A Look at Abortion
A woman works twelve hours a day and her husband is always away on business trips, so she feels the child she is now pregnant with would be neglected and not loved as much as it should be. She and her husband decide to have an abortion, because in the back of their minds killing is better than neglecting or the option of adoption. The woman goes to see a doctor because she still feels the family the child will be brought up into will not completely satisfy its needs. The doctor tells her she is too far long in her pregnancy and chemicals will not work, so a partial birth abortion will have to be performed. After talking the situation over with her husband they decide to go ahead with the abortion, and a week later she returns to the ?doctors? office to have the abortion preformed. The doctor begins by inducing labor and giving the patient sedatives and pain- killers. After part of the living child is out the process is stopped and the doctor purposely and intentionally kills the living being. After the child is dead the mother continues to give birth until the innocent and dead child is ?born.?
Luckily partial-birth abortion, as depicted above, is banned, but all other abortions still being performed are also wrong and inhumane. Supporters of abortion claim, ?life does not begin at conception, it begins at birth.? ?A fetus does not have any feeling or rights? is the claim made to support the immoral outcome of ?a woman?s choice.?
1. A fetus has no feeling. This statement is partially true, but a fetus is only numb for the first seven weeks after conception. By eight weeks a fetus has nerve cells throughout its entire body and has an abundance of brain activity. Dr. Bernard Nathanson, who has performed more than 60,000 abortions in his lifetime, is now taking on the role of a pro-life activist. Why? Mainly due to his viewing of an ultrasound of a fetus during an abortion. After viewing the video Dr. Nathanson decided to produce a now highly controversial film called The Silent Scream. The movie, which was viewed by tens of thousands of people, presented the same movie of a ?live action ultrasound of an ongoing abortion.
The pro-life feminist believes that the autonomy of one’s body does not generalize if a fetus is present. In the case study involving Bob and Linda Thompson, a married couple with two children who end up pregnant after the failure of an IUD, the pro-life husband is thrilled by the news and informs the children, whereas the wife wants an immediate abortion of the four-month-old fetus in order to continue her career. Callahan would agree with the husband and believe Linda should continue the pregnancy as the right to control her body does not give her the right to control the body of her child. This fetus is immature and powerless, and though it is not yet a person, it is developing into one. Callahan believes that “women can never achieve the fulfillment of feminist goals in a society permissive toward abortion,” (Callahan 161) and disagrees with the views of philosophers Harrison and Petchesky. Furthermore, though Linda believes that it is her body and she has control over what she does with it, Callahan disagrees as another body will result from this 266-day pregnancy, and the process is genetically ordered. The abortion of the fetus is not like an organ donation as the development of the fetus is a continuing process, and Callahan finds it hard to differentiate the point after conception where the immature life
The American culture is addicted to and repulsed by graphic violence. Ratings soar on news stations when a mass murder occurs. People speak of how terrible it is, and yet, their eyes are fastened to the television set. The author, who will be referred to as ‘Abort73’, uses this disgust of mass death to support the idea that abortion and the procedures used, are evil. For many, abortion is a political issue only, not a moral issue of high importance. Like most political issues, it is clouded in partisan debates and logical fallacies. Abort73 writes to bring the debate out of all the fog and describe the actual medical procedures that are used to terminate a pregnancy, effectively engaging the audience.
Abortion has been an issue of heated debate in the United States for numerous years. Legislation has ruled it legal to perform an abortion on any gestational age of an embryo or fetus. Some people agree with the law and consider themselves pro-choice. Others are completely against abortion and are pro-life. In addition to these two groups is another group who support abortion in the first half of pregnancy, but believe abortion should be banned for the second half.
Many people are familiar with the term abortion and its popular controversy in society today. Anyone who is familiar with the term should also be familiar with the two groups that form the controversy of abortion: pro-life and pro-choice. The article I chose is written by Terry O’Neill and is titled, “Legal Abortion Can Be a Lifeline”. The article was published on January 22, 2013, to U.S. News. It argues that abortion saves lives rather than taking them. O’Neill’s claim “abortion is a lifeline” rests upon the questionable assumption that a baby inside a womb is not considered life.
Marquis’ argues that like adult humans, fetuses have the ability to experience a future and by preventing them from experiencing that future through abortion is the same as killing an adult human.
Each day throughout our world, medical professionals suction thousands of babies from their mothers’ wombs through a procedure called abortion. The law protects and provides consent to both the mother and the medical professionals for these procedures. However, the babies seemingly have no right to protection or life themselves because of the argument regarding when a fetus is determined be human and have life. Pro-life author, Sarah Terzo, in a LifeSiteNews.com article, relays the following testimony supporting this from a medical student upon witnessing his first abortion, “Rejected by their mothers and regarded as medical waste by their killers, society allows these babies to die silently, with no recognition or acknowledgment of their humanity” (Terzo).
One of the most controversial and highly debatable subjects in the minds of the American public today is the topic of abortion. While abortion is seen as murder to some, others look upon it as an extremely safe procedure, offering numerous benefits to the recipient, predominantly being the right to choose. The argument has long been increasingly prevalent in the American political scene for decades, and is now being brought into new light as medical practices advance and technical flaws are effectively worked out. What cannot be altered, however, is the reality that what is being disposed of is in fact, a developing human life. It is this fact that the pro-life argument is based upon. The abortion debate not only revolves around the overall legality of the procedure, but also the conditions taking place that would condone such an operation.
Abortion, defined as the intentional termination of a pregnancy, is one of the most highly debated liberties of all time. Approximately one to three million abortions are performed each year. Women receive abortions for reasons such as rape, teen pregnancy, and health concerns. Unfortunately, it is a liberty that some still wish to eradicate due to religious beliefs and misconceptions. Abortion should remain a legal option for women because illegal abortions result in far more fatalities, religion does not serve as grounds for a law, and most importantly, there is no conclusive evidence that a fetus is equal to a human being.
Abortion may be one of the most controversial topics in America today. Abortion is defined as “the termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus” (cite dictionary). There are really only two sides on people’s opinion on abortion; pro-life which means abortion should be outlawed and pro-choice which means a woman should be able to decide whether she wants to keep her baby. Thousands of protests and riots have begun due to the fact pro-life activists believe abortion should become illegal. Both sides bring valid points to support their decision that could sway any person’s thoughts. The Roe v. Wade law has allowed abortion to be legal in the U.S since 1973 (Chittom & Newton, 2015). The law “gives women total control over first trimester abortions and grants state legislative control over second and third trimester abortions” (Chittom & Newton, 2015). Ever since the law was put in place, millions of people have tried to overturn it and still
“I think life is sacred, whether it’s abortion or the death penalty”- Tim Kaine. One of the most talked about ethical dilemmas is abortion. It seems everyone (and every faith) has a different opinion on the subject. Some people feel that abortion should be legalized, while others think that abortion should not be legalized. Judaism supports “pro choice” (meaning that the mother can make the choice of whether or not to have an abortion) but only in certain conditions. Judaism, unlike religions such as Christianity (which strictly forbids abortion), feels that abortion can be done however only for extenuating circumstances.
For many years, the morality of abortion has been questioned by two perspectives: pro-choice and pro-life. While modern culture explains that abortion is a woman’s free choice if she does not want the unborn baby, the Catholic Church teaches the world that from the moment of conception there is a child with a soul within the womb, and to abort it would be to murder an innocent being.
Abortion Abortion is an ongoing controversy that affects millions of Americans every year. Abortion is the removal of an embryo or fetus from the uterus in order to end a pregnancy (Dictonary.com) -. The law provides and protects the mother's decision. and consent for medical professionals to perform these procedures. There are several factors that are considered in debating whether abortion is morally permissible or wrong.
The permissibility of abortion has been a crucial topic for debates for many years. People have yet to agree upon a stance on whether abortion is morally just. This country is divided into two groups, believers in a woman’s choice to have an abortion and those who stand for the fetus’s right to live. More commonly these stances are labeled as pro-choice and pro-life. The traditional argument for each side is based upon whether a fetus has a right to life. Complications occur because the qualifications of what gives something a right to life is not agreed upon. The pro-choice argument asserts that only people, not fetuses, have a right to life. The pro-life argument claims that fetuses are human beings and therefore they have a right to life. Philosopher, Judith Jarvis Thomson, rejects this traditional reasoning because the right of the mother is not brought into consideration. Thomson prepares two theses to explain her reasoning for being pro-choice; “A right to life does not entail the right to use your body to stay alive” and “In the majority of cases it is not morally required that you carry a fetus to term.”
Opponents of the matter, who identify themselves as pro-life, assert that personhood begins at conception, and abortion is therefore the immoral killing of and innocent human being. The staggering numbers and cruel methods are addressed (al...
Abortion is defined as a procedure that is done to remove an embryo or fetus from the uterus of its mother in order to prevent its birth (Roth, 2005). Abortion is categorized as a bioethical issue because it relates to the morals of biomedical advances, policies and research. Abortion is a difficult subject that can involve personal morals and beliefs, legality and religious values. The issue is often viewed from either the side of pro-life, which places emphasis on the fetus and its right to life or pro-choice, which emphasizes the rights of the mother to decide the appropriate action (Roth, 2005). This brings the ethical question of should the government have the right to outlaw abortion into debate. The two viewpoints of pro-life and pro-choice explore the two main moral issues concerning abortion (Roth, 2005).