According to Bruce N. Waller, a professor of philosophy in his book has managed to give us the general readings on ethics that affect our challenges in society. This book gives the reader an idea of what is right morally and what is wrong hence giving one the chance of seeking the values needed in handling debates over things like abortion. According to him, abortion is an immoral act that should be discouraged especially among the young children who are still developing. Various ethics and morals have been discussed in depth to give the readers a clear and conscience information on how to handle these issues when they present themselves (Waller, 2007).
A person’s moral standard defines his/her personal traits of character whereas ethics (family, social, company, professional, and professional) of an individual stresses the social systems by which his/her moral are being applied on. Hence, a person’s ethics clearly states the codes of behavior expected of him by his group. In most countries in the globe, abortion has been legalized thus medically it is ethical, but many find it to be immoral at a personal level. Fundamentalists, extremists, and theist of the mainstream all have a different thought of morality influencing each one’s life, through legal discriminations and pressures from the social environment. Debates arising from abortion give focus to the politics and laws of the country: should it be banned and given the same treatment as murder cases, or should it remain as a personal and legal choice made available to women in countries. Laws of the country are based on the values of the morals but with abortion cases, it should be a legislative morality. In Canada, abortion is on high demand whereas in Nicaragua it is illegal. This practice has led to violence acts use escalating in countries.
A woman who decides to carry out an abortion should give specific reasons as to why they are carrying out the act. Once the egg of the woman is fertilized by the sperm, then the product becomes a fetus that is a living thing and should be treated as so. Many individuals argue that the fetus is not a human being since it is not fully developed, but scientifically the fetus is a human being thus has rights. Women should not be given the authority to choose between sparing the fetus and killing it since majority of them will choose the latter. A woman who consented to engage in sexual activities and did not use the contraception’s properly knows that her chances of getting pregnant are high thus should not carry out an abortion since nobody forced her to sex. The women who are given a leeway to carry out an abortion are those who were brutally raped by unknown persons or those whom have complications. Moreover, the fetus has rights and the parent should be in a position to find the balance against the mother’s rights (Baird & Rosenbaum, 1993).
Pregnancy means that a living being is growing in the womb. Whether or not the fetus is completely formed or not, and if the State decides to take part in the decision process concerning legalizing abortion or not, the woman has been given some ethical obligations to the developing fetus and thus she needs to protect it from any dangers that are bound to come its way. This obligation is enough a reason as to why abortion should be limited to those situations that qualify it to be ethically right. A fetus is like a baby and the ability to kill something close to it should be avoided at all times by women in the globe. It is not ethical or humane to commit murder since we all need to be given the chance and opportunity to enjoy this world. The woman should ask herself the same question: what if my mother aborted me? Anyway, it is a personal choice to be made and nobody, even the father of the unborn baby should interfere with the decision making process.
Autonomy is an issue of ethical necessity that has brought many controversies when it comes to abortion. Women argue that it is their personal choice to make on whether to terminate or continue with the pregnancy. Whether the fetus has been fully formed, they claim that they have a personal and bodily autonomy and prefer that the society give regard to their ethics, democracy, and freedom in all areas of their lives. Ignorant women have decided to take matters into their hands and have gone to the extent of performing crude abortion methods that have jeopardized their health and that of the developing fetus. There are times when the abortion process backfires leaving the woman permanently disabled or unable to conceive children.
Today, most of the teenage girls are scared of getting pregnant which has forced them to take contraceptive tools that have endangered their lives. A large group of girls in the U.S. have been exposed to these pills at a very tender age, which has led to their imbalance of hormones and attack, by diseases due to their weak immune systems, which have been exposed to many chemicals that have lowered their metabolism rates. The immune system should not be exposed to foreign chemicals, as it will cause damage to the whole body. Girls need to be educated on the importance of taking precaution when engaging in sexual activities at an early age. Every sexual activity performed has consequences that the parties should be ready to accommodate hence if they get pregnant they should be responsible and care for the unborn baby and hence should carry the pregnancy to term.
Ethically, it is wrong for a woman to give preference to her career and not her unborn child. The personal choice for women carrying out abortions is that they want to progress in their professions and need no destructions. The time they were making the baby it was all sweet, no complains, but now that it is going to give them some responsibilities, they are trying to escape. Personal choices vary in women. Some say that they want to enjoy life; others say that they are not ready to be mothers while there are some who fear what their friends will say. Personal choices should be made by women bearing in mind that it is going to haunt them in future and thus the reasons of performing the act should be genuine and crucial as advised by physicians. Those women who qualify to carry out an abortion are those who have a medical history that allows them not to have a baby or if they decide to have it, they will need to be hospitalized for the whole period. Pregnancies that threaten the mother’s life associate the mother a right to life other than her right to integrity of the body and personal choices. However, it is not ethical to force women to carry to term pregnancies that are unwanted because they are not going to care for them. This may force them to mistreat them and thus it will not be fair to let them have the child and as such those who know they are not going to be good mothers in future, need to make the most open and ethical choice (Kaczor, 2010).
The nature of the person is also another reason that forces the woman and man to consent to carrying out an abortion. When a person is mentally sane, it is advisable to carry out an abortion in order to free the infant the dangers involved with such people. A mad woman can decide to perform a dissection to see what is in the womb among other crazy things like piercing the belly with sharp objects especially those times when the baby is moving in the womb. Those women who lack the proper means and ways of caring for the unborn child will be left with no other choice, but commit abortion in order to avoid stealing from other people who have mouths to feed. Given the above reasons, it becomes evident that a personal choice should be made concerning abortion (Bender, 1991).
Politics have regarded abortion as the privacy right surrounding women thus the time/period and how the regulation of abortion is imposed by the authority all depends on the country. Sovereign countries have not spelled their privacy rights in their constitutions, but since they are democratic, it becomes a functional foundation. Habeas corpus provision gives individuals the guarantee of freedom right from interference by the arbitrary government and the process law, which is due. The English common laws operate in most countries giving rise to the privacy right through Reception Acts.
Ethically, abortion involves discrimination on the unborn baby. Philosophers argue that those who define reference right to life with particular interests on the levels of physical developments maintain that these characteristics are relevant morally. In addition to this, deprivation of the fetus right to life through abortion does not give it the chance to experience the bright future that was ahead of it. The future of any individual is expected to have valuable experiences that are desired by many, activities, projects with others, and fun times with friends, family, and society at large. Abortion is seen as killing a human being who was bound to have all this and more when they matured later in life (Watkins, 2005).
Several critiques have argued that the reasoning of different individuals follows several threads where others are rejecting the personality identity grounds since they don’t agree that the fetus has the same entity as a fully developed adult hence their future are not the same in any way. Others agree that the developing fetus is like the adult, but being deprived of its life in future is not harmful since their psychological connections between it and the fully developed adult are few. Other critiques have raised the issue of abortion bringing about inequalities in the manner in which the abortion should be conducted. They say that there are those fetuses that are brighter than others are and need to be spared while those who are weak need to be done away with. This is morally wrong since all beings are God’s creation and need to be treated as so (Kaczor, 2010).
It is wrong to ethically carry out an abortion in the Christian religion and thus women and men should consider their decisions before completing the process (Wenz, 1992). Abortion is an act that involves killing of another human being, which is not right since it is the Lord who has a right to take and give life to us. Carrying out an abortion should not be taken lightly since it entails many activities like washing of the stomach, which is a painful process. It also involves the insertion of injections into the stomach and breaking the fetus into pieces then sucking the blood clot, which is the developing baby (Rice, 2000). Hardships and deprivations are some of the reasons of social problems and why people engage in immoral acts like abortion. This is a eugenic approach since individuals are trying to limit the number of children they should have rather than them addressing poverty and bad housing, which has been faced by mothers in different societies, regions, and countries. Many of the people in the society became poor because they bore too many children yet they could not care for them and not because the society had not given them, the resources they need. Britain is now looking for a birth control plan that is going to reduce the number of poor families and a validity covering legal abortion to limit those unwanted children in the nation (Watkins, 2005).
Traditionally, it was a taboo for women to carry out an abortion since people valued children. Nowadays, there are traditional medicines administered to mothers who have committed an abortion. In our contemporary society also, abortion is not to be seen by doctors, makers of the policies, or women as it was seen within the social engineering tradition. The abortion provisions are only limited to meet the woman’s request for they do not want to be pregnant. In order to reduce the numbers of those children born with abnormalities in the society, women are advised by their physicians to undergo an abortion since the fetus has abnormalities. The personal choice also comes in situations like this because unless the pregnant woman consents there will be no abortion even if the fetus has abnormalities and poses grave danger to the mother and the state which is saved from the costs involved in caring for the child (Bender, 1991). Antenatal type of screening benefits the woman and is conducted upon her request only. It is better for a child to have a healthy growth than to spend most of its time in and out of hospitals curing different kinds of ailments due to its weak immune system and abnormality. The society will also be burdened by the costs involved in caring for the child hence women who are pregnant with abnormal fetuses should consider carrying out an abortion (Cozic & Stacey, 2000).
In conclusion, women should be given the right to exercise their expression on humanity by being given the chance to make their own life decisions. This will give an implication that their moral worth and autonomy is respected in the society without questioning their conscience. Decisional autonomy and privacy of personal life should not be considered as a criminal law, but an act of upholding quality of life for beings in the society. The pregnant women should be given the chance and space to make their own decisions regarding the abortion issue hence at no point should anyone interfere. Abortion is an act that should be considered carefully since complications arise if not done in a professional way. Education and awareness of the abortion menace should be emphasized in the contemporary society so as to reduce the number of death cases reported as a result of abortion (Bringsjord, 1997).
References:
Baird, M., & Rosenbaum, E. (1993). The Ethics of abortion: pro-life vs. pro-choice: contemporary issues. Garden city, NY: Prometheus Books.
Bender, David. (1991). Should Abortion Remain a Personal Choice? San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press.
Bringsjord, Selmer. (1997). Abortion: a dialogue. Garden City, NY: Hackett Publishing.
Cozic, C., & Stacey, T. (2000). Abortion: Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego: Greenhaven Press Inc.
Kaczor, Christopher. (2010). The Ethics of Abortion: Women's Rights, Human Life, and the Question of Justice. New York: Taylor & Francis.
Rice, John. (2000). Abortion. Wheaton, IL: Sword of the Lord Publishers.
Waller, Bruce. (2007). Consider Ethics: Theory, Readings, and Contemporary Issues. White Plains, NY: Longman Publishing Group.
Watkins, Christine. (2005). The ethics of abortion. New York: Thomas Gale.
Wenz, Peter. (1992). Abortion rights as religious freedom Ethics and action. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
