The Death of the Future Like Ours- Abortion

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Recommended: modern issues in society abortion

With the rising numbers of teenage pregnancies nowadays, there is no doubt that abortion is one of the most controversial issue since the 16th century. Abortion has been in the records as early as the 11th century but gained public notice in the late 1800’s. In Canada, there is currently no legal restrictions pertaining to abortion since it was decriminalized in January 28, 1988. However, debates of whether abortion is morally acceptable or not is still going on in different areas of the country. Pro-choice (pro-abortion) insists that fetuses are not included to the principle of “right to life” therefore abortion is permissible. They base their argument to the personhood principle where they define a “person” as someone who is rational, autonomous, has self-consciousness, etc. On the other hand, pro-life (anti-abortion) argues vice versa and pushes the principle that fetuses are “biologically human” therefore, they deserve to have a right to live. Different angles of argument has been considered but all ends in a standoff. Marquis, for one, offers a solution that might solve the issue once and for all.

According to Don Marquis, “Abortion is presumptively very seriously wrong, where the presumption is very strong – as strong as the presumption that killing another adult human being is wrong” (Marquis, p. 371). In his work Why Abortion Is Immoral? , he argues that the main reason why it is morally impermissible to kill an adult human is neither the effect on the killer nor the people left by the victim but because killing him deprives him of his future’s value. All the activities, projects, experiences and enjoyments he could have in the future are taken away from him (Marquis, p. 367). Therefore, killing anyone who has a “futur...

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...tever he/she wants to do with its body.

All people experiences different kinds of misfortunes in the entirety of their life. However, one can lose something special to him, but can still function as a human without it. He can lose someone very close to him, but can still move on and succeed in life. But, when he loses his own life, that’s the end of it. The loss of one’s life is almost the greatest misfortune that can happen to one (Marquis, p. 370). Abortion, is not just killing one’s life, but also killing his future and potential value of what he can do. Therefore, abortion is, except in rare cases, morally wrong.

Works Cited

http://civilliberty.about.com/od/abortion/f/When-Did-Abortion-Begin.htm

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/quotes/a/margaret_sanger.htm

http://forlifeandfamily.blogspot.ca/2009/08/they-know-its-baby-and-they-dont-want.html

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