Ethical Theory WS

4

Is it moral to have an abortion because …

PHI208

Professor: Ginger Lee

June 28, 2021

Ethical Question

Part 1: Ethical Question

Abortion is an issue that always raises immense debate in society and even on political grounds. Over the years, the controversy surrounding the moral, legal and religious of abortions continues. While certain nations and communities perceive it as an essential healthcare need for women and girls, some see it as a problem that opposes public morality. Therefore, is it moral to have an abortion?

Part 2: Introduction

Media attention and actions in the streets have given abortion a special position in public issues. Even after five decades after the United States supreme court considered Roe Wade's decision, supporters and opponents of abortion rights are still battling over this issue. According to a recent survey, approximately six in ten American adults say that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 39% strongly object (Blazina et al., 2021). Too often, abortion is seen as a purely technical medical issue falling into a class with other medical procedures (Carrick, 2012). It can also be viewed as a moral question that opposes private rights and morality. However, attitudes toward pregnancy termination are indissolubly tied to how society views sex, women, and fertility in particular. Understanding all these concepts that bound this issue will help determine whether abortion erodes morality and can be termed morally permissible.

Part 3: Position Statement

Abortion is not morally wrong if it is the best thing to do in that particular case. By making this conclusion, it does not mean that it is right to have an abortion; it is pivotal to establish whether terminating a pregnancy is the best thing in each scenario or at least less wrong than the alternatives.

Part 4: Reasons in Support of Your Position

Strongly opposing or concluding that abortion is morally wrong translates to committing to the set of values that necessitates that pregnant women endure pregnancy and birth, no matter how painful, troubling, and risky it is for them. Extreme opponents often justify their notions with an abstract perception of the value of "fetus life" (Carrick, 2012). They equate abortion to murder and thus believe that a mother cannot "kill their child" no matter the suffering. But this justification presumes that a woman's anguish is a lesser evil than terminating fetal life and disregards the circumstances in which a woman came to be pregnant. Overall, treating a woman as a means to an end (giving birth to a baby) is far from ethical.

Part 5: Opposing Position Statement

Termination of pregnancy in most cases amounts to killing a fetus, and deliberately killing an innocent human being is wrong, which means that abortion in most cases is immoral.

Part 6: Reasons in Support of the Opposing Position

Abortion rights activists often quote that women have the right to control their own bodies. Therefore, they should not be dictated about what happens in and to their bodies. But, how is another person's right to control her own body outweighs the right to life? Society has always valued life, and as much as some people may not call a fetus a human being, still, it is a breathing, innocent life. Therefore, abortion is wrong unless it serves some mother's right that is essential than the right to control her body. Plus, if those rights are morally critical as the fetus' right to life.

Reference

Carrick, P. (2012). Medical ethics in antiquity: philosophical perspectives on abortion and euthanasia (Vol. 18). Springer Science & Business Media.

Blazina, C., Lipka, M., Gramlich, J. (2021). Key facts about the abortion debate in America. Retrieved from; https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/06/17/key-facts-about-the-abortion-debate-in-america.

Svenaeus, F. (2018). Phenomenology of pregnancy and the ethics of abortion. Medicine, Health Care, and Philosophy, 21(1), 77-87.