Abortion

At last, abortion! Since abortion is a very modern issue, I will provide little elaboration as to what it is. However, for those who don’t know, abortion is the prevention of childbirth and the ending of pregnancy. This is done by removing an embryo/fetus (depending on how long the mother’s been pregnant) from the uterus.

With that out of the way, let’s get to the issue at hand. The question we ask ourselves is, “Is abortion right?” There are two general perspectives on this question, either “yes” (pro-choice) or “no” (pro-life). This article will discuss three main points on abortion. Let’s start!

Is abortion morally wrong?

From a pro-life perspective, abortion can be morally wrong for several reasons. Primarily, pro-lifers see abortion as a form of murder which deprives an unborn child of the right to life. This claim is reinforced by a religious perspective, and we all have the rights to our own religious beliefs. Furthermore, even if an embryo/fetus may not be a conscious human being, it still has a genetic and reproductive purpose as a member of the human race.

From a pro-choice perspective, how can abortion be morally wrong if we do not know what exactly an embryo/fetus behaves like? It is clearly unethical to kill other human beings, but can an embryo/fetus be considered a human being? According to Mary Ann Warren and her publication On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion (1973), a human being must be conscious, self-aware, reasonable, self-motivated, and able to communicate.

How many of these can an unborn child be? The issues of consciousness and perhaps self-awareness are understandable.

However, what of reasoning? One cannot be reasonable without prior experience, so how can a baby reason when it has not been born yet?

What of self-motivation? An unborn child cannot motivate itself to do something if it is neither able to motivate itself nor know what to motivate itself for.

Finally, there is the issue of communication. Although babies can communicate (rather primitively, however), unborn babies do not possess the ability to do so. After all, they have not developed yet.

Is abortion morally wrong? Should women be burdened by something they are unwilling to take on?

For the pro-life perspective, we can simply look at the above response. Remember that killing another human being is immoral/unethical. Thus, abortion of unborn children is unethical and a crime.

From a pro-choice perspective, women have the rights to their own body. Let’s consider the obvious instance of rape, for example. If the woman becomes impregnated during rape and does not want to have a child, why should she? Let us also discuss some elements of eugenics here. How can we know that the genes passed on to the child by the rapist are beneficial and positive? Even if they are, there is no way of telling and the task of child-rearing still remains.

Would we be denying the future of a child by aborting it?

Possibly. This is the neutral point of the debate. It is uncertain to say what kind of future it will have. It has just as much a chance of being a rich human who revolutionized their field as being a simpleton drug dealer in the slums. This relates to the genetic issue. Accidental impregnation from an intellectual contributes to genes just as much as forced impregnation during rape. Finally, take into consideration that, according to The Blank Slate (2002) by Stephen Pinker, behaviour is 40-50% influenced by genes and 50% influenced by society. The home environment with parents is only 0-10% influential. Would you thus risk a child’s future on behalf of genetic chance?

Because it’s a modern issue, abortion is quite serious. Yet, we still do not know if it’s right or wrong. Maybe those who are pro-life should never abort, while those who are pro-choice should abort when they need to. But when we go back to the points above, why should one person be ethical yet allow other people to be unethical? Is that not hypocrisy? And from the other side, why should someone be burdened with such a significant task when they do not want to/cannot take it on? Is that not suppression of freedom (of choice)?

I hope you enjoyed this post. If you have any comments/feedback/suggestions, e-mail me at voguefascin@live.com! I’ll try to respond to all the messages I get if I can.

P.S. In other news, the next poll is now up! The following article will be about one of five economic/political systems again. You are in control of the blog’s direction. Thanks for the support (i.e. votes, comments, & discussion) on the socialism article!