Abortion Ethics

877 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay moral implications of abortion

The argument of abortion has been raging since the Supreme Court case, Roe vs. Wade, in 1973. This court case has divided the country into two factions: pro-choice and pro-life. Pro-life advocates argue that abortions are murder and extreme levels of child abuse. While pro-choice advocates believe abortions are a justifiable means to end pregnancies. The pro-choice argument is that the fetus is not yet a human being and its rights should not override that of the mother’s.

An importance on what defines a human is very important. Is a human the result of sperm fertilizing an egg? At this point of fertilization the human is composed of a single cell with a unique DNA structure. Killing this unique cell would be wrong, however does this single cell constitute for a person? If being human is defined through having a certain level of self awareness and acknowledgment of your person, then the fetus is not yet a human being so aborting it would be as immoral as destroying a malignant tumor (Shrage 127).

Should emphasis be placed on intelligence and awareness when interpreting what a human being is? A fetus is not a form of intelligent life because it has not yet had any experience, so therefore probably hasn’t had thoughts. In his essay, Rene Descartes, argues that we truly exist because we can doubt our existence. He states, “If I completely stop thinking, I would completely cease to exist”. In this sense of existence is it possible for an unborn child to doubt their existenc...

Show More
Related

  • The Ethics of Abortion

    2300 Words  | 5 Pages

    Background and Context 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

    Read More

  • The Ethics Of Abortion, And Virtue Of Ethics

    1210 Words  | 3 Pages

    Abortion “is an issue that raises questions about life and death, about what a person is and when one becomes a person, about the meaning of life, about the rights of women, and about the duties of men”(Velasquez 485). Abortion is an unresolved ethical issue that has been in doubt for many years because one can argue that you are killing an innocent person/fetus but many argue that is not person because they don’t have a conscious or the characteristics that defines a “person”. John Stuart Mill in

    Read More

  • Essay On Ethics Of Abortion

    1120 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ethics of Abortion The moral community defines the intentional killing of a non-aggressor to be a wrongful act. However, they accept the killing of a non-human, provided that one can present sufficient moral benefit from the action, like the hunting of animals for food. Analyzing these two acts, we find that the difference lies in the beings’ values upon which we place. Intuitively, we agree on the basis that humans have the right to life and that we have an obligation to protect it. I raise the

    Read More

  • Exploring Perspectives: The Ethics of Abortion

    940 Words  | 2 Pages

    Social Ethics Argumentative Paper Many people have often questioned, is abortion is right? If you’re prolife or prochoice then the debate has been happening for years. Prolife believes that a baby has the right to live and that abortion is murder. Prochoice believes that a woman has the right to choose for herself what happens to her body and believes that abortion is a choice. I believe that abortion is always right. This is the outline for my basic argument that will support my thesis. Premise

    Read More

  • The Ethics Of Abortion By Judith Jarvis Thomson

    1549 Words  | 4 Pages

    The ethics of abortion is a topic that establishes arguments that attempt to argue if abortion is morally justified or not. Philosopher Judith Jarvis Thomson wrote a pro- choice piece called “A Defense of Abortion.” In this paper, she presents various arguments that attempt to defend abortion by relating it to the woman carrying the fetus and her right in controlling her body. On the other side of the spectrum, philosopher Don Marquis wrote a pro- life paper called “Why Abortion Is Immoral.” Ultimately

    Read More

  • Kant's Theory Of Obligation And The Ethics Of Abortion

    1323 Words  | 3 Pages

    Abortion is the ethical issue where there have been many cases that women have had to get them illegally or were not given the option to get an abortion. Utilitarianism is the theory in which the ethical doctrine that virtue is based on utility, and that conduct should be directed toward promoting the greatest happiness of the greatest number of persons (Utilitarianism).  The theory of deontology states we are morally obligated to act in accordance with a certain set of principles and rules regardless

    Read More

  • Commentary on Peter Singer´s Practical Ethics and his View on Abortion

    928 Words  | 2 Pages

    Abortion The goal of this essay is to summarize Peter Singer’s opinion on the moral approach of abortion, which is describes in his book Practical Ethics. His goal is to clarify and provide a clear-cut answer to what is generally thought as a moral debate with no solution. To him, the subject of abortion is far from being so, as the ethical problem has wrongly been approached. Singer first points out that the different opinions on abortion come from the debate on when a human life actually begins

    Read More

  • Surrogate Motherhood Research Paper

    586 Words  | 2 Pages

    individual stand on the matters. Abortion Opinion of the council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs of the AMA Physicians and their advisors would do well to spend time with the entire Code and, especially, the Opinions and the professional papers and articles referred to in the annotations to them. The American Medical Association promulgates a Code of Ethics which includes several components, including very brief statements of general “Principles of Medical Ethics” and “Fundamental Elements of the

    Read More

  • Abortion Is Ethical Violation In Australia

    1204 Words  | 3 Pages

    Abortion poses significant ethical concerns for Australia’s legislature and medical professionals, which both support and oppose the legalisation of abortion. For the legislature criminalising abortion would likely violate public ethics through its negative consequences for the Australian people. As elected public representatives, members of the Australian legislature are held to a particular ethical standard. At the core of this standard is the obligation to legislate in the interest of the public

    Read More

  • Abortion Should Be Llegal

    2315 Words  | 5 Pages

    progenies in the world terminate in induced abortion. More precisely, the number of induced abortion is nearly 50 million every year（Berer, M., 2000 ）. Induced abortion means “abortion brought on deliberately by drugs or mechanical means” (Stedman, T. L.，2008). It can be defined as an abortion that is preceded initiatively, which is opposite to spontaneous abortion. According to World HeaWHO (1993), every year the number of woman who chooses abortion is about 1.5 million in United States. Almost

    Read More

  • Abortion is MURDER

    1196 Words  | 3 Pages

    not to kill each other? Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, rather, to use violence to get what they want” -- Mother Theresa The thought of killing to most people is bone chilling and makes the hairs on the back of the neck stand up. Abortion is unjustifiable murder because that fetus being done away with is a human being that deserves the right to live just like the people participating in the act. Abortion is an issue that should not be taken lightly because

    Read More

  • Abortion, Pope John Paul II and Peter Singer

    1564 Words  | 4 Pages

    Abortion, Pope John Paul II and Peter Singer Abortion is one of the most controversial issues today. It has become a question of not only ethics, but morals. In the 1973 case of Roe v Wade the Supreme Court ruled that a woman has the right to terminate a pregnancy by abortion within the first six months of the pregnancy. However, conservative Presidents have changed the legislation enough to allow states to restrict abortion in various ways (Practical Ethics, Peter Singer). In the following paper

    Read More

  • Abortion: Killing a Fetus is Killing a Person

    707 Words  | 2 Pages

    controversial issues. Most of them relate to morals, religions or ethics thus create many strong opinions in “yes” and “no” or “good” and “bad” sides. Abortion is one of those sensitive issues. There are numerous proponents and opponents of abortions in the US. Proponents of abortion believe that unwanted pregnancies can be very stressful for women and they should have the right to make decisions about their bodies. However, abortion is seriously wrong because killing a fetus is killing a person. And

    Read More

  • Induced Abortion: Do the Potential Benefits Outweigh the Detriments and Adverse Effects Presented?

    779 Words  | 2 Pages

    Abortion, the wilful termination of a pregnancy due to unintended conception, is a highly controversial and personal decision. For that reason, abortion can trigger strong personal responses for the individual experiencing the termination of pregnancy and the nurses associated who must respect the patient rights and autonomy as the standards of ethical nursing practice dictate, regardless of the type of care sought (Simmonds & Likis, 2011, p. 795). There are two main types of induced abortion surgical

    Read More

  • The Pros and Cons of Abortion

    1610 Words  | 4 Pages

    The topic of abortion is one of the most controversial issues in today’s society. Thousands of abortions take place every single day, and yet public opinion remains at a standstill as to whether or not abortion is ethical or not. According to a poll in 2013, fifty-four percent of the American public believes that the practice of abortion should be legal in all or most cases (“Public Opinion on Abortion”) Abortion has been defined as “the act of removing a human embryo or fetus from the uterus of

    Read More

More about Abortion Ethics

Open Document