surround induced abortion.Those who argue that all abortions are wrong generally do so from theposition of believing that the fetus is a human being too. Thus, the argument goes, a woman can make whatever choices she wants and society be damned -- which makes an abortion drug only one more option (Staley, http://www.thecompassnews.org/compass/2 -1 - 6/ cn1 6c4.htm). However, as Solinger (1998) argues, most pro-life advocates do believethat an exception should be made in the case when a woman's life is indanger on the grounds that while the fetus is a person so of course is themother. For it is a greater good that one human should live (the mother) rather than two die (the mother and her child). But several years ago, the argument for abortion-on-demand shifted from denying the existence of human life to arguing that it's an issue of rights. Very few people argue that a fertilized egg always has primacy,even if a woman will definitely die as the result of a pregnancy. What small area of gray there is will be discussed below. Until this time, proponents of legalizedabortion argue, the fetus has no legal rights. Of these early miscarriages, at least half are thought to be caused by problems with the fetus's chromosomes (http://www.empty-cradles.com/miscarriage.htm). But legally, the soul doesn't exist." (http://www.e- thepeople.org/about/news/8633647 /1). "Life loses again: FDA decision to legalize abortion drug was wrong, but sadly, not an unexpected one", The Compass, 6 October 2 , http://www.thecompassnews.org/compass/2 -1 - 6/ cn1 6c4.htmTribe, Laurence. With the exception of such cases, abortion is an act in which an innocent human being is intentionally killed; therefore, abortion should be made illegal, as are all other such acts of killing (http://www.christiananswers.net/q-sum/q- life 1.html). More than 8 percent of miscarriages occur in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Rather all legal rightsbelong to the woman carrying the fetus, who can decide whether or not tobring the pregnancy to full term (Tribe, 1992, p. One of the important issues that must be addressed both in terms ofthe criminalization of abortion and of one's personal ethical stance onabortion is whether the procedure should be allowed to save the life of amother. In general, most pro-life people argue that abortions are morally (and so should be legally)permissible if without one the woman would die. Morally, I greatly dislike the practice. Fetuses are human and so should have all the rights of other humanbeings. This question, like the questionof whether one personally believes that abortion is moral or immoral, issomething that individuals must decide on their own(www.familyplanning.org). If criminalizing an activity automaticallystopped people's doing it then the jails would be empty. It is at this moment thatall of the genetic material (and so all of the "instructions") needed for ahuman being to develop are present. This does not - of course - mean that anyone should be required toraise a child: Giving up a child for adoption is certainly a moraldecision, one that gives the (rightful) gift of life to a child and thegift of a family to a couple who might otherwise be denied such joy. When people talk of souls and all, that's fine, I agree spiritually. It is important to note that not all abortions are induced. Miscarriage, technically called spontaneous abortion, is defined as the loss of a pregnancy before the 2 th week. Thosewho give life to others - either to a baby or to an adoptive couple - areheroes. This seems a reasonable stance. The actual number, however, is probably more like 5 %. New York: Norton, 1992.www.familyplanning.orgwww.plannedparenthood.org The doctor who discovered Down Syndrome phrased it this way: "I have learned from my earliest medical education that human life begins at the time of conception. However, it is always morally more problematic to make decisions forother people than it is for oneself. Abortion: The Clash of Absolutes. Other important social issues allow for a range ofcompromises: Welfare reform, for example, exists in a dozen shades of gray.But abortion is an either/or proposition - or at least it is for the mostpart. 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