Abortion: Arnold V. Board Of Education

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Student Jane Doe had an abortion after signing consent forms herself on April 10,1986. The father of the aborted fetus was a fellow student John Doe. Jane father and Johns mother brought, on the behalf of both students, a civil right suit against the Escambia County (Alabama) Board of Education and against guidance counselor Kay Rose and Vice Principal Melvin Powell. The heart of the suit was that “Rose and Powell forced or compelled Jane to have an abortion and compelled Jane and John to refrain from telling their parents of the pregnancy.” The court found in favor of Board of Education of Escambia County, ALA. The case concluded that the students freely made the decision to have the abortion. Noddings and the Law can be read as being similar …show more content…

Board of Education and Noddings agreed that those who are directly involved should have the say in whether to abort the fetus or not. They both agreed that the decision shouldn’t be made alone. Noddings writes “The decision for or against abortion must be made by those directly involved in the concrete situation, but it need not be made alone” (Noddings, 2005). Similarly, the Court noted “Jane sought additional advice from others, including the counselor Rose, the vice principle and the father of the fetus John Doe” 1989. The Jury agreed that Jane didn’t make the decision alone. Despite both having parents, Jane and John felt safe sharing the information with Rose the counselor instead of their parents,“... suggest a brief and direct form of counseling in which a young expectant mother could come to grips with her feelings ”( Noddings, 2005). Plainly, Noddings would concur with the Court’s decision that Jane and John didn’t make the decision alone and asked for help in advice before acting upon the …show more content…

As such, I find Noddings and the Court’s decision to be more different than the same. In this case the one-caring held the fetus and one-self best interest rather than the one cared for. Not all parents are ideal parents. Some parents bring more harm to their children than good. This case showed me that even though some parents fail to provide their children the help and support they need, there are adults out there who devote their time and life providing help and support to those neglected children. For example, one of my closest friend had parents that were very old school and strict. In our language, we have a word for that people because there are a lot of them. They’re called Jahil. Protectiveness, a restrictive lifestyle and a certain level of Jahil thinking in elders leads to them emotionally damaging their children. Most Jahil parents don’t realize it due to the time and environment differences. My friend self-esteem suffered because her parents constantly called her dark and weak and had restrictions on things that were accessible to other teenagers her age. She knew this was no reason to act aggressive towards them or disrespects them. They didn’t think their Somali sayings about

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