Ethics Issues Surrounding Abortion - Essay Example

Abortion University Student Id Course Date Introduction Abortion has become a controversial issue in the current world where the law has been mostly used in the process of addressing the abortion issues. The question of terminating an unwanted pregnancy has become an issue of discussion where the law has been utilized in the process of considering the conditions when abortion is necessary. In this essay, abortion is discussed considering the views of the women and the lawyers in the legal perspective. Also, the discussion of the abortion issue is considering the antagonistic relationship existing between mother and the unborn child. As a result, considering the situation women have the autonomy in the abortion issue while taking the rights of the fetus into account (Henshaw, 2006). The practicing lawyers have not been keenly following the issue of ethics in the determination of the issues related to abortion where the law is being considered as a blunt instrument in the determination of some issues of ethics. Abortion The law has been used in the process of determining the various situations that can warrant abortion despite being against moralities. The perception of abortion has been considered as an issue that does require moral judgment, wherein the perspective of many people abortion is unethical. The lawyers who are committed to autonomy view abortion as an issue that does require dignity and autonomy of the pregnant women. Autonomy is taken to literary mean “self-rule” where abortion is determined by the wishes of the woman. Attitudes concerning pregnancy are governed by the views of the society concerning sex, fertility, and women in particular. Birth and pregnancy have not been considered as minor inconveniences like cold, but are major as they involve death and life. They are considered as major life events that have been historically causing major disruption and discomfort among many women (Cook, Jelen, and Wilcox, 2002). Some women face many changes due to pregnancies to the point of threatening their life creating the need for abortion. Besides, many deaths have been witnessed due to complexities of some pregnancies resulting in many deaths making the issue of abortion a critical issue for discussion. There are various laws that have been used in handling the issue of terminating pregnancy especially when the life and the health of the mother are put in danger. At situations where high-profile cases concerning maternity rights are decided, especially where organizations seem reluctant to employ female gender who are at their age bearing age, many concerns are raised. Organizations are unwilling to employ such women as they are looking for employees who are available for work all the time. These are some of the challenges that the women are facing in the process of bearing child where in some case some organizations tend to retrench the female employees. As a result, the law has been used to protect the pregnant employees where the rights of the pregnant mothers are stipulated. Considering the values of various societies women are expected to endure the challenges of pregnancy and birth regardless of whether the pregnancy was unintentional or intentional (Petchesky, 2000). No matter the distress, risk, and pain the women might go through, as per the values of the society they are expected to endure. Various justifications have been provided for the endurance during pregnancy where it has been attributed to the value given to “fetal life.” The grounds that pregnancy does expose the women to too much suffering have been given no attention as women are expected to morally ensure that the life of the unborn child is protected until birth. The extreme opponents of the issue of abortion have been arguing that abortion is as equal as murder, where allowing it is equivalent to killing the unborn child. No matter the risks or suffering that the women much go through, they are not allowed to abort as not only abortion is a crime but also it is unethical. Allowing abortion according to the extreme opponents is a threat to the population growth where the birthrate is likely to decline, as the rate of abortion is going to increase leading to declining in population. The women are then expected to withstand the challenges regardless of the situation despite the existence of the opportunities for ending a pregnancy in case the mother is exposed to death risk (Cook, Jelen, and Wilcox, 2002). Ethics issues surrounding abortion The people, who have been opposing the issue of abortion, have been terminating fetuses as human beings hence terminating the growth of the fetuses is murder. Abortion is considered as against morals and ethics of community where the suffering of the women is considered lesser evil than terminating the life of the fetal. The women are not allowed by ethics to terminate human life on the grounds of suffering as suffering forms part of the pregnancy process until the birth of the child. The perceptions that fetuses are human beings make abortion be viewed as wrong and an issue that needs to be condemned (Tietze, 2001). Escaping the suffering and risks associated with pregnancies cannot be a solution for the women as producing a baby must entail some suffering and risks from the biblical perspective. Allowing abortion can adversely affect the society, as many women cannot be willing to accept the suffering associated with a pregnancy resulting to increased termination of the innocent human lives. Therefore, abortion is completely unethical as suffering is part of pregnancy process and cannot be avoided in any childbirth. However, in countries that safe abortion is considered unavailable ad illegal, results in increased cases of “back street” or self-imposed abortions. Many dangers are associated with the back street abortions that can include infertility, infection, injury, and death. Approximately 13% of the maternal deaths are associated with compilations that are linked to unsafe abortion (Luker, 2004). This is a clear indication that legalizing abortion can negatively affect the life of the females and also compromise the value attached to life in ethical terms. In case the prevention of suffering is given priority, the life of the women is put at risk due to the possible deaths and other complications during the abortion. However, considering the fetal rights in ethics perspective is likely to sideline the realities of the lives of women where the autonomy of women in matters of abortion can be lost. Reasons for abortion There are some reasons that do force the women to abort pregnancies where the women have diverse reasons for postponing the childbearing. Some women are taking abortion as a way of planning family but there common reasons that make women do the abortion. First, some women can decide to abort because of disruption of employment or education. Second reason is the lack of support especially from the father where the pregnancy is by mistake, and the father is not ready to take the responsibility. The third reason that has been forcing women to carry out an abortion is the desire to ensure that they can provide the children they already have due to the lack of enough financial power to adequately provide for the big family (Luker, 2004). Unemployment, poverty, and the inability to provide for the children have also been forcing women to abort. Lastly, the issue of age among women has also been resulting in abortion where the women might perceive themselves as young to have a child making abortion the only available option. However, the law has been handling the issue of abortion differently. For instance, abortion can be considered necessary the moment the health of the mother is in danger where abortion is considered to be the only way to avoid risking the life of the mother. Also, under the law, abortion can be allowed in cases where the child is exposed to some physical or mental abnormalities that can make the child handicapped making the risk enough to warrant an abortion. Significance of autonomy and dignity surrounding abortion Abortion has led to diverse discussions especially regarding ethics where the autonomy of the women and the dignity of human life have raised concerns. Doctors should take much consideration at the time of assessing any risk that may occur to the health status of a woman who is pregnant in her environment. Through the organization of the world health, the mental and the social status of a pregnant woman are well defined by the world health organization. However, the majority of the women always make a request that, for the sake of caring lives for women, the abortion policy should be therefore be induced. On the other hand, a big number of doctors usually work according to the definition of the word ` health` by the World Health Organization, in tackling the abortion cases (Thomson, 2006). According to the suggestions given by the group of guideline development, the abortion act is a requirement for the health care of the pregnant women. Moreover, this guideline development group also argues that the process of terminating a pregnancy through abortion is much safe to the women, as compared to the process of continuing pregnancy then, later on, resulting in some complications thus risking the life of the woman. Unfortunately, Janet Radcliffe Richard makes much criticism to the Abortion Act, by arguing a claim that, in a real situation it does not make sense in estimating the value of the unborn baby, to the extent of woman suffering which justifies the abortion cases. The abortion act usually ensures that a woman does not make a decision for herself whether to do abortion or not. Since the law of abortion has been proved to be standing, then definitely we are moving towards a condition where all the women are granted the permissions to do carry out abortion according to their wish. However, if the act of terminating a pregnancy through abortion is considered to be safe, as compared to carrying a pregnancy to the till time of delivery, then in fact that law of abortion is not very bad as some people view it. Moreover, the law of abortion in some areas like in the Northern Ireland is not applied, because the doctors there usually carry out the abortions cases when the both mental and physical health of the pregnant woman are in severe conditions thus the life of the lady is at risk. Also, the doctors may perform the abortion in case there are fetal abnormalities (Thomson, 2006). Under this situation, the abortion carried out but the doctors here are usually very genuine, and therefore a woman is not required necessarily to prove that her life is at risk, for her to be allowed for a legal abortion. Ironically, even though there are no formalities which prescribe the conditions under which the abortion cases should be handled, the Northern Ireland has been facing many cases of the abortion regime as compared to the rest parts of the United Kingdom. Since practically the doctors have been very reluctant in the process of carrying out the abortions in women, the majority of the women are therefore forced to travel to either England or Scotland to seek for the termination of their pregnancies at their expenses. However, there are various conflicts which are quite difficult to reconcile, and this conflicts usually arise from the fundamentals approach concerning the cases of abortion. In this situation, some of the people usually view life as it begins immediately after conception, and this view is always known as skeptical (Stray et al. 2004). On the hand, according to the English law, it says that a fetus is not a person; therefore, a woman may decide to refuse to take the necessary medical care. The medical care is usually expected to assist in preserving the fetus life; thus she may decide to allow the nature to take the course of the fetus hence causing the death to her fetus. Moreover, the common law usually puts some justifications to these conflicts. In the first justification, this law highly honors the autonomy for the women who are pregnant. In the second justification of the common law, people are not forced to become the volunteers of saving the lives of the fetus. Additionally, by the tradition, the common law is significantly liberal (Daya and Stephenson, 2006). Also, if every individual is allowed to do what others are considering to be right, then consequently no individual who should be having any freedom, but an only total moral dictatorship. There was another case in St Georges Healthcare which was involving a reproductive autonomy in which a woman who was pregnant had the freedom to refuse the invasive treatment. In connection to this, the Court of Appeal followed strictly on the rule of the common law, whereby an individual adult can deny taking the medical advice given to them, despite the fact that the woman is pregnant. For instance, the Ms. S was jailed by the Mental Health Act of 1983 since she denied to be taken to the hospital for the treatment of pre-eclampsia. She was then subjected to an unwanted caesarean operation, which was conducted without her being aware, thus later on after the caesarean delivery; the woman experienced the substantial destruction of her trespass. Therefore the Court of Appeal emphasized on the significance of protecting the autonomy of an individual without putting into the consideration about the sex of the person (Thomson, 2006). Even if the pregnancy usually rises, the individual responsibilities of a woman, it does not, however, reduce her entitlement in the process of making the decision to whether to take medical treatment or not to undergo. The right of a woman is not diminished in any way since her decision to exercise is also considered. Moreover, the autonomy of every person usually requires a protection which is continuous in nature even if there is a certain motive which is interfering with it (Foot, 2007). Importantly, in the process of handling the issue of abortion, there was an appeal to the House of Lords to instigate an argument that a fetus in any pregnant woman was a person and therefore when a woman is pregnant, she should, therefore, be deprived her autonomy in the stage of fetal viability. Moreover, these appeals made to the House of Lords were very thrilling arguments for a National Health Trust, which mostly carries out the abortion processes for the fetal abnormality and also for other reasons. Unfortunately, all of these appeals were eventually abandoned before the House of Lords, since it had to make a final decision on the appeal. A thrilling feature that can also be used in the process of demonstrating the case of abortion is the cases that have been witnessed concerning attempted abortion after doctors have discovered some disorders associated with pregnancy that can be managed only through abortion. For instance, some pregnancy disorders can include pre-eclampsia that can kill the mother together with her fetus (Hughes, 2003). The irony of the situation of this woman is that she was seeking abortion at the wrong time and also very late, which could lead to her death or even an injury which is not repairable to her health. However, the majority of the people usually value highly the life of a fetus, when the fetuses reach the stage of viability. Therefore, this is the reason why some people oppose the idea of late termination of the pregnancy, and also accepting that early abortion has got no problem. Practically, the cases of late termination of pregnancies are quite minimal. The majority of the late abortion is done in the case of an abnormal fetus, while the minority of late terminations is conducted to save the life of a woman. Conclusion By the constitutional jurisprudence in many countries, for a woman to have access to the abortion is a right which is protected by the constitution. However, the constitution may regulate the cases of abortion to deny the right of abortion to the women, as the way of promoting the potentiality the life of human beings. There are various conceptual which are very hard to do with relating personhood a fetus which is not seen, not accessible and which is attached to the woman. The fetus usually lacks capacity and therefore is not able to interact with others until birth. An individual can make a case, for regarding a pregnant woman as two persons in one. However, due to high requirements which pregnancy brings, definitely, a woman who is pregnant is therefore entitled to special care and as well as treatment for herself, together with her fetus. References Cook, E.A., Jelen, T.G. and Wilcox, C., 2002. Between two absolutes: public opinion and the politics of abortion. Daya, S. and Stephenson, M.D., 2006. Frequency of factors associated with habitual abortion in 197 couples. Fertility and sterility, 66(1), pp.24-29. Foot, P., 2007. The problem of abortion and the doctrine of double effect. Henshaw, S.K., 2006. Induced Abortion—A World Review. In Prevention and Treatment of Contraceptive Failure (pp. 17-20). Springer US. Hughes, G.R., 2003. Thrombosis, abortion, cerebral disease, and the lupus anticoagulant. British medical journal (Clinical research ed.), 287(6399), p.1088. Luker, K., 2004. Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood (Vol. 3). Berkeley: University of California Press. Petchesky, R.P., 2000. Abortion and womans choice: the state sexuality and reproductive freedom. Stray-Pedersen, B. and Stray-Pedersen, S., 2004. Etiologic factors and subsequent reproductive performance in 195 couples with a prior history of habitual abortion. American journal of obstetrics and gynecology, 148(2), pp.140-146. Thomson, J.J., 2006. A defense of abortion. In Biomedical ethics and the law (pp. 39-54). Springer US. Tietze, C., 2001. Induced abortion: a world review 1981. Read More