Abortion can be defined as the termination of pregnancy at early stages such that a child is not born. Abortion is done for various reasons such as when individuals are raped or when there are cases of incest. It is also done when women feel that they have conceived at a time when they do not want. Children at school conceive when they engage in sexual relationships before marriage and they are forced to abort so that they can continue with their studies. Abortion is done at home or by specialized clinics.
Abortion is one of the controversial issues in the United States. Part of the society argues that abortion should be allowed in certain circumstances. This is the group of people who have supported and facilitated passing of laws that have led to the legalization of abortion in many of the states in the United States. On the other hand, part of the society is of the suggestion that abortion is unethical and the society should be opposed to it through all means. People base their argument on certain theorists. This research paper will evaluate the theoretical argument of Marx and Durkheim on the issue of abortion. It will relate the argument of these theorists to the argument on abortion.
According to Marx’s argument, human personality comes from the external environment as opposed to the internal environment. His argument is that external factors such as economic environment are responsible for determining the human value of individuals and their personality. From this argument, it can be seen that Marx was in support of the fact that the unborn children are not human beings and cannot be regarded as persons. They live in an internal environment hence they cannot be classified as humans. The unborn are determined by spiritual values and biological factors. These internal factors cannot determine whether people unborn are human beings (Halkias, 205).
The unborn are therefore not recognized considering that the external environment is yet to classify them as human beings. Any attempt to eliminate the fetus is not wrong. The women therefore have the right to determine whether the fetus becomes persons or not. This argument therefore supports abortion (Edles, 206).
According to Marx, a fetus has no wisdom. It is therefore a person who has wisdom who has the ability to judge whether the fetus is to become a person or not. The argument here is that the fetus lacks the wisdom to judge whether it is a human being or not. In this regard, women are the final judge on whether the fetus is to be a human being or not. This means that if the woman decides that the fetus is not a human being, then it can be aborted. On the other hand, if the woman decides that the fetus is a human, then she has the right to allow the fetus to become a human being. If the woman feels that the fetus has no right to live, she is allowed to abort (Halkias, 207).
Marx generally is believed to be a supporter of abortion. According to the ideas that he brought about, it can be seen that fetus have no right of survival and whether it should survive or not, the decision should be left to the people especially the women. Specifically, abortion should be a decision of an individual and there should be no laws regulating the issue of abortion (Halkias, 201).
The interpretation of the theory is that there are circumstances when the fetus is unwanted and therefore it becomes necessary to abort. The women may have a feeling that the fetus is unacceptable and hence the decision whether it should survive is her decisions. This is in the case where the pregnancy is a result of incest or rape. In this case, the woman feels that the fetus has no right to survive and become a human being because it was not conceived intentionally. In addition, the fetus will not be acceptable in the other family members. These problems according to Marx may necessitate a woman to abort and in this case, abortion should be permitted (Lamanna, 204).
On the other hand, Durkheim argues that abortion is socially unacceptable behavior. Durkheim was a sociologist who was also a religious person. He was against killing of individuals. His argument was that when an individual is killed, he/she is not able to continue with the daily activities. He/she fails to enjoy life as others do. Durkheim likened abortion to killing a child. These children are people who could have been potential leaders and even more important people in the society. By abortion, it means that people who are very important in the society are killed and this is a loss to the society. In this regard, abortion is something than cannot be accepted in the society (Edles, 202).
Durkheim argues that women commit crimes due to the leniency of the legal system. His argument is that the law in pace tends to favor women in many of the circumstances. This is why women have been engaged in bigger crimes as compared to men. One of the biggest crimes that women engage in is murder. According to this theorist, the life of an individual starts from inception. The religious beliefs of Durkheim have this assumption in place. Any attempt to abort is an attempt to murder and the cases should be treated as if the women have committed murder. After inception, the fetus gains personality and has the right to survive. Women are therefore not allowed to abort. As long as murder is socially unacceptable, then abortion cannot be socially unacceptable (Edles, 200).
The two theorists appear to have different stands on the issue of abortion. Marx is in support of the argument that abortion should be allowed in the society. This is due to the fact that the fetus has no personality and therefore has no right to survive as long as the woman decides so. According to him, life starts after birth and not at inception. People in the current society have adopted the arguments by Marx to support the idea that abortion should be allowed and women should have the right to abort. On the other hand, Durkheim is on the opposition side of the argument. He supports Christians and other people in the society who believe that live starts at inception. In this case, abortion is tantamount to killing which is illegal. Killing is not acceptable because the society is not aware of the person that they lose. The aborted fetus could be an important person who could have helped the society greatly. Abortion also means that the person aborted fails to enjoy lie as the other members of the society do (Glassman, 13).
The two theories seem to have different stands about abortion like the society has. Even though laws have been passed to allow abortion, there are many ethical issues related to abortion. In addition, there are circumstances when abortion becomes very necessary. This is why the society has remained divided about the issue so far regardless of the laws in place.
Work cited.
Halkias, Alexandra. The Empty Cradle of Democracy: Sex, Abortion, and Nationalism in Modern Greece. Durham: Duke University Press, 2004. Print.
Edles, Laura D, and Scott Appelrouth. Sociological Theory in the Classical Era: Text and Readings. Los Angeles: Pine Forge Press, 2010. Print.
Glassman, Ronald M, William H. Swatos, and Barbara J. Denison. Social Problems in Global Perspective. Lanham, Md. [u.a.: Univ. Press of America, 2004. Print.
Lamanna, Mary A. Emile Durkheim on the Family. Thousand Oaks [u.a.: Sage, 2002. Print.
