Defined as the removal or termination of a pregnancy prematurely, abortion almost exclusively refers to intentional premature pregnancy termination. The contentious issue over the legality and the moral issues surrounding abortion continue to be considerably controversial and simultaneously diverse. Prolife and prochoice arguments are the major parties to the abortion debate. This persuasive essay defends that abortion is immoral, unethical and an infringement of the unborn child’s legal rights.
The universal recognition that we have a moral responsibility to cause no harm to people who are innocent without fair cause binds us as human beings. Therefore, it is ethically incorrect and legally unacceptable to take the life of an unborn child bearing in mind that an unborn child carries the same life that a functional person has. Although the two factions do not differ concerning the fact that life begins at conception, prolife and prochoice views differ concerning whether an unborn child is a person. Pro-choice views argue that the existence of a human organism does not warrant its being a human person.
Pro-abortionists argue that universal morality only relates to functional human persons and therefore harming the human organism is acceptable. Unfortunately, this pro-abortion view overlooks the biological fact on development that a human person cannot become human unless they were human organisms. Therefore, the termination of a human organism’s life through abortion is equal to the termination of a human person’s life in its early stages and should be equally immoral. Besides, universal morality terms the termination of the life of nonfunctional adults lying in comas wrong. Similarly, terminating the life of a fetus because of being nonfunctional persons through abortion cannot be morally upright.
Ethics and legal rights intertwine at the two principal positions of the fetus’ right to life and the mother’s right to choose triggering arguments concerning abortion. Feminists front that a woman can only have equal rights concerning sexual freedom if abortion becomes freely available. However, this should not mean that the right to life of the unborn child is any less significant than the autonomy of its mother. In any case, arguing for the woman to get her rights about sexual freedom should not imply the cessation of a life to secure such rights.
The logic behind the universal recognition concerning the moral obligation to protect life and avoid harming the innocent ones overrides most of the pro-abortion arguments. Arguing that the unborn child is not a person based on functionality is a misplaced perception since this would imply that taking life from a nonfunctional adult in a coma. The feminist perspective on the right to life of the mother and the right to choose between her life and that of her fetus during pregnancy accords more significance to the mother’s life at the expense of the fetus’ life. Although several contentious issues fan the debate on abortion, the fundamental logic defeats the rationale behind pro-abortion arguments.
Bibliography
Chaloner, Jones K. “Ethics of abortion: the arguments for and against.” Nursing Standard 21, no. 37(2007): 45-48.
Ed, Hindson and Ergun, Caner. The Popular Encyclopedia of Apologetics: Surveying the Evidence for the Truth of Christianity. Oregon: Harvest House Publishers, 2008.
Janie, Butts and Karen, Rich. Nursing Ethics: Across The Curriculum and into Practice. Massachusetts: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Inc., 2005.
