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medical ethics for abortion
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medical ethics for abortion
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Abortion Pill
The subject of abortion has created some of the most controversial, social, and moral debates in United States history. On Jan. 22, 1973, in the case Roe Vs. Wade, the Supreme Court ruled that it was a woman’s constitutional right to have an abortion during the first trimester of the pregnancy (The Ruling). Still other interest groups argue that human life begins at conception and having an abortion is murder to an unborn child. These opposing viewpoints create a delicate political and social debate in which the lives of unborn children are placed in the center. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved the RU 486 “abortion pill”, citing that the “overall safety of the pill is excellent”(Food and Drug). This scientific development has the potential to make abortions much more accessible and private to American women. I believe that the abortion pill harbors great qualities for women who choose abortion, yet is an enormous medical setback because it will cost the lives of so many more unborn children.
For patients who undergo an abortion the psychological issues are some of the hardest to deal with. Suicide rates for women who have an abortion are more than 5 times that of women who have the baby (Abortion-Statistics). While traditionally abortions are very difficult on women, RU 486 makes it much easier for women to choose abortion. Instead of having to travel long distances to an urban clinic, the abortion process can be much more private, an agreement between a woman and her physician (Robinson). With the abortion pill women have the luxury of spending up to twice as much time in the counsel of their doctors than with surgical abortions (Robinson). Furthermore, The abortion pill ...
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...duction of the abortion pill, abortion becomes very reachable, changing the way it has been seen in the past and dulling the senses of the common person. Is it better for society to let down its guard against abortion and slowly accept it as common? I am sure the children in question could give an answer if they had a chance. Making abortion easier and more appealing only further disguises that it is murder. I strongly believe that five months cannot change murder from a horrible crime into a choice.
Bibliography:
Works Cited
“Abortion: All Sides of the Issue.” 12 Oct. 2000.
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“Abortion-Statistics.” The Life Research and Communications Institute. 12 Oct. 2000.
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“Food and Drug Administration Approves Abortion Pill.” CNN. 12 Oct. 2000.
Robinson, B. A. “RU-486 ABORTION PILL.” 12 Oct. 2000.
“The Ruling.” The Detroit News. 12 Oct. 2000.
Abortion, which is defined as a deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, is one of the most controversial issues in society. Many people believe that abortion is unethical and morally wrong, while others believe that it is a woman’s right to decide what to do with her body. According to www.census.gov, “the number of abortions performed annually in the U.S. has leveled off at 1.2 million a year” (1). This statistic supports how many women are choosing abortion. Although abortion is legal in the United States, many people continue to voice their opinions on how it is a human rights violation and should be illegal everywhere. The practice of abortion should be banned in society because it terminates the life of an innocent unborn child, causes long-term emotional effects, as well as major health risks for women who opt for abortion.
In today's world, the subject of abortion is a very controversial issue. Some people are totally decided on pro-life or pro-choice, but most are somewhere in between and have mixed feelings. Abortion has been a very important issue since the early 1980's when the topic started to gain popularity. Since then, horrible things have happened to put abortions in the hot seat. There have been bombings on clinics, murders of abortion doctors, and protests that have turned violent. There should be a more discrete and private way to have an abortion without all those hassles. There has been development of a new pill that can help to cool down some heated abortion issues. The new pill is called the RU-486, or commonly referred to as the morning after pill. If the new pill is made legal, it can create a private way for women to have an abortion without having a surgical procedure done, and the pressures of the surrounding world would not be there influencing their decisions.
Over the duration of the last century, abortion in the Western hemisphere has become a largely controversial topic that affects every human being. In the United States, at current rates, one in three women will have had an abortion by the time they reach the age of 45. The questions surrounding the laws are of moral, social, and medical dilemmas that rely upon the most fundamental principles of ethics and philosophy. At the center of the argument is the not so clear cut lines dictating what life is, or is not, and where a fetus finds itself amongst its meaning. In an effort to answer the question, lawmakers are establishing public policies dictating what a woman may or may not do with consideration to her reproductive rights. The drawback, however, is that there is no agreement upon when life begins and at which point one crosses the line from unalienable rights to murder.
The focal issue of this paper is not to evaluate whether or not abortion should be legal, but rather the question of RU-486 being legal - and readily available. If women have been granted the choice to terminate a pregnancy, then RU-486 simply provides them with a choice on the procedure they prefer to use. The approval of RU-486 will not vastly impact the landscape of abortion in America. Though nearly every individual in America has a personal opinion on abortion rights, abortion remains an issue between a woman, her creator and her physician. As long as abortion is legal, women will now have RU-486 as an option when making the choice that is best for them.
Today, an abortion is done by a professional in the field that has had the specialized training to carry out the procedure. Before abortion became legal and easily accessible to women, many women were using back-alley or self induced abortions to get rid of unwanted pregnancies. The result of these unsafe procedures can be very devastating for both the women and the baby. Back in the early to mid 1900’s, wealthy women requiring an abortion because of severe medical reasons were generally able to find a physician who could perform an abortion. However, the poor women had to turn towards illegal and unsafe abortions, which ended in countless deaths and mutilations. Between the years of the 1950s to 1960s, it has been estimated that there were around 200,000 to 1,200,000 illegal abortions performed each year in the United States. Up to about 5,000 of these abortions ended with the death of the women having the procedure done. Because of abortion now being legal and accessible to all women in the United States, the death rate from getting one is extremely low, about 0.6 per 100,000 abortion procedures. Having a safe, legal, and effective place and way to get an abortion has overall been safer for the women getting an
Abortion, defined as the intentional termination of a pregnancy, is one of the most highly debated liberties of all time. Approximately one to three million abortions are performed each year. Women receive abortions for reasons such as rape, teen pregnancy, and health concerns. Unfortunately, it is a liberty that some still wish to eradicate due to religious beliefs and misconceptions. Abortion should remain a legal option for women because illegal abortions result in far more fatalities, religion does not serve as grounds for a law, and most importantly, there is no conclusive evidence that a fetus is equal to a human being.
A woman returns home from the clinic, without the child she once held inside her and instead of relief, she feels pain. Not the stinging of a wound or the aching of a broken bone, but a deep-rooted depression that eats away until all that is left is an emotional fissure right where happiness used to be. Many women who go through with an abortion find themselves more depressed than if they kept their child to term, which, if left unnoticed, may also lead to suicide. According to an article that focused on the link between abortion and suicide, “…actual data suggests that abortion is far more likely to drive an unstable woman to suicide than is pregnancy and childbirth” (Reardon) and also another article stated that, “Women who have aborted in the previous year are six times more likely to commit suicide than women giving birth” (Meehan). Some women who have aborted their child feel guilt for having killed the child, resulting in lower self-esteem and gr...
To clarify, by providing a patient a pill dosage, with the intent to cause an abortion, a person is “performing” an abortion. By enforcing that abortions must be performed by a licensed physician, clinics like Planned Parenthood are not able to legally perform any kind of abortion (“Should I Get”). By doing this, the possibility of a woman receiving an abortion decreases. Even though their hospital may offer the service, it would be more expensive than receiving the pill at a clinic and 42 states allow hospitals to refuse to perform abortions (“An Overview”) so a women could end up having no options to receive an abortion that are safe, affordable and legal. These articles show how laws that restrict abortion are leading women to seek out methods that are possibly unsafe for their bodies or even in their day to day
For hundreds of years women helped each other to abort their pregnancies. Without legal prohibitions, women in Europe and the United States provided abortions and trained each other to perform the procedures. In the past century different states had begun to outlaw any procedure that would terminate or avoid pregnancy. In 1973(?) the United States Supreme Court asserted a woman's constitutional right to abortion in determining Roe v. Wade. After several decades of quiet disagreement, abortion has once again become a political hotbed. Under the direction of religious fundamentalists and fanatical anti-abortionists, this privacy right is in jeopardy. While both sides present strong arguments, these same positions have already been exhaustively debated and ruled upon by the Supreme Court. To turn back the clock on this issue would discriminate not only against women, but even more so against those in lower socio-economic groups. Therefore, the United States should protect a woman's Constitutional Right to choose.
A major problem in this debate is the manipulation of terms. The FDA, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and abortion advocacy groups long ago endorsed a change in the definitions of "conception" and "pregnancy" to confuse the issue. Instead of equating conception with fertilization, and seeing a woman as pregnant if her body contains a living, developing embryo, they equate "conception" and "pregnancy" with the implantation of the embryo in the uterus 6 to 10 days later. Thus a drug or device that destroys the early embryo or disrupts its development is redefined as "contra-ceptive," even though it is abortifacient in nature.
Strahan, Thomas W., J.D. “Therapeutic Influence in Abortion Counseling and Procedures: Creating the Illusion of Well-Being.” Association for Interdisciplinary Research in Values and Social Change. March / April 2002. 1 March 2004. <http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/facts/Vol%2017%20No%201%20Mar%202002.pdf>
The deliberate termination of a human pregnancy is called an abortion. Abortions are a widely debated subject throughout the world. In the United States, abortions are legal due to the Roe v. Wade law. Some would argue that abortions are ethnically and morally wrong, while others assert it is simply a woman’s choice. There are a number of legitimate reasons why a woman would choose to abort her unborn; financial status, age and health are just a few. With today’s technology and a certified doctor, this procedure is harmless to both the mother and her fetus. Abortions are viewed by many as dangerous and immoral acts of humanity against an unborn fetus. But in reality, abortions terminate a pregnancy that could result in a child being born into a family with inadequate finances, irresponsible parenting, and possible health problems. For these reasons, abortions offer a perfectly viable solution in situations that would otherwise result in children being raised under circumstances that are at best, not ideal, and at worst, harmful and potentially dangerous.
...ly members. Those choices are much better than killing an unwanted child and they wouldn’t lay to heavily on the mother’s conscience. There is a slightly good chance of abortion becoming illegal in the years to come. Our President, George Bush recently signed a ban on abortion and plans on taking it to court to make it illegal (Entous). This ban will cover partial-birth abortions. This type of abortion has been the subjects of many disputes and failed to make it to court. Many people were outraged and upset because it didn’t protect women’s rights. Who knows if abortion will ever become illegal? The way the world is going, it may never become illegal. Our values and morals have diminished and things may continue to worsen. As long as America has a strong president that stands up for what he believes in concerning the issue, we may one day see it happen.
First, the legalization of abortion offers immense protection for the health of women. For a large number of women that have ailments such as sickle-cell anemia, kidney disease, severe hypertension, heart disease, diabetes and other ailments that are life-threatening, carrying a pregnancy to full term can often be complicated. Indeed, a large number of pregnancies often render the women that have such conditions worse off than they were and place them in near-fatal circumstances. In essence, it is imperative that women are allowed to abort legally.
Abortions have always been a very controversial topic. Over the years we continue to fight for or against it. One can say that is one of the most talked and argued topic in the United States. An abortion is when a woman terminates her pregnancy before the fetus is viable using various of methods. Some argue that abortions should be illegal and considered murder, while others, from a religious point of view, say that no one has the right to take away the life of a person, in this case the fetus. However, others insist, that abortions are a basic women’s right.