Abortion Ethical Debate

Abortion is a very commonly debated ethical issue. There are many people in today’s society that know that a person’s decision on whether abortion is ethically right or wrong should be a matter left to one’s self and not a matter that should be decided by the law. Abortion, after all, involves issues pertaining to what the value of human life is. People’s rights, happiness and well-being are all issues that also pertain to the debatable issue of abortion. Abortion is an ethical and moral matter because people’s rights, happiness, and well being are all morally and ethically relevant. What one says about abortion also may have relevance for what one thinks about fetal research. For example, promising studies have shown the tissue from aborted fetuses might be used to relieve the symptoms of some persons with Parkinson’s disease, an incurable degenerative neurological condition (Callahan 32). Recent developments in cloning technology have shown possibilities for taking stem cells from the embryo at the blastocyst stage and programming them to produce organs such as kidneys for transplants ( Callahan 33). The issue that is presented to society is whether or not abortion is ethically acceptable. There are people who strongly support abortion, and there are people who strongly disagree with it. Those people are separated into two groups known as “pro-choice” and “pro-life.” In the abortion debate, the health of the mother and the child are the primary concerns. Pro-choice activists are more for the mothers and Pro-life activists are more for the unborn child. Pro-life supporters would “consider the termination of pregnancy as murder, and claim that those who are pro-choice are like the Nazis who intended to eradicate the Jewish population” (Kadayifci 62). Pro-Life supporters take a higher stance on rights than pro-choice supporters; their movements are better organized, well financed, and sometimes even go to the extreme of “harassing and threatening abortion

Cited: Arkes, Hadley. Natural Rights and the Right to Choose. New York: Cambridge UP, 2004. Print. Baird, Robert M. The Ethics of Abortion: Pro-LIfe vs. Pro-Choice. New York: Prometheus Books, 2004. Print. Callahan, Daniel. Abortion: Law, Choice, and Morality. New York: Macmillan, 1970. Print. Durrett, Deanne. The Abortion Conflict: A Pro/Con Issue. New Jersey: Enslow, 2000. Print. Kadayifci, Oktay. "Ethical and Legal Aspects of Abortion." Reproductive BioMedicine Online (2007): 1461-66. EBSCO. Web. 29 Oct. 2009. .