The First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” This amendment to our Constitution guarantees the citizens of the United States of America the right to live according to their belief system and values and not have the government interfering and dictating how they are to conduct themselves. This amendment grants us freedom to do as we please as long as it is in the confines of being legal. If the activity is illegal we, obviously, must face the consequences of our actions. Throughout the abortion debate there have been many differing opinions in regards to a woman’s right to chose to terminate her pregnancy. Abortion is one of those rights, which is protected according to the Supreme Court, in the United States Constitution. One aspect that I have not thought of until researching a topic for this paper is the rights of the physician to refuse performing an abortion. Upon researching this issue, I discovered some people that would like to limit doctors First Amendment rights. With the United States Constitution to back them up, doctors should have the right to refuse performing abortions because it may be against their moral beliefs and their Hippocratic Oath, even though people tend to think that a woman’s right to an abortion supersedes the physician’s right because of the physician’s social status.
First, doctors should have the right to refuse performing abortions because it is against their moral beliefs. According to Kaveny,
The Church Amendment (1973) protects the right...
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...etrieved (2010, March 20) from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippocratic_Oath
May, T., & Aulisio, M.. (2009). Personal morality and professional obligations: rights of conscience and informed consent. Perspectives in biology and medicine, 52(1), 30-8. Retrieved March 3, 2010, from Research Library. (Document ID: 1635642341).http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1635642341& sid=1&Fmt=3&clientId=74379&RQT=309&VName=PQD
Medical school loans. (2008). Retrieved from http://www.studentdoc.com/medical-school-loans.html
Meyers, Christopher, & Woods, Robert D. (1996). An obligation to provide abortion services: what happens when physicians refuse? Journal of Medical Ethics, 22(2), 115. Retrieved March 7, 2010, from ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source. (Document ID: 9580975). http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?
did=9580975&sid=4&Fmt=3&clientId=74379&RQT=309&VName=PQD
Abortion is an ethical issue because there are many differing views on if it morally right to terminate a pregnancy before normal childbirth. Some people believe that abortion is acceptable, others completely disagree with the practice and other believe it is acceptable under some circumstances. This is an ethical issue because there is the ‘Pro Life’ argument, where there is the belief that abortion is murder, and the unborn child has the right to live as anyone else does, there is also the ‘Pro Choice’ argument, where there is the belief that the woman has ‘reproductive rights’ and can choose what she does with her body, because it is her body. There are also views of abortion that come from religion. People base their views on their values,
1.) Dr. Schwarz, Stephen. The Moral Questions of Abortion. Sophia Institute Press, Columbus Ohio 1990
Over the course 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 regard to her reproductive rights.
...ther’s sovereignty over her body outweigh the right of an unborn child to live. The answers to these questions are very diverse as a result of the diversity of the American society. With the issue of abortion, one’s attitude toward it is going to be based on many things such as religious background and personal morals. There is no black and white answer to the abortion issue. Luckily we live in a country where we are able to decide for ourselves whether something is morally right or wrong. Thus, ultimately, the choice is ours. As with the many other ethical issues which we are faced with in our society, it is hard to come to a concrete answer until we are personally faced with that issue. All we can do is make an effort to know all of the aspects which are involved so that we may be able to make a sound decision if we were faced with this problem in our own lives.
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
Hinman, Lawrence. “Abortion: A Guide to the Ethical Issues.” May 13, 2010. University of San
Many people believe abortion is a moral issue, but it’s also a constitutional issue (Messerli 1). The right of the woman to speak about this issue is hers, and is guaranteed by the ninth amendment, which is the right to privacy. The ninth amendment states, "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." (Boland 7) This amendment guarantees the right to women, so if they choose to have an abortion, up to the end of their first trimester it is theirs. Regardless of morals, a woman has the right to privacy and a ...
For years, abortion has been an extremely controversial subject. One important aspect of the controversy is whether a woman should be permitted by law to have an abortion and under what circumstances. Another is whether laws should protect the unborn. History has shown that whenever abortion had been prohibited, women still attempted and succeeded in obtaining illegal abortions. Unfortunately, they have suffered serious health reasons or died in the process.
With so many women choosing to have abortions, it would be expected that it would not be so greatly frowned up, yet society is still having problems with its acceptance. Every woman has the fundamental right to decide for herself, free from government interference, whether or not to have an abortion. Today, more than ever, American families do not want the government to trample on their right to privacy by mandating how they must decide on the most intimate, personal matters. That is why, even though Americans may differ on what circumstances for terminating a crisis pregnancy are consistent with their own personal moral views, on the fundamental question of who should make this personal decision, the majority of Americans agree that each woman must have the right to make this private choice for herself. Anti-choice proposals to ban abortions for “sex-selection” or “birth-control” are smokescreens designed to shift the focus of the debate away from this issue and trivialize the seriousness with which millions of women make this highly personal decision. Any government restriction on the reasons for which women may obtain legal abortions violates the core of this right and could force all women to publicly justify their reasons for seeking abortion.
Maternal-fetal issues spark complex and controversial debates in the field of biomedical ethics (Farber-Post, 1996). The conflicts arise when medical professionals try to determine to whom their ethical obligations are owed. Many ethicists argue that autonomy is precedential and, therefore, the duty of the medical staff is to the pregnant woman because it is her body, and she has a right to make decisions regarding her healthcare. Others argue that equally important ethical principles such as beneficence, nonmaleficence, and avoiding killing override the principle of autonomy, and therefore, these principles that govern actions towards the fetus, in particular the fetus’ right to life, demand that medical professionals override the mothers’ desires at times.
Warren, Mary Anne , and Mappes and D. DeGrazia. "On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion." Biomedical Ethics 4th (1996): 434-440. Print.
Baird, Robert M., and Stuart E. Rosenbaum. The Ethics of Abortion: Pro-life vs. Pro-choice. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus, 1989. Print.
With the issue of abortion, we are able to relate it easily to several principles throughout the Constitution. Every human has the right to make decisions about their own body, and this includes a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy. The Constitution doesn’t classify an unborn baby as a human. Which leads straight in to the 14th amendment, a right for personal privacy and not allowing the government and Constitution to be a pressuring standpoint in this decision on whether you want to keep your child. As a human, we have the rights that no state shall make or enforc...
Abortion has been a complex social issue in the United States ever since restrictive abortion laws began to appear in the 1820s. By 1965, abortions had been outlawed in the U.S., although they continued illegally; about one million abortions per year were estimated to have occurred in the 1960s. (Krannich 366) Ultimately, in the 1973 Supreme Court case of Roe v. Wade, it was ruled that women had the right to privacy and could make an individual choice on whether or not to have an abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy. (Yishai 213)