The First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” This amendment to our Constitution guarantees the citizens of the United States of America the right to live according to their belief system and values and not have the government interfering and dictating how they are to conduct themselves. This amendment grants us freedom to do as we please as long as it is in the confines of being legal. If the activity is illegal we, obviously, must face the consequences of our actions. Throughout the abortion debate there have been many differing opinions in regards to a woman’s right to chose to terminate her pregnancy. Abortion is one of those rights, which is protected according to the Supreme Court, in the United States Constitution. One aspect that I have not thought of until researching a topic for this paper is the rights of the physician to refuse performing an abortion. Upon researching this issue, I discovered some people that would like to limit doctors First Amendment rights. With the United States Constitution to back them up, doctors should have the right to refuse performing abortions because it may be against their moral beliefs and their Hippocratic Oath, even though people tend to think that a woman’s right to an abortion supersedes the physician’s right because of the physician’s social status.
First, doctors should have the right to refuse performing abortions because it is against their moral beliefs. According to Kaveny,
The Church Amendment (1973) protects the right...
... middle of paper ...
...etrieved (2010, March 20) from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath
May, T., & Aulisio, M.. (2009). Personal morality and professional obligations: rights of conscience and informed consent. Perspectives in biology and medicine, 52(1), 30-8. Retrieved March 3, 2010, from Research Library. (Document ID: 1635642341).http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1635642341& sid=1&Fmt=3&clientId=74379&RQT=309&VName=PQD
Medical school loans. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.studentdoc.com/medical-school-loans.html
Meyers, Christopher, & Woods, Robert D. (1996). An obligation to provide abortion services: what happens when physicians refuse? Journal of Medical Ethics, 22(2), 115. Retrieved March 7, 2010, from ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source. (Document ID: 9580975). http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?
did=9580975&sid=4&Fmt=3&clientId=74379&RQT=309&VName=PQD
Caplan, A., & Arp, R. (2014). The deliberately induced abortion of a human pregnancy is not justifiable. Contemporary debates in bioethics (pp. 122). Oxford, West Sussex: Wiley.
The Church Amendments state that no individual can be discriminated against on the basis that (1) the individual performed or assisted in any lawful research activity or (2) the individual refused to perform or assist in any research activity because it would be contrary to his or her religious beliefs or moral convictions. This was solely designed for physicians and faith-based institutions right to refuse care that goes against moral and religious beliefs and protected them in instances where they would not provide, pay for, provide coverage for (in the case of a health plan), or refer for, any practice they disagree with, specifically abortions. With these Laws set in place phys...
Warren, Mary Anne , and Mappes and D. DeGrazia. "On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion." Biomedical Ethics 4th (1996): 434-440. Print.
A woman who does not feel welcome or safe may not seek medical care, even if she decides to have an abortion. Some women "terminate their pregnancies by whatever means are available to them, even if it is against the law, unsafe, and might result in complications" (Oduro, 2014, p.920). This demonstrates the importance of respecting a patient 's autonomy, as the patient who has decided to end a pregnancy will do so without assistance if denied the right to do so safely with medical professionals. Though some may consider the fetus to be a patient it is the mother that is able to make decisions and who must be cared for as well. Shunning women asking for abortions "defies our very role as a nurse to prevent illness, promote and restore health and alleviate suffering" (Smyth, 2016, p.117) as it will cause the woman more distress and possibly have a negative effect on her
Three Works Cited Many people believe abortion is only a moral issue, but it is also a constitutional issue. It is a woman's right to choose what she does with her body, and it should not be altered or influenced by anyone else. This right is guaranteed by the ninth amendment, which contains the right to privacy. The ninth amendment states: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." This right guarantees the right to women, if they so choose, to have an abortion, up to the end of the first trimester.
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.
ProQuest Staff. "At Issue: Abortion, Moral and Ethical Aspects." ProQuest LLC. 2011: n.pag. SIRS Researcher. Web. 14 Apr 2011.
...ther’s sovereignty over her body outweigh the right of an unborn child to live. The answers to these questions are very diverse as a result of the diversity of the American society. With the issue of abortion, one’s attitude toward it is going to be based on many things such as religious background and personal morals. There is no black and white answer to the abortion issue. Luckily we live in a country where we are able to decide for ourselves whether something is morally right or wrong. Thus, ultimately, the choice is ours. As with the many other ethical issues which we are faced with in our society, it is hard to come to a concrete answer until we are personally faced with that issue. All we can do is make an effort to know all of the aspects which are involved so that we may be able to make a sound decision if we were faced with this problem in our own lives.
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.”
Many people believe abortion is a moral issue, but it’s also a constitutional issue (Messerli 1). The right of the woman to speak about this issue is hers, and is guaranteed by the ninth amendment, which is the right to privacy. The ninth amendment states, "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." (Boland 7) This amendment guarantees the right to women, so if they choose to have an abortion, up to the end of their first trimester it is theirs. Regardless of morals, a woman has the right to privacy and a ...
For years, abortion has been an extremely controversial subject. One important aspect of the controversy is whether a woman should be permitted by law to have an abortion and under what circumstances. Another is whether laws should protect the unborn. History has shown that whenever abortion had been prohibited, women still attempted and succeeded in obtaining illegal abortions. Unfortunately, they have suffered serious health reasons or died in the process.
With abortion becoming legal in so many countries, it is hard for physicians to swear by an oath stating they would not perform abortions. According to the Center for Reproductive Rights 2013 Fact Sheet, about 61 countries, that is, 39% of the world’s population has made abortion legal. Therefore, doctors from these 61 countries would be breaking the promises they made when taking the oath not to perform abortions. For example, in the United States prohibition against abortion would violate U. S. laws and alienate 40% of its population. In the case of Roe vs. Wade in 1973, the United States Supreme Court rejected the Hippocratic Oath’s authority in prohibiting abortion based on the fact that the oath did not reflect ancient cultural norms but instead reflected the influence of Judeo-Christian views on
With so many women choosing to have abortions, it would be expected that it would not be so greatly frowned up, yet society is still having problems with its acceptance. Every woman has the fundamental right to decide for herself, free from government interference, whether or not to have an abortion. Today, more than ever, American families do not want the government to trample on their right to privacy by mandating how they must decide on the most intimate, personal matters. That is why, even though Americans may differ on what circumstances for terminating a crisis pregnancy are consistent with their own personal moral views, on the fundamental question of who should make this personal decision, the majority of Americans agree that each woman must have the right to make this private choice for herself. Anti-choice proposals to ban abortions for “sex-selection” or “birth-control” are smokescreens designed to shift the focus of the debate away from this issue and trivialize the seriousness with which millions of women make this highly personal decision. Any government restriction on the reasons for which women may obtain legal abortions violates the core of this right and could force all women to publicly justify their reasons for seeking abortion.
It is almost unanimously agreed upon that the right to life is the most important and sacred right possessed by human beings. With this being said, it comes as no surprise that there are few issues that are more contentious than abortion. Some consider the process of abortion as immoral and consisting of the deprivation of one’s right to life. Others, on the opposite end of the spectrum, see abortion as a liberty and a simple exercise of the right to the freedom of choice.
With the issue of abortion, we are able to relate it easily to several principles throughout the Constitution. Every human has the right to make decisions about their own body, and this includes a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy. The Constitution doesn’t classify an unborn baby as a human. Which leads straight in to the 14th amendment, a right for personal privacy and not allowing the government and Constitution to be a pressuring standpoint in this decision on whether you want to keep your child. As a human, we have the rights that no state shall make or enforc...