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Abortion And Religious Ethics
Social issues about abortion
The topic of abortion
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In the United States, the topic of abortion is very controversial. On one hand, there are people that believe that every baby, no matter how developed, has the right to life no matter what instance the mother may find herself in. On the other, we have a group of people that are for the mother having the right to make the decision to terminate the baby’s life or to save it. Both sides pull arguments based on religion, politics and science to form their opinions on whether the termination of a baby’s life is just or unjust. No matter which side one might stand on, there are many reasons to explain whether it is permissible or not permissible. Mary Anne Warren and Judith Jarvis Thomson are two women that fight for the right to abortion. Despite the fact that they are arguing for the same thing, Warren fights for the right to abort no matter what the circumstance is, while Thomson argues for a mother’s right to choose in instances of rape, sickness, or even death of the mother. Warren’s main argument is that fetuses have no moral standing and do not count as humans. As the argument progresses, Warren takes argues against John Noonan. She says that he is …show more content…
Marquis argues with an A and a B that consequently create C. So if a fetus is 14 days or older, it has the ability to have a future like ours, and that it is wrong to kill a being with a future like this, therefore abortions are wrong. An objection to this set of arguments is the use of birth control. Marquis argues that birth control is okay because it is only the prevention of pregnancy, but not terminating an already created being. His argument would align that it is not okay to use plan B contraceptives however because that would be termination of a possible being, but he does not address here the line should be
In this paper I will discuss Don Marquis’s essay “Why Abortion is Immoral” and Judith Jarvis Thomson’s objections to Marquis’ argument against abortion.
In America, one of the most controversial topics today is abortion. The issue sparks heated debates between people who are pro-life and those who are pro-choice. While pro-life main argument is that abortion unjustly takes away the life
...ions over her own body; whether it is parenthood, adoption, contraception, or yes, abortion. After all, it is entirely plausible for people to be personally pro-life but politically pro-choice – this suggests that they respect each individuals’ rights over his or her own body and recognize that each woman should be allowed to have options. Regardless of whether or not she chooses to have the child, it is the fact that she has a choice that is crucial, and it is imperative that each woman have the freedom of individual autonomy. In order for this to occur, abortion must continue to be legal. Ultimately, being pro-choice is not necessarily advocating the use of abortion – it is about ensuring that abortion is legal so that women may have the option to exercise their right to individual autonomy and make the decisions that best reflects their stance in life.
Abortion has been the topic of controversy for many decades. Many people believe that when a woman terminates a pregnancy, she is committing murder and others argue that a woman has the right to choose life or abortion. There are different procedures to choose when having an abortion, depending on the gestational age and the woman 's health a pill form abortion may be used up to 9 weeks gestation (mifepristone and misoprostol), but for women who are over 12-weeks gestation (late-term abortion), surgical abortion is used (Berer 25). In 1973, the supreme court ruled that abortion was to be legalized, Roe vs. Wade. Women were given the legal right to choose to terminate their pregnancies and make the correct arrangements for their decisions. Different states have different restrictions to accessing abortion procedures, making the woman 's choice to terminate pregnancy less accessible. Restricting a woman 's access to appropriate abortion clinics limits her right to choose.
This essay examines and critiques Judith Jarvis Thomson’s, A Defense of Abortion (1971). Thomson sets out to show that the foetus does not have a right to the mother’s body and that it would not be unjust to perform an abortion when the mother’s life is not threatened. For the sake of the argument, Thomson adopts the conservative view that the foetus is a person from the moment of conception. The conservative argument asserts that every person has a right to life. The foetus has a right to life.
To fully understand the argument we should first define the parameters of the debate and the key ideas held by each side. Throughout this essay I will be using the terms conservative and liberal as defined by Singer (p. 125) to refer to either side of the debate. The argument usually centers on whether or not a foetus qualifies as a person-- a complex, self-aware being with future-orientated preferences (Study Guide, p. 20)-- those on the conservative side usually argue that a foetus is a person, or at least potential person, and as a result liken abortion to murder, while those on the liberal side tend to refute the proposed personhood of a foetus. Both Singer and Warren agree that human development is a gradual process and it is impossible to pin point an exact stage where personhood is attained (Singer, p. 129, Study Guide, p.187), however it is clear, at least, that this happens somewhere in early childhood, and that while in utero the foetus only qualifies as a merely conscious being (Singer, p. 136). While I personally agree that a foetus is by no means a person and possesses none o...
There are many factors that are taken into consideration when determining if abortion is morally permissible, or wrong including; sentience of the fetus, the fetuses right to life, the difference between adult human beings and fetuses, the autonomy of the pregnant woman, and the legality of abortion. Don Marquis argues that abortion is always morally wrong, excluding cases in which the woman is threatened by pregnancy, or abortion after rape, because fetuses have a valuable future. Mary Anne Warren contends that late term abortions are morally permissible because birth is the most significant event for a fetus, and a woman’s autonomy should never be suspended.
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.”
Another basic argument she claims is that the mother also has a right to decide what happens in and to her body but the fetus 's right to live outweighs the mother’s right to decide what happens in and to her body. Therefore, Thomson opposes abortion and claims that a fetus may not be killed unjustly and an abortion may not be performed. Whether the unborn person uses of its mother’s body, because the un-born person has a right to live and use its mother’s body, abortion is unjust killing per Thomson.
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.
...argument for a future like ours makes the assumption that every life will be good and that everyone will want to have a future like ours. The potential life of the fetus could be great or terrible. Just because the life of the fetus could be great does not mean that it has the right to use the mother’s body. The mother still retains the right to an abortion because the fetus depends on her for survival, regardless of its potential.
One of the most controversial issues in this day and age is the stance people take on abortion. The two main positions that people take are either of pro-choice or pro-life; both sides, although polar opposites, tend to refer to both the issue of morality and logical rationale. The pro-life side of the debate believes that abortion is an utterly immoral practice that should be abolished. On the contrary, abortion should remain a legal procedure because it is a reproductive right; its eradication would not only take away the pregnant person’s autonomy, but would also put more children in financially unstable homes and the adoption system, and would cause an increase in potentially fatal, unsafe abortions.
Abortion has been one of the most talked about topics in society just about anywhere from television, magazines, whether or not it should be the right or wrong thing to do. Abortion is a very sensitive issue to discuss, because of its nature. Many people have said that abortion is a very bad thing to do and it should not even be choice whether or not to abort a living fetus. People think that abortion is committing murder as it is killing the human fetus. However, others feel that a woman should have a voice and have the right to choose to keep the child or not and that it is not murder until the baby is born. Majority of individuals who believe that abortion is bad say that the fetus is human who is partly being formed and to have an abortion is considered to be murder. For the people who think an abortion is ok, say that it’s not considered murder unless the child is born. I believe that abortion should be seen in which the stage the fetus is in. if the fetus is in an early stage of pregnancy it is not considered murder, but if the fetus has already began to develop into a larger fetus then it is indeed considered to be murder. There are times when abortion can be accepted, if the mother is having complications due to pregnancy. For example if the mother is enduring complications in her pregnancy that can harm her, because of the child in that case it is ok to perform an abortion to help save the mother’s life. It is also very important to understand this type of situation. The mother has the right to have an abortion and it is her decision because a mother knows best about her health conditions.
Abortion Taking out the trash, or taking a human life? That is what most the argument is with abortion, some believe that abortion is okay because the fetus is not yet a person, and that the fetus will be nothing but trouble. On the other side people believe that even all the way down to the zygote (when sperm meets the egg and earliest stage of pregnancy) there is a human growing in you. A growing boy or girl, with their own little fingers, and toes, their own cute as can be toothless smile, and their functioning organs. To them one day that zygote will turn into someone great, a person just like you and I that needs love just as you and I, a person that deserves to not get taken from our world before it even has a chance to take its first breath.
Abortions have always been a very controversial topic. Over the years we continue to fight for or against it. One can say that is one of the most talked and argued topic in the United States. An abortion is when a woman terminates her pregnancy before the fetus is viable using various of methods. Some argue that abortions should be illegal and considered murder, while others, from a religious point of view, say that no one has the right to take away the life of a person, in this case the fetus. However, others insist, that abortions are a basic women’s right.