Kenneth Edelin's Argumentative Essay On Abortion

Kenneth Edelin is a third year resident at Boston City Hospital in Massachusetts. His supervisor, Hugh Holtrop, assigned him to do an abortion for a seventeen-year-old girl named Alice Roe. Ms. Roe and her mother signed a consented to carry out the abortion. Edelin performs a Caesarean surgery because it was safer for Ms. Roe’s health. While performing the surgery, Edelin had to prolong the surgery three minutes after the placenta was removed, so he could cut off any supply to the fetus. Then he removed the dead fetus and the procedure was complete. After this procedure, Enrique Griminez, a first year resident at the Boston City Hospital, testified against Edelin stating that he should be convicted of manslaughter based on the viability of
Roe was in the lower class and could not afford to take care of a child. So Roe and her mother decided abortion was the best option. They signed the consent form for Edelin to perform the procedure. The consent form protected Edelin legally because Roe knew how far along he predicted she was in the pregnancy. Edelin concludes that roe was in her late second trimester, which was cutting it close to the viability range of when a fetus could not be aborted. The viable range of a baby being considered a human being 24 weeks to 28 weeks along. In the consent form for the abortion, Edelin stated the fetus was only 22 weeks along. His supervisor, Hugh Holtrop, approved the estimation Edelin
The method he would have preferred to do was a saline injection into the amniotic sac to kill fetus. However, he performs a test to determine where the amniotic sac was and ended up drawing blood from the placenta. This meant that the placenta was on the mother’s anterior abdominal wall, which completed the procedure. The saline injection would have been harmful to Roe, if it had gotten into her bloodstream. Furthermore, Edelin decided the Caesarean Surgery would be the safest route for Ms. Roe. During the surgery, Edelin stated that he had a difficult time cutting through the abdominal wall in which extended the surgery time. Once the fetus was out of the womb, Edelin declared the fetus had dead in the womb. Which would not be considered manslaughter of a viable baby because the fetus was not alive outside of the womb. If the fetus was alive outside of the womb, Edelin would have had to do everything he could to save the baby on the grounds of it defeating the purpose of his oath he took as a doctor. Consequently by law, Edelin would have been convicted of Manslaughter if the baby was not saved. Nonetheless, Edelin did exactly as he was told and perform is task