Abortion Ethical Dilemma An 18 year old girl gets pregnant and can’t decide whether to keep the baby or have an abortion. Her parents are very religious and do not believe in sex before marriage therefore would not take to kindly to their daughter being pregnant. She does not want to kill her unborn child but feels like there is no other option besides having an abortion. There are many reasons that one would decide upon getting an abortion and against having one. This ethical dilemma along with all other ethical dilemmas is a situation where ight and wrong share a very thin line. The right decision for some might be wrong for others and vice versa which is why it is so difficult to decide upon. Some people, for example the girl in this dilemma, would want to do what she thinks is right by having the baby but might choose abortion because she knows that it will cause her many problems to have the baby. Abortion is legal in Canada so it’s not as if the girl would be breaking any laws but then she would have to live with the decision she made. This can be classified as Justice vs.
Mercy under the right vs. right pillar because the girl wants to give her child mercy and let it live but at the same time her parents would want to get justice and would punish her for getting pregnant to begin with. It can also be classified as Deviation from moral rectitude under the three pillars of right vs. wrong dilemmas because it is not a violation against laws within Canada but they go against the girl’s moral grain. If the girl believes that getting an abortion doesn’t feel right to her, than she should know that it might not be the right thing to do.
This is the dilemma where if it doesn’t feel good or if it is not something that’s right, then it must be wrong in the eyes of whoever has to make the decision. (Follert 2008) The girl in this dilemma has probably weighed the decision about what to do many times and despite what other people may think there are pros and cons to every ethical dilemma. For example in the situation of an abortion the girl has quite a few reasons to follow through and act on getting the abortion. Many of them concern the outcome of her and her baby’s future.
If the parents are very strict and religious they might not be too supportive about taking care of their daughter and her child. Some people get kicked out of their home and have no one else to turn to, which is when they start to realize that having a baby when they have no place to stay wouldn’t be the greatest idea. Everyone needs help right after they have a baby and to not have the support from family and friends is a major reason young girls follow through with the abortion option.
Another major reason is because being an 18 year old girl, without parental help, she is most likely not very financially stable and having a baby costs a lot of money. Even if the father of the child is willing to help, food, clothes, formula and other necessities add up and to support the baby on a salary of two teenagers isn’t very realistic. Just consider a teenage boy and girl living on their own with no parental help, having to pay for everything for the baby plus paying bills and the rent of where ever they are staying. Not only would the parents be struggling, but the child would struggle as well.
There are also other reasons why an 18 year old girl would consider an abortion, things like school, because without money and family support how is she suppose to continue with her education and take care of the baby. If it’s not school she has to go to, it would be work because she would need all the money she could get to survive on her own. There are also reasons such as whether or not the girl or guy is mature enough to handle the responsibilities of a child and if later on in the future, it doesn’t work out between the girl and baby’s father, would she be mature enough to handle things on her own.
There are two reasons that a lot of society would consider the option of abortion to be acceptable and even this is controversial between people. One is if the baby had some sort of health issue and the doctors discovered it early on in the pregnancy. Nobody would want their child to lead a life of pain and constantly taking medication so the person considering the abortion would feel as if she was doing it for her unborn child which in her mind would be justified.
The second reason is if a woman is raped, because if she went through with the pregnancy, the baby would be a constant reminder of the guy who raped her. These are the reasons supporting the girl’s decision to follow through with an abortion because as mentioned before all these reasons affect the girl and the baby in a negative way. A lot of people consider abortion a form of murder because they consider the fetus to be a human being. It is because of this that they would never get an abortion and they would get mad at others who did.
People consider babies a gift from God and even unplanned pregnancies are seen as God’s gift to the parents. People who are against abortion state other humans are in no position to play God and that we have no right to choose who lives and who dies. Some reasons that pregnant women consider not having an abortion are because the chances of getting pregnant afterwards decline and because of the emotional pain that is felt with the loss of a mother’s child. It is a very tragic event in a woman’s life and its something that can’t be reversed or taken back.
People who are against abortion argue that there are always alternatives for unplanned teenage pregnancies like adoption or even facilities that help woman who have been kicked out of their homes and have no where else to go. Another reason that people are against abortion is because some girls or women use abortion as their own form of birth control just because they can, since its legal. I’m sure that this is viewed as wrong by many since an abortion is a second chance given to a woman because she made a mistake and it is not to be taken advantage of.
After the first time she should try to be more careful and either use contraceptives or not have sex altogether. I think that the decision should be left up to the pregnant woman because no body but her can decide whether or not she is capable of raising a child. If she has any of the problems mentioned above and she thinks that it is better for her not to go through with the pregnancy than that is her decision and other people shouldn’t get involved with it.
People who just don’t like the idea of abortion don’t know all the circumstances that the pregnant woman has to consider and therefore are in no position to simply say abortion is wrong. It can also be like the girl in this dilemma where she knows that it’s wrong and doesn’t want to have the abortion but is left with no other choice than to have it. Her parents would kick her out of the house leaving her with no where to go simply because it goes against their religion to have a child out of wedlock.
I think that a lot of woman especially young girls start off saying that they would never get an abortion but once they are in the predicament it seems like the most reasonable thing to do. They have time to think through all their options and some people eventually decide upon abortion even though they know its wrong and it is the last thing they want to do. In this ethical dilemma I think the girl would most likely take the abortion route because she is only 18 and has her whole life ahead of her.
Also with her parents being so religious they would never warm up to the idea of their teenage daughter having a baby at that age by someone she isn’t even married to. I think that as long as it doesn’t break any laws and the girl has justified her decision to herself than it would be okay for her to go through with it, as long as she understands the risks and consequences behind her actions. Ethical dilemmas are very hard to deal with for everyone because there are many ways of going about the situation that may seem right to one person but wrong for many others.
This can be the other way around too because something that one person may feel is strongly wrong can be justified as right by others. What everyone should understand is that ethical dilemmas should be solved only by the person with the problem and they should be capable of understanding what they feel is right and wrong. For example if I knew that what I was going to do would violate laws than I would reconsider it because I know that majority of the time I could not justify my actions but with a dilemma like abortion it can be justified by the person and it doesn’t break any laws.
