Abortion and Rights
The article on abortion and rights by Sheila Grant discusses the bias of women rights to freedom, liberty and privacy versus the rights of foetus’ continued existence. She begins the article by questioning the need for human rights and asserts that human rights only exist in democratic societies. The author argues that such societies have been built on biblical assumptions in which people are considered to be God’s children and should, therefore, be protected by defined rights. However, this definition of God’s children excludes the unborn who in the matter of abortion are considered nothing more than accidental conglomerations of matter.
The article presents the unborn as a vulnerable group of people like the old, mentally retarded and the insane, who are in many cases unable to defend themselves. With this in mind, she argues that the political system should be skewed for the unborn and not against them. Sheila Grant believes that confusion on the state of the foetus as part of the human community has been brought about by the limitations on the definitions of life and human beings. Scientists agree that the foetus is a valid living member of the human species given that it bears unique genetic material from the time of conception.
Nevertheless, exclusion of the foetus in the definition of terms such as human being, person or individual continues to increase society’s desensitization towards accepting the embryo as part of the human community. Such cases of exclusion have been witnessed historically especially by minority groups who faced discrimination and denial of basic human rights because it was at some point in time, argued and legally accepted that they were not people, human or part of the human community. Currently, the United States Supreme Court does not legally recognize the foetus as a being with life, and their lifeless state is used as grounds to legally support abortion.
Over the centuries, people have grown more aligned towards solutions that prevent violence and harm against one another. Such movements have given rise to legal declarations such as Rights of a Child, which seeks to protect children before and after birth. However, the author argues that even with social evolution, the fate of the foetus is unjustly left to the mother bearing it. She argues that in the matter of abortion, the convenience for the mother is given most priority over that the rights of the foetus. Consequently, the author argues that since women were not denied their right to life while in the foetal stage, they have no right to deny the foetus the privilege they received.
The numbness of society to the issue of abortion and the living state of the embryo may be attributed to a change in social belief systems. Society traditionally held onto the belief that life was sacred since it was given by the Creator. These views have since changed, and a significant percentage of the population hold that human existence happened by chance. The belief in chance has inferred a sense of autonomy that dictates who are to have rights and who are not. It places the value of human life on a scale measurable by elements such as quality and eliminates the existence of equality within different ranks of the human race.
In the past century, the Nazi government based the value of human life on the quality of life which was measured by individual contribution. Consequently, vulnerable groups such the mentally and physically handicapped became victims of torture and various forms of injustice. People from these vulnerable groups were considered to be less human a measure that was extended to Jews in German society during the mid-twentieth century. The author urges that as long as any stage of the human life is regarded to be of less value, it leaves a loophole in which other members of the human race may be treated unjustly within the bounds of the law. Sheila concludes by reminding her audience that the greatness of any nation or society is often measured by how it treats its weakest members. She asserts that the foetus is the weakest of all members of the human race and should, therefore, be most protected.
Abortion is a contentious topic in any society. The controversy begins when the rights of women are argued against the rights of the foetus. This subject is made even more challenging when the foetus is claimed to lack the qualities of human life until a certain stage. I am convinced that human life begins at conception and that all are equal and should be therefore be treated equally. Even so, the existence of the foetus is significantly dependent on the woman carrying it and granting the rights of one seems to deny the rights of the other.
This delicate balance of rights necessitates that abortion be a last result. I hold the opinion that it should be used only in situations where the physical and or mental health of a woman are genuinely at risk. Currently, abortion continues to desensitize our society on the value of human life, and it would be morally beneficial if society embraced the common live and let live motto.
Bibliography
Grant, Sheila. “Abortion and Rights.” In Technology and Justice, (n.d): 117-130.
