Abortion applies to pregnancy termination
Abortion is a topical topic and one of the contentious ethical issues that is popular across the globe. In abortion, the core ethical question includes the fight between life and freedom.
The Pro-Choice Perspective
There are usually two classes of people, the pro-choice and the pro-life groups. The pro-choice chooses liberty and therefore considers it immoral for someone to restrict the right of a woman to the decision she makes about her body. These individuals consider the right to complete control of one's body as moral, according to Russell and Gregory (251), and therefore prohibiting a woman from aborting an unwanted child means depriving them of this right. The organic life exits inside the woman’s body, and therefore she should be given the right to decide whether it remains inside her body or not and thus any woman has the right to choose abortion.
The Pro-Life Perspective
On the other hand, the pro-life choose life and thus consider it unethical for a woman to abort. Pro-life argues that the right to life always outweighs the right of any individual to control their body. Therefore, these individuals claim that aborting do not liberate any woman. Instead, it permits the society not to take care of the woman’s needs. Pro-life believes that the need for equality for women entails being given the social and financial requirements to survive as mothers but not the right to access abortion (Russell and Gregory 251). They say that the fetus is not a body part like any other but a separate life growing in the womb and thus abortion means murder. A woman should, therefore, take the necessary precautions to avoid killing an innocent life as a result of one’s responsibility or mistake.
Critical evaluation and analysis of argument
The battle between the pro-choice and pro-life is everlasting and hence becomes an ethical dilemma. The teleological approach claims that the decisions to undertake an abortion depend on the consequences. The theory is based on utilitarianism, an approach that argues that there is nothing like a universal basis for determining wrong or right (Lazar and Seth 590). The main idea behind the teleological theory, therefore, is the utility principle which focuses on consequences of action and thus killing an innocent life may be right or wrong depending on the circumstance. Therefore, the theory focuses on a selfish point of view about the situation.
The deontological theory insists that there are specific systems of duties and that the perfect ones should always be followed regardless of the situations. As postulated by Lazar and Seth (600) one of the ideal responsibilities include not killing an innocent being, and a pregnant woman’s case applies in the context that there is a life inside her body. The theory argues that immediately a woman conceives, a child is no longer one of her body tissues but a separate individual. Therefore, abortion means killing that independent individual. The criticism of this approach, however, is that after conception, there is cell formation with little tissues and it’s normal for cells to be created and distorted in our bodies.
Both theories present varying viewpoints
and it is hard to choose the approach that can be regarded ethical. There exists a variety of reasons why a woman would want to terminate a pregnancy for instance if she was raped, if the pregnancy would disrupt her life goals and purpose, if she has an unusual disease that could be passed on to the child or even to prevent the birth of a strange kid. The reason why most of the individuals find abortion ethically problematic is apparent and revolve around life values or religion (Dickens and Bernard 182). However, the truth remains that every human being has the right to decide how to perceive and feel about abortion and the central dilemma is whether to choose the pro-life or the pro-choice view.
My Position
I believe that every woman has the right over their body and thus should choose whether to abort or not. Some scenarios justify the choice to abort but are always rendered meaningless by women who are just careless and decide to abort due to irresponsibility. An excellent example of such women include the teens who ignore the consequences of unsafe sex, merely because they know abortion could serve as a contraception method. The utilitarian approach in the teleological theory puts into consideration that utility of the unborn child and allow women to have an abortion in case they make mistakes or if their health is at risk. On the other hand, the deontological approach is against abortion and urges an individual to follow a particular system of duties.
I believe abortion can be ethical only if the choice is not taken for granted. I think that abortion is s choice and the philosophical theories can be supported or ignored depending on one’s perception. While making a decision of this kind then the ethicality of that matter can only be left to the individual.
Works Cited
Dickens, Bernard M. "Ethical and legal aspects of noninvasive prenatal genetic diagnosis." International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics 124.2 (2014): 181-184.
Lazar, Seth. "Deontological Decision Theory and Agent-Centered Options." Ethics 127.3 (2017): 579-609.
Russell, Gregory. "Pro-Life, Pro-Choice, and Prospects for Common Values." Radical Conflict: Essays on Violence, Intractability, and Communication (2016): 251.
