Utilitarianism Essay On Abortion

Abortion has been a highly controversial topic throughout the years. A lot of people accept abortion as a normal procedure while the equal amount of people looks at it as a horrible crime. This subject has been looked at from a scientific point of view as well as a religious one. In this essay I will try to analyze abortion from an ethical point of view.
First, let’s use the approach of Utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is mainly concerned with pleasure and pain. The theory of how much happiness and general well-being will the abortion has on the mother. If abortion produces sadness then a utilitarian would not accept abortion, but if it creates happiness to the person then it must feel ethically right.
Something to think about would be the

interest of the fetus: not only its future life could be a happy one, but having an abortion could be painful especially if it happens when the pregnancy is pretty advanced. However, this is not always the case since any or all suffering can be avoided if the abortion happens early in the pregnancy before the fetus has been developed. Therefore, this might not be considered a valid point of argument against abortion.
Another thing that should be taken into consideration is the second party which includes the parents and other family. Sometimes having a child, even if it is planned it can decrease the happiness in the relationship. It’s not the biggest problem in the situation of abortion so it shouldn’t be considered as a top priority.
In the utilitarian system the right or wrong of abortion is not about the act on the agent, nor the person directly affected by it, but on the less effect on the community at large.

This means that the problem of abortion actually comes to be one of the interests of increasing or decreasing the population.
When a utilitarian suggests the future happiness of the child combined with the outcome of how it will affect society, they need to admit that utilitarianism can imply an increase in the population and this will only apply to those who are able to have children. For example, if there were a regulation of population size in this society, it could be said that those who agree with the utilitarian theory would agree with abortion. And if the population were to be below the regulation then they would be against it. It all comes down to the greatest happiness for the greatest number.
When applying the Kantianism theory to abortion one must consider the categorical imperative which means “if you want to decide whether an act is morally good, then you should be able to will that everyone else would act in the same way”. This means that the act must be universalized. When deciding whether abortion is morally correct or wrong you need to think about if you would will that every woman should have an abortion when she is pregnant. If the answer to this question is yes, the abortion would be considered moral, if not the abortion would be considered

immoral.
If every woman were to will that everyone would have an abortion when they are pregnant there will be a huge downfall. Meaning that if this was to happen the population will stop growing and that ‘will’ would be considered irrational according to Kant’s theory.