Ethics on Abortion

Ethics on Abortion There are many ethical issues that are argued over in society. One highly controversial issue however, is the problem faced with opposing beliefs on abortion. Abortion, literally meaning “the deliberate termination of human pregnancy,” is the issue commonly addressed by the liberals and the conservatives. Each side has its own philosophical theory on the situation. The liberal theory suggests that a women has the right to decide what happens with her body. The conservative outlook would be that an unborn baby, as a human being, has separate rights from those of the mother. The arguments that are generally discussed involve that abortion is a personal choice, human life begins at conception, or that abortion can or can not be justified. The first argument on the ethics of abortion is that abortion is a personal choice. This idea on abortion intends to imply that a fetus is not a human life. The life of the new embryo is not forced to be carried out because of the rights women possess. If new life is growing in a woman, then it should be her decision as it is regarding her own bodily autonomy. Abortion should be in the best concern of the woman pregnant because it does not go out and affect those around her. Also if the women in situations where abortion is an option needed, then who is more correct to go and force them to carry out a pregnancy. The idea that people have some ethical claim to personal, bodily autonomy must be regarded as fundamental to the conception of any ethical, democratic, and free society. Given that autonomy exists as an ethical necessity, the question becomes how far that autonomy extends. The fact that a woman is going to proceed with an abortion does not affect the larger public so it should not be unethical for this action to take place because others think that it is wrong. Many people stand with the idea that abortion is ethically a personal choice because the situations can always be brought to the point where a woman is protecting herself. Mary Anne Warren’s stand on abortion is that of a liberal one. In her article, On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion, she concludes that “…a women’s right to protect her health, happiness, freedom, and even her life, by terminating an unwanted pregnancy, will always override whatever right to life it may be appropriate to ascribe to a fetus, even a fully developed one.” (pg.16, Mappes) Warren believes that abortion is permittable because the fetus is not a fully developed person with moral characteristics; they are human beings that are not yet a person. The opposing argument on the ethics of abortion is that human life begins at conception. The new human life that is growing should now have the right to live. If a woman consented to sex or did not properly use contraception, then she knew that pregnancy might have been a result. Whether the fetus is a human being or not, it is arguable that a woman has some sort of ethical obligation to the fetus. The obligation might not be strong enough to eliminate abortion, but it may be enough to limit abortion if it is morally chosen. Also consider abortion as the murder of a human being. When deciding on what decision is more correct many mothers would decide on having to keep their baby and not killing it. This is because no matter the situation, the actions taken consequently resolved in pregnancy and now the mothers are ethically responsible to care for new life. Abortion should not be an acceptable solution for a pregnancy because human life should not be terminated and the new life should have responsibility dedicated to itself. The final argument on the ethics of abortion is that abortion can or can not be justified. This directly relates to the status of the fetus and whether or not it is considered to be human life. In the early months of pregnancy, when the fetus hardly represents a human being at all, then abortion should be permissible to the pregnant woman if it is in her interests. When taking a step into the middle months, the fetus now comes to resemble a person. The situation changes due to the argument that the fetus may now be human life. Abortion in this case should only be justifiable if any economic, psychological, social or physical health would be presented through continued pregnancy. In the late months however, abortion would just be the wrong concept and unethical because the fetus is near the peak of becoming human life. If any pregnancy lasts into the middle months or later, then abortion should already be out as an option because the decision could have been made in the early months. Moreover, abortion should only be the decision made for a mother totally uncapable of caring for new human life. The idea of abortion is a wide spread ethical issue. Many morals are different among the people who think abortion is right or the people who believe it is completely inhumane. Abortion is right in the eyes of those who follow liberals. The mother has complete rights to protect herself and make a personal choice in keeping a fetus or not. For conservatives on the other end, abortion should not be the decision made due to the new life having full moral status and a serious right to live. There are also cases where abortion might not fall under strict rights the the mother or the fetus, which is why my position is in favor of the moderate way of thought. Pregnancies are in a wide amount of cases unwanted. But it is the situation of the pregnancy that should ultimately lead to the decision of abortion being ethical or not. For any unwanted pregnancies in the very early months, abortion should be acceptable because the fetus does not posses human like traits and it is in the interest of the pregnant woman. This might not be considered ethical because the mothers should have a dedicated responsibility to their baby but exceptions have to be made for situations where rape might have been the cause of pregnancy. The only time abortion should absolutely not be acceptable are for any pregnancies that have reached middle months or later. This is because the mother of the fetus has already allowed the pregnancy to last to the point where the fetus is now a lifelike human or baby. Also if the pregnancy was not aborted in the early months then there certainly should be no reason to change the decision so long after conception. Abortion will be a never ending argument for what is right or wrong to do in the case where a human life or possible human life is at stake. But abortion has many twists and turns that lead to uneasy decisions that have to be made. So there might not be a way to tell what is the “more” ethically correct decision to make when dealing with such a controversial issue as abortion.
Here are the websites: http://www.studentnewsdaily.com/conservative-vs-liberal-beliefs/ http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/warren_article.html

http://www.socinian.org/abortion.html

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/abortion
http://www.csus.edu/indiv/g/gaskilld/ethics/Abortion.htm