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Medical ethical issues on abortion
Essay on pro choice vs pro life
Medical ethical issues on abortion
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As said in Sarah's article "Med student was all for abortion, until he watched one happen", Sarah Terzo had received a message from an anonymous Med Student saying that a Med student was shadowing an abortion as his experience for his training but didn't take into consideration what the abortion would involve. He explains in his anonymous tip that he was very liberal and pro-choice, and Sarah read that, before, he only viewed the fetus as "a mass of cells." (Sarah, Page one). He was used to the thought of abortion and didn’t take on the thought that he would be disturbed by this performance, in fact, he saw this opportunity as something "new, edgy and exciting." This writer includes the full description of what the student observed. There was
a small table with all the tools for the operation and the woman was asleep with her legs spread apart. When the actual procedure began, the doctors, held open her cervix with a "Crude Metal instrument." A transparent tube had then been stuck inside the woman, which was attached to the vacuum for the removal of the baby. "within seconds, the machine's motor was engaged, and blood, tissue and tiny organs were pulled out of their environment into a filter. A minute later, the vacuum chocked to a halt. The tube was removed and stuck to the end was a small body and a head haphazardly to it, what was formed of the neck snapped. The ribs had formed, with a thin layer of skin covering them, the eyes had formed, and the inner organs had begun to function. The tiny heart of the fetus, obviously a little boy had just stopped - - forever. The cum filter was opened, and the tiny arms and legs that were torn of the fetus were accounted for. The fingers and toes had he beginnings of their nails on them. The doctors, proud of their wok, reassembled the body to show me. Tears welled up in my eyes as they removed the baby boy from the table and shoved his boy into a container for disposal."
Judith Jarvis Thomson, a 20th century philosopher, offers her argument defending abortion in her paper, “A Defense of Abortion”. She states initially that the fetus has a right to life, although contrary to her argument, she uses it as a premise to develop her thoughts. In short, Thomson says that the fetus’s right to life does not outweigh the woman’s right to control her body. She forces readers to participate in a thought experiment as she gives an odd example about a violinist suffering from kidney failure. The violist is facing death and in order to prevent it, he needs your help. Because you are the only one with his blood type, you are the only hope for him. You have been kidnapped by the Society of Music lovers and, without your consent, hooked up to him and you are filtering his blood and keeping him alive. In order to save his life, you must remain connected to him and support him for nine whole months. Thomson then asks if it is morally wrong to disagree to remain connected to the violinist. It is quite noble to agree to save the man’s life but should his right to life automatically force you to sacrifice nine months of yours?
Oddly, physicians brought abortion into the public’s eye. These physicians formed a pro-life movement arguing the moral knowledge that the public didn’t seem to have (12, Luker, Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood p. 000). According to the source, women didn’t understand that the embryo is a living being. With their lack of knowledge about things, they came “murderesses” and the only way this could be solved was to outlaw abortion. They kept the idea that abortion was murder, but, at the same time, they also said that only they could decide when an abortion should occur. With their accomplishment, in 1900, every state had a law that stated that abortion is illegal except for when the mother’s life is in danger. But the weakness of this was that the law didn’t specifically define the danger a mother should be in.
Judith Jarvis Thomson, in "A Defense of Abortion", argues that even if we grant that fetuses have a fundamental right to life, in many cases the rights of the mother override the rights of a fetus. For the sake of argument, Thomson grants the initial contention that the fetus has a right to life at the moment of conception. However, Thomson explains, it is not self-evident that the fetus's right to life will always outweigh the mother's right to determine what goes on in her body. Thomson also contends that just because a woman voluntarily had intercourse, it does not follow that the fetus acquires special rights against the mother. Therefore, abortion is permissible even if the mother knows the risks of having sex. She makes her points with the following illustration. Imagine that you wake up one morning and find that you have been kidnapped, taken to a hospital, and a famous violist has been attached to your circulatory system. You are told that the violinist was ill and you were selected to be the host, in which the violinist will recover in nine months, but will die if disconnected from you before then. Clearly, Thomson argues, you are not morally required to continue being the host. In her essay she answers the question: what is the standard one has to have in order to be granted a right to life? She reflects on two prospects whether the right to life is being given the bare minimum to sustain life or ir the right to life is merely the right not to be killed. Thomson states that if the violinist has more of a right to life then you do, then someone should make you stay hooked up to the violinist with no exceptions. If not, then you should be free to go at a...
In the Judith Jarvis Thomson’s paper, “A Defense of Abortion”, the author argues that even though the fetus has a right to life, there are morally permissible reasons to have an abortion. Of course there are impermissible reasons to have an abortion, but she points out her reasoning why an abortion would be morally permissible. She believes that a woman should have control of her body and what is inside of her body. A person and a fetus’ right to life have a strong role in whether an abortion would be okay. Thomson continuously uses the story of a violinist to get the reader to understand her point of view.
In her essay “A Feminist Defense of Abortion” Sally Markowitz addresses the Autonomy defense as not being feminist in nature. She comes to this conclusion by recognizing that the right to bodily autonomy is not just a female right but a right that is innate for every person, male or female. Markowitz then asserts that the human right to bodily autonomy in regard to abortion should not be a gender neutral defense. Many feminists have come to the conclusion that the Autonomy Defense works against women in the courts as it shifts the focus away from gender inequality. Feminists have adopted the belief that sometimes gender should be relevant in claiming rights. To fail to claim a right on the basis of gender in the situation of abortion would obscure the relationship between reproductive practices and their oppression.
The topic of my paper is abortion. In Judith Jarvis Thomson's paper, “A Defense of Abortion,” she presented a typical anti-abortion argument and tried to prove it false. I believe there is good reason to agree that the argument is sound and Thompson's criticisms of it are false.
In her essay, “A Defense of Abortion,” Judith Jarvis Thompson outlines the most common arguments that people defend, and explains her views regarding each of these. She shares numerous examples and situations that she believes will support her views. One of her most prominent arguments is that of whether or not a fetus has moral standing as a “person.” She highlights the so called “battle” between an innocent life, the fetus, and the bodily rights of the mother. Within this argument, Judith outlines for us several situations which can provide people with a different outlook regarding abortion. Throughout Judith’s essay, she does not truly give a clear stance, but rather allows her readers to choose for themselves.
In the article 'A Defense of Abortion' Judith Jarvis Thomson argues that abortion is morally permissible even if the fetus is considered a person. In this paper I will give a fairly detailed description of Thomson main arguments for abortion. In particular I will take a close look at her famous 'violinist' argument. Following will be objections to the argumentative story focused on the reasoning that one person's right to life outweighs another person's right to autonomy. Then appropriate responses to these objections. Concluding the paper I will argue that Thomson's 'violinist' argument supporting the idea of a mother's right to autonomy outweighing a fetus' right to life does not make abortion permissible.
In A Defense of Abortion (Cahn and Markie), Judith Thomson presents an argument that abortion can be morally permissible even if the fetus is considered to be a person. Her primary reason for presenting an argument of this nature is that the abortion argument at the time had effectively come to a standstill. The typical anti-abortion argument was based on the idea that a fetus is a person and since killing a person is wrong, abortion is wrong. The pro-abortion adopts the opposite view: namely, that a fetus is not a person and is thus not entitled to the rights of people and so killing it couldn’t possibly be wrong.
In America abortion is one of the most heavily debated topics in recent years. Pro-life or pro-choice? Many people believe it is immoral and even consider abortion to be murder. The definition of abortion states “The termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to being capable of normal growth” Did you know that 1 in 3 women in the U.S. will have an abortion in their lifetime? (Baker, Aspen. "A Better Way to Talk about Abortion." Aspen Baker:. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Aug. 2016.) When first researching this topic I wondered, “What’s the big deal? Why would it matter if someone who was never even born, died?” And I realized that babies that would have been born due to abortion,
Judith Thomson’s “A Defense of Abortion” is an essay where Thomson argues that abortion is not impermissible. To be even more precise, she argues for abortion should also be sometimes permissible, but she also grants that there are certain situations in which getting an abortion would be immoral. “Most opposition to abortion relies on the premise that the fetus is a human being, a person, from the moment of conception.” (Thomson, 48). She uses the rhetorical triangle to help her achieve her argument about abortion. Which uses ethos, pathos, and logos to influence her providing the argument surrounding abortion.
For some, abortion is a touchy subject like politics and religion. In America, abortion has always been a controversial topic of discussion. The Supreme Court in the case Roe vs Wade case set the way of guidelines and the right for women to have an abortion if she chooses. In 2015 abortions is still an ongoing debate amongst religious groups, politicians and normal citizens. People that are for the rights of women to abort are often criticized and ridiculed for standing up for their personal beliefs. There are people who have conditioned their minds to think that women should not be allowed to have abortions if she was not raped or a result of incest, which I strongly disagree with that type of thinking. However, it is the law of the land, it is a women’s right to choose and she has to live with the psychological effects of her choice.
Choice, what is choice? Choice is the right, power, or opportunity to choose. Everybody in society has a choice and these choices have many outcomes. A woman’s right to choose to have an abortion or not, is her fundamental right. If society outlaws abortion, society is interfering with the woman’s right to make decisions related to her own body. Many theorists believe that sexuality is what divides women from men and makes women less valuable than men; keeping this concept in mind it can be said that gender plays an immense role in social inequality. In one of Thomas Jefferson’s speeches, he explains how we should never put at risk our rights because our freedom can be next. (lp. org 2007) Roe.V .Wade is believed to have been the United States Supreme Court’s decision that resulted in the dawn of the abortion controversy between pro-choice and pro-life advocates, and whether what the woman is carrying is simply just a fetus or a life, the debate is endless. The social-conflict theory reflects the inequality women face regarding abortion in society which brings about a negative change. If a woman’s right to choose would be taken from her then this would cause social inequity. Taking a women’s right to choose would mean taking her freedom and taking freedom away from any human being would imply inequality.
One of the most controversial issues in this day and age is the stance people take on abortion. The two main positions that people take are either of pro-choice or pro-life; both sides, although polar opposites, tend to refer to both the issue of morality and logical rationale. The pro-life side of the debate believes that abortion is an utterly immoral practice that should be abolished. On the contrary, abortion should remain a legal procedure because it is a reproductive right; its eradication would not only take away the pregnant person’s autonomy, but would also put more children in financially unstable homes and the adoption system, and would cause an increase in potentially fatal, unsafe abortions.
Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy before the fetus is able to live outside of the uterus and is a biological process that that impacts the fetus and mother. It’s a psychological process that involves decision making, emotions, life plans, and goals. Abortion also involves a plethora of beliefs, laws, regulations, and resources (Newman & Newman, 2015). A little over one-fifth of all pregnancies and nearly half of unintended pregnancies end in abortion in the United States (Finer & Henshaw, 2007). In 2010, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) reported a total of 765,651 abortions that occurred in the United States. Women in their 20’s had the highest abortion rates, ages 20-29 accounted for roughly 57.4% of all abortions. Adolescent women ages 15-19 years accounted for 14.6% of all abortions (Pazol et al., 2013).