Ethical Issues In Abortion

When contemplating ethical problems, a numerous amount of issues arise. There are opinions, which leads to debates on reasons why a topic should or should not be permitted. Abortion is one of the most controversial ethical problems in the world, because there are considerably reasonable arguments for both sides. Listening to both sides will give important moral insights. In reality there are an estimated 3 million unwanted pregnancies that occur each year. About 1.6 million of those unwanted pregnancies are ended by abortion. That is an estimated 4,000 abortions performed each day. The frequency of abortion is measured in three ways. The first is measured in the absolute numbers of abortions. The second is the abortion ratio, which is the

The majority of women who have abortions are in their twenties. The next highest group would be single, teenage women. The Alan Guttmacher Institute found that 25 percent of all abortions are for teenagers and 59 percent are for the women under 25 years old. Teenagers have a high rate of about 44 percent of late abortions, because they are more likely to ignore, deny, or misunderstand the signs they are pregnant. It was also found that 37 percent of women obtaining abortions identify as protestant and 28 percent as catholic. There are many reasons women have abortions. Some of the issues are as follow; being afraid to care for another individual, not being able to afford a baby, the baby might interfere with school or work, or the fear of the baby ending a relationship or being a single parent all together. These statistics show that the procedures are not based by race nor poverty which is a typical stigma attached to

When does the fetus because a person, Conception or birth? Do woman have the right to decide if they are going to carry a baby to term or not? These are the most commonly argumentative questions that come up in this specific topic. The moral status of the fetus is in much of the debate in regard to abortion. If the fetus is a person, then they have the right to be kept to term. Some philosophers like Judith Thomson and Jane English had made arguments that even if the fetus is a person, abortion may be morally justified. They dispute the truth of the premise, “It is wrong to end the life of an innocent person.” The question then becomes again when is a fetus a person? Some say it happens at the moment of conception, others say it happens when the heart beat starts, and others feel life doesn’t start until birth. According to Dr. Jack Willke, the president of the National Right to Life Committee, an embryo is a human being from the moment of conception. His definition of a human depends upon the forty- six chromosomes. The embryo exists beyond our understanding. The fertilized egg contains all the DNA necessary for the embryo to develop. Half the DNA is supplied by the egg and the other half by the sperm. It makes a unique combination that can’t be duplicated, which entitles a unique individual. Although, arguments have been made contradicting Dr. Willke’s