What are the ethical issues raised with abortion? (25 Mark) Abortion raises issues such as murder is wrong, Persephone and the sanctity of life. These issues can help decide whether abortion is right or wrong but may sometimes still leave you undecided. The catechism teaches that human life is a gift from God and is precious from its beginning to end. Only God can give or take it away; so when the idea of abortion comes in, Christians would disagree with it as it foes against the sanctity of life. However, while the life of a fetus is sacred so is the life of the other.
The difference between these two sacred lives is that the fetus has potentiality while the mother has actuality. When there is a choice between saving the mother or fetus, the mother’s need to take priority although both are sacred (doctrine of double effect). Abortion is the killing of a fetus. Depending on someone’s view of when the fetus becomes a person and when life begins, abortion is technically murder. If someone (e. G. A catholic) said that life begins at conception or at instrument and that every life is a human person, to them abortion is ruder because deliberately killing a person for a selfish reason is murder.
However the definition of Persephone requires the person to have emotions and have sentience; depending on the stage of the pregnancy, the fetus may not be able to feel anything therefore they are not a person and abortion wouldn’t be murder. Every single human life is entitled to human rights. If a fetus is life then it is entitled to its rights also. John Locke (1 632 -? 1704) held that individuals have certain rights because they are inherent in our nature. The fetus has the right to stay alive and become a baby. However, it is using the mother’s body to grow.
Because it is the mother’s body she should have the right to decide what she wants to do with it. If she doesn’t want a human life to be growing inside of her then she shouldn’t have to. It would be against her human rights to be forced to be connected to the fetus if she didn’t intend on getting pregnant as her rights have precedence over the footsies. E. G. The violinist example suggests that it is generous to keep him attached to you even though you are not obliged to. If a woman finds out that the fetus/embryo she is carrying has the potential o become disabled in any way, she may want to abort it.
It is an unfair thing to do because it should be given as much of a chance at life as a non-disabled fetus. If it is potentially going to be disabled there is still that chance that it won’t be. Aborting a fetus for this reason is an example of prejudice. Shouldn’t the potentially disabled fetus have the same human rights? On the other hand, raising a disabled child can be quite difficult to handle and it could affect the situation at home in the family. It could potentially be distressing for any other children in the home or can even be quite expensive o raise a disabled child.
Some families don’t have the money to afford it and so there only option is to abort the fetus when they can. Nowadays pregnancies are becoming more and more common, especially in teenagers even though now there is a better access to contraceptives. One of the reasons why women may avoid contraceptives is because they know that they have the option of having an abortion in the event of accidentally getting pregnant. Abortion is now sadly very common and overused to the point where it is becoming to some people a contraceptive.
