The Ethics Involved in the Abortion Issue

The Abortion issue is a very complex and widely debated issue. Not only is the question of whether abortion is murder or not but there is a whole rang of sub issues within the debate with no general consensus on it. As for the claim above it is regarded as the classic conservative view and is also comparable to some religious views on the subject. The text book offers the best critical analysis of this view but stops short in discussing a true multi-discipline ethical approach to the subject. L.W. Sumner 's "Toward a Credible View of Abortion" gives a very clear and persuasive argument as to why the conservative or homicide argument is fundamentally flawed. Sumner points out that if this extreme view was taken literally then for the conclusion that the deliberate killing of any human under any circumstances must also be reassessed. State killings, warfare, political killings and criminal killings should all be treated in the same manner as abortions and considered murder, why should the fetus be considered any different? An important word left out of the claim above is the word innocent. Many pro-life advocates use this word before unborn child or person to justify killing the non innocent mentioned above. Another hypothetical point the author makes is whether women on the pill or IUD should be considered a probable killer much like a terrorist who plants random bombs in public places? Sumner goes on to talk about how far back the homicide argument is willing to go, after conception the sperm and ovum form a zygote, a microscopic single cell. This zygote cannot reasonable be justified as a human being and if it is should we then prosecute all scientist who experiment with these zygote 's as murders? Not only do these cases of aborting a zygote raise questions on weather or not it is murder, it also raises the question of what is a human or a person . Sumner goes on to conclude that if we agree with the above points and that the development of the fetus has to

Bibliography: 1. Arthur, Joyce. The Fetus Focus Fallacy. Pro-Choice Press, Spring 2005 @ http://www.prochoiceactionnetwork-canada.org/articles/fetus-focus-fallacy.shtml 2. Muldoon, Maureen. The Abortion Debate in the United States and Canada. Garland Publishing, New York 1991. 3. Kluge, Eike-Henner W. Reading in Biomedical Ethics: a Canadian focus 3rd Edition. Pearson Prentice Hall, Toronto 1999. 4. Marquis, Don. Why Abortion is Immoral. Found in May, Larry. Wong, Kai et al. Applied Ethics; A Multicultural Approach 3rd Edition. Prentice hall, New Jersey 2002. 5. Pomeroy, Clair. Abortion and Women 's Rights: Unification of Pro-Life and Pro-Choice through Feminism. Serendip 2004 @ http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_cult/courses/knowbody/f04/web2/cpomeroy.html 6. Sherwin, Susan. Abortion Through a Feminist ethics Lens. Found in Kluge, Eike-Henner W. Reading in Biomedical Ethics: a Canadian focus 3rd Edition. Pearson Prentice Hall, Toronto 1999. 7. Sumner, L.W. Toward a Credible View of Abortion. Found in Kluge, Eike-Henner W. Reading in Biomedical Ethics: a Canadian focus 3rd Edition. Pearson Prentice Hall, Toronto 1999. 8. Thiroux, Jacques P. Ethics Theory & Practice 2nd Edition. Glencoe Publishing Co, California 1980. 9. Unknown. Religion and Abortion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_and_abortion (I know wikipedia is not a valid academic source but this article just help to prove in more detail than any of my other source the stance of the major religions on abortions. Most references used in the article are up to academic standards.)