Reflections Ethical Issues On Abortion Philosophy Essay

Reflections Ethical Issues On spontaneous abortion Philosophy EssaySociety has been up in arms over the issue of abortion for years, and go forth continue to be for years to come. on that point are those who def land up the laws against abortion and those who believe that abortion is abruptly within a womans right to require the procedure performed. What then is hubbub about? It all(prenominal) boils gloomy to what is morally and ethically right. There are those who argue that abortion is morally reprehensible and should be out(p) and those who try to abstain or avoid casting any judgment on the morality of this practice.There are those who say the laws are just beca design they prohibit actions that are morally permissible others oppose these laws without position of the moral issue at all and argue that the individual call for a right to guide for themselves whether or not to indulge in the practice.Abortion, as we all know, is the unnatural termination or an end to a p regnancy before tolerate that results in the death of a foetus. The question then manufactures how is it mulish how abortion can be morally right or faulty if it cannot be determined when the effect of personhood set abouts, and is abortion in fact murder (Warren)?Some abortions occur spontaneously or naturally because the fetus does not develop normally. Others occur because of a trauma or injury to the mother which prevents the pregnancy from fathering full term. Also, there are those that are clinically induced because either the pregnancy presents a adventure to the woman or is unwanted.An induced abortion is peerless of the most ethical and philosophical issues of the century. In the unite States, the debate over abortion has brought about many wakeless court and state legislative battles. These battles have also been the source of violent confrontations at clinics and anti-abortion rallies.There are also several other methods utilize in the abortion process the morning after pill that is pullulaten within seventy-two hours of unshielded sexual intercourse and another pill taken twelve hours later. The purpose of this pill is to prohibit the fetus from further development at the early stages of conception, or at the point where the sperm fertilizes the bombard (Schmidt).So, when does the fertilized egg become a fetus? Is it when the fetus can react to pain? Is it at conception, or, is it when the actual birth occurs? Evidence conflicts, with several physicians admirationing that the fetus is capable of feeling pain sometime in the first trimester (Schmidt, 1984), and medical researchers, notably from the American Medical Association, maintaining that the neuro anatomical requirements for such experience do not make it until the 29th week of gestation. Pain receptors begin to appear in the seventh week of gestation (Schmidt, 1984). The thalamus, the parcel of the brain which receives signals from the nervous system and then relays th em to the cerebral cortex, starts to form in the fifth week. However, other anatomical structures involved in the nociceptive process are not present until some(prenominal) later in gestation. Links between the thalamus and cerebral cortex form around the 23rd week. There has been suggestion that a fetus cannot feel pain at all, under the premise that it requires mental development that only occurs extracurricular the uterusSome of the most common arguments abortion supporters use when confronting abortion opponents is when does a life begin? When does a fertilized egg become a fetus? When does a fetus become a foil? Since there is no scientifically provable answer, it boils down to religious beliefs and not scientific proof.Don marquis argues that abortion is wrong and immoral. That the killing of a fetus is equivalent to the killing of any human cosmos is morally wrong (Marquis). Marquis argues, is that abortion destroys ones possible future. It is for this very resolve that it is morally wrong to take our lives. All our activities, enjoyments, etc., are suddenly non-realizable because someone has taken our lives. This is, he says, the natural property that explains why it is wrong to kill humansSinger states that arguments for or against abortion should be based on utilitarian calculation which weighs the preferences of a mother against the preferences of the fetus. In his view a preference is anything sought to be obtained or avoided all forms of benefit or harm cause to a being correspond directly with the satisfaction or thwarting of one or more of its preferences. Since a capacity to experience the sensations of suffering or satisfaction is a prerequisite to having any preferences at all, and a fetus, at least up to around eighteen weeks, says Singer, has no capacity to suffer or feel satisfaction, it is not possible for such a fetus to hold any preferences at all. In a utilitarian calculation, there is nothing to weigh against a mothers prefere nces to have an abortion. Therefore, abortion is morally permissible (Singer, 1993).An individuals position on the complex ethical, moral, philosophical, biological, and legal is-sues is often related to his or her value system. Opinions of abortion may be best described as being a compounding of beliefs on its morality, and beliefs on the responsibility, ethical scope, and proper extent of governmental authorities in public policy. apparitional ethics also has an influence upon both personal opinion and the greater debate over abortion.let us, as an example of an ethical dilemma, consider Shauntay. Shauntay is a soon to be graduated senior at the New York School of the Arts. All of her young life has been struggle. Hungry, and sometimes near homeless, shes lived for eighteen years from one project to another. Shauntay knew the only way out of this situation was through sturdy work and dedication. Fortunately for her, there were those who believed in her as much as she in herself . Dance became her escape. Her hard work and determination eventually paid off. Upon graduation, Shauntay was to receive a full ride scholarship to Julliard in the fall.All her life, it has been her dream to become a professional dancer and get away from the life of poverty to which she had been born. She has long had the desire to actuate and see the world, an opportunity that her parents had never been able to give. However, just after her senior prom, and before graduation Shauntay sure what to her was the most devastating news imaginable. You see, for several mornings she had experienced bouts of nausea and weakness. At first, not thinking much of it, she thought it was the flu or a stomach virus. Also, in reflecting she remembered she had not had a menstrual regular recurrence this month. Concern that the virus would not go away, Shauntay went to the doctor. After her psychometric test, the doctor returned and told her that she was going to be a mother.In the blink of an e ye, all of her hopes and dreams seemed to fly out the window. What was she to do? How could she tell her parents? How would she tell those parents, whose dreams of her having a chance to grow were just as vivid as her own that, she was pregnant? How could she give up what she had worked so hard to achieve? How could she keep, love and care for this child that would have taken so much from her, and possibly condemned her to a life of further impoverishment? How would she take care of a baby? Where would she live? What could she do? What should she do? She had been taught that abortion was morally wrong. She had been taught that abortion was in the eyes of God, the same as murder. This was her dilemma.The idea of liberalizing abortion laws became culturally salient during the late 1960s, and several state legislatures passed relatively permissive abortion laws during this period. The trend toward gradual relaxation behavior was interrupted by the Supreme Courts landmark 1973 decision Roe v. Wade, which held virtually all state abortion laws to be unconstitutional.Although public opinion generally moved in a more prochoice direction pursual Roe, the decision mobilized opposition from several, often religious, sources. Many cultural and religious conservatives opposed legal abortion because legal abortion was thought to encourage sexual promiscuity by reducing the risks of sexual activity out of doors of marriage. Another early source of opposition to legal abortion came from the African-American community. Several African-American leadership denounced legal abortion as genocide and suggested that easy access to abortion would ultimately be used by whites to limit societal responsibility to care for children born into poverty.When engaging in culturally and ethically controversial topics like abortion, it has been found that most people latch onto a specific idea and use it to counter every argument offered against their view. For example, one in favor of abor tion might be grudging to question the fact that a woman has a right to her own body, (which means that a fetus has no such rights). On the other hand, one who is against abortion might be unwilling to go beyond the claim that abortion is simply murder (Warren 1973). It may well be that abortion is murder, just the debate will not be won by simply asserting that such is the case. The reason for so much of the confusion on the issue is our human tendency to accept or resist basic moral principles without adequate examination all boils down to agreeing to disagree. Failure to conduct such an examination means that we improperly accept or reject principles that ultimately determine the direction of life.One strike only look at the radically different presentations regarding human nature found in Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Hobbes, Locke, Freud, Marx, Hegel, Hume, Sartre, Kierkegaard, and a host of others to see the importance of this issue.In the final analysis, who stands to judge what is morally right or ethically wrong? Is not killing by any other name still killing?