Ethical Issues Of Abortion Essay
The Ethical Questioning of Abortion In 1973, the Roe vs. Wade trial held in the Supreme Court deemed it unconstitutional to legally ban abortions in the United States (McBride, 2006). Immediately following that decision, there has been a continuous ethical and legal debate regarding the topic of intentional abortion. This debate focuses mostly on when life begins. Within the debate, there are individuals called anti-abortionists that believe human life begins at a zygote and aborting this unicellular mass is both legally homicidal and morally unethical. The opposite, an abortionist’s argument, is that life does not begin until birth of the baby and therefore abortion is both ethical and legal (Gordon, n.d.). This paper will attempt to analyze
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the ethics of abortion using the key principles of biomedical ethics: non-maleficence, autonomy, beneficence, and justice. Non-maleficence is a key ethical principle that includes inflicting no harm or the least harm possible (Beauchamp and Childress, 2001). By this definition, an anti-abortionist would argue that killing a fetus would be causing harm to a living organism and would therefore be unethical. It is a biological fact that a fetus develops the ability to feel pain around the age of 6 months after conception (Gordon, n.d.). Thus, abortion of the fetus after six months would be highly unethical due to the causation of harm to that fetus, therefore disregarding the principle of non-maleficence. The problem that arises is the difficulty to find an agreement on what defines a person, which makes it problematic to determine whether or not the fetus has rights to ethical principles that all birthed humans have. The Encyclopedia of Philosophy states, “The fetus is by virtue of his genetic code a human life form”, however goes on to explain that just being a human life form does not provide automatic ethical rights (Gordon, n.d.). In the United States, abortion is currently legal in the second and third trimester of childbearing, during a time when a fetus is viable to live outside the womb. From this viewpoint, abortionists would be causing harm to a baby that would otherwise live, and thus could be considered highly unethical. Another consideration is for a fetus that will have birth defects or serious medical conditions. In this case, it is important to determine if an abortion would be the more ethical decision to prevent that child from undergoing potentially agonizing medical interventions and continuous hospital visits (Gawron and Watson, 2016).
Autonomy is an individual’s freedom to make informed decisions (Beauchamp and Childress, 2001). This key principle is one of the central pillars in the debate of abortion, due to the fact that abortionists believe a woman should have a right to choose whether or not she becomes a mother. Margaret Sanger once said, “No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother” (Goodreads.com, n.d.). Furthering the perspective of an abortionist, women should have a right to abort a fetus due to the argument that pregnancies can lead to the personal suffering of the mother. However, anti-abortionists belittle this viewpoint because if a fetus is aborted, then that baby never had a chance of his or her own autonomy. Anti-abortionist argue that abortion is selfish and unfair because that fetus never had a chance to defend his or her choice to live, and was never given a voice in the matter. Again, this comes back to the debate of whether a fetus has rights to ethical principles. Overall, I would like to argue that beneficence is the principle that helps most to summarize the ethical debate of abortion.
Beneficence is the idea that the benefits of an intervention must outweigh the risks and costs of the same intervention (Beauchamp and Childress, 2001). This would mean that the benefit of the abortion would have to outweigh the cost of a fetus’ death. Abortionists often argue that abortion can be a better option for the baby, because of financial, physical, or emotional strains that will not provide a healthy and prosperous environment for the child to grow. By this logic, the benefits of preventing a fetus from entering into these situations might outweigh the costs, therefore making this decision ethical. However, anti-abortionists argue that killing a fetus would never outweigh the cost of a human’s life, due to the fact that killing a human is known to be unethical in society. Mother Teresa once said, “It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish” (Goodreads.com, n.d.). Justice is the final key principle and is the consideration of benefits, risks, and costs equally. Similar to beneficence, the benefits must not be less than the costs to be considered ethical (Beauchamp and Childress, 2001). Each situation is different and must be considered
accordingly.
As a student that attended Catholic school for twelve years of my life, I would like to argue that life begins at conception and that abortion would therefore be unethical. However, I do take into considerations extreme situations such as rape, in which giving birth to a baby conceived could be harmful for the emotional state of the mother. Therefore, I will argue that there has to be middle-ground viewpoint, in which abortion could be ethical in some cases, and unethical in others. Possibly there could be a proposed time frame of ethical standards, in which abortion is banned after the time of the fetus developing pain sensation. Another possible time frame could be the banning of abortion after the fetus is viable outside the womb. The topic of abortion is not black and white, but possesses important ethical questions in both the legal and moral sense. I have discussed the abortion debate regarding the four principles of biomedical ethics to contribute to the consideration of both sides of the ethical controversy.
the ethics of abortion using the key principles of biomedical ethics: non-maleficence, autonomy, beneficence, and justice. Non-maleficence is a key ethical principle that includes inflicting no harm or the least harm possible (Beauchamp and Childress, 2001). By this definition, an anti-abortionist would argue that killing a fetus would be causing harm to a living organism and would therefore be unethical. It is a biological fact that a fetus develops the ability to feel pain around the age of 6 months after conception (Gordon, n.d.). Thus, abortion of the fetus after six months would be highly unethical due to the causation of harm to that fetus, therefore disregarding the principle of non-maleficence. The problem that arises is the difficulty to find an agreement on what defines a person, which makes it problematic to determine whether or not the fetus has rights to ethical principles that all birthed humans have. The Encyclopedia of Philosophy states, “The fetus is by virtue of his genetic code a human life form”, however goes on to explain that just being a human life form does not provide automatic ethical rights (Gordon, n.d.). In the United States, abortion is currently legal in the second and third trimester of childbearing, during a time when a fetus is viable to live outside the womb. From this viewpoint, abortionists would be causing harm to a baby that would otherwise live, and thus could be considered highly unethical. Another consideration is for a fetus that will have birth defects or serious medical conditions. In this case, it is important to determine if an abortion would be the more ethical decision to prevent that child from undergoing potentially agonizing medical interventions and continuous hospital visits (Gawron and Watson, 2016).
Autonomy is an individual’s freedom to make informed decisions (Beauchamp and Childress, 2001). This key principle is one of the central pillars in the debate of abortion, due to the fact that abortionists believe a woman should have a right to choose whether or not she becomes a mother. Margaret Sanger once said, “No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother” (Goodreads.com, n.d.). Furthering the perspective of an abortionist, women should have a right to abort a fetus due to the argument that pregnancies can lead to the personal suffering of the mother. However, anti-abortionists belittle this viewpoint because if a fetus is aborted, then that baby never had a chance of his or her own autonomy. Anti-abortionist argue that abortion is selfish and unfair because that fetus never had a chance to defend his or her choice to live, and was never given a voice in the matter. Again, this comes back to the debate of whether a fetus has rights to ethical principles. Overall, I would like to argue that beneficence is the principle that helps most to summarize the ethical debate of abortion.
Beneficence is the idea that the benefits of an intervention must outweigh the risks and costs of the same intervention (Beauchamp and Childress, 2001). This would mean that the benefit of the abortion would have to outweigh the cost of a fetus’ death. Abortionists often argue that abortion can be a better option for the baby, because of financial, physical, or emotional strains that will not provide a healthy and prosperous environment for the child to grow. By this logic, the benefits of preventing a fetus from entering into these situations might outweigh the costs, therefore making this decision ethical. However, anti-abortionists argue that killing a fetus would never outweigh the cost of a human’s life, due to the fact that killing a human is known to be unethical in society. Mother Teresa once said, “It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish” (Goodreads.com, n.d.). Justice is the final key principle and is the consideration of benefits, risks, and costs equally. Similar to beneficence, the benefits must not be less than the costs to be considered ethical (Beauchamp and Childress, 2001). Each situation is different and must be considered
accordingly.
As a student that attended Catholic school for twelve years of my life, I would like to argue that life begins at conception and that abortion would therefore be unethical. However, I do take into considerations extreme situations such as rape, in which giving birth to a baby conceived could be harmful for the emotional state of the mother. Therefore, I will argue that there has to be middle-ground viewpoint, in which abortion could be ethical in some cases, and unethical in others. Possibly there could be a proposed time frame of ethical standards, in which abortion is banned after the time of the fetus developing pain sensation. Another possible time frame could be the banning of abortion after the fetus is viable outside the womb. The topic of abortion is not black and white, but possesses important ethical questions in both the legal and moral sense. I have discussed the abortion debate regarding the four principles of biomedical ethics to contribute to the consideration of both sides of the ethical controversy.