Abortion is the termination of pregnancy by expulsion or removal of a fetus prior to the full development of the embryo and the birth of a live child. In other words, it is a deliberate procedure solicited by the mother to expel the fetus before the completion of the usual 28 days gestation period ( May, 2005). Abortion is a public policy issue that centers on the rights and wrongs of pregnancy termination prior to the culmination of normal childbirth. Abortion is a contentious ethical issue that faces governments, men and women who contend with the dilemma of whether to end the pregnancy or not. The ethical conversation focuses on whether abortion is ethically wrong and if it is legal or illegal. According to Harrison (2011), abortion ethical considerations require reflection on relationships, family contexts, social mores, law and convention. Abortion ethics encapsulates dialectical interplay between factors such as rights and responsibilities, social and cultural contexts and moral praxis. Abortion as an ethical issue attracts a constant tussle between freedom, rights and life. From an ethical point of view, abortion can be critically analyzed in relation to angles such as egoism, divine command ethics, and teleological and deontological paradigms. The egoism concept revolves on a person’s own interests and argues that one’s self should be the motivation and the goal that informs a person’s actions. Egoism creates a value system that asserts that human beings should pursue personal interests as opposed to being mindful of other people’s welfare. Ethical egoism places emphasis on the concern of others only when this contributes to the fulfillment of self-interests ( May, 2005). The paradigm however restraints a person from harming others when making a moral decision. One should regard other people’s welfare as long as the end goal satisfies the self-interest of the person making the resolution. Ethical egoism does not create a leeway for a person to do what he or she wants by pursuing self-objectives. Abortion from an ethical view thus should not be a straightforward decision when the pregnant mother is seeking to satisfy her self-interests ( Harrison, 2011). The ethical premise posits that abortion can be procured only if the baby’s delivery will put at risk or jeopardize the mother’s life.
The ethical view underscores the importance of evaluating the pros and cons of contracting abortion and the instances that led to pregnancy. For example, one should ask themselves whether a raped woman that ends up being pregnant should keep the baby or prematurely terminate the pregnancy which also has injurious psychological side effects. A teenager who contracts early pregnancy ought to determine if it is better to preserve the pregnancy and be chased away from home to the streets where she would struggle to earn a livelihood or whether it is beneficial for her to have an abortion ( May, 2005). According to the ethical view, contending with the aforementioned ethical dilemma requires a person to do a self-assessment by asking oneself questions to find out what works for them in the long run. The decision to maintain or procure an abortion under precarious situations should be informed by several considerations. First, pregnant mother should ask themselves if they are ready to compromise their personal ambitions to care for the child and if they have any attachment to the unborn baby in any way. The victim should determine if at one point in life they will want to give birth to children. A determination ought to also be made on if the mother can live with decision of keeping or aborting the pregnancy for the rest of their life ( Watt, 2016). The egoistic ethical view is a concrete decision-making method that demands knowing the right course of a person life. Abortion is acceptable from the ethical point of view only if it is carried in circumstances akin to self-defense. The argument is termed as the principle of double effect which recognizes ethical acceptability of abortion if the act is meant to save the woman’s life but must not include the deliberate destruction of the unborn baby ( Vaughn, 2015). The double effect hurdle in practice allows only two situations that should warrant the act of abortion. In case the female life is at risk due to growth of a malignant uterine tumor or in the situation of ectopic pregnancy. There is also another ethical view of abortion guided by the divine command theory. The paradigm is founded on rules put in place by God rather than what a person want for themselves. The ethical view considers life as precious and therefore should be preserved. The ethical view is pro-life which gives guidelines and principles that people who are faced with ethical dilemma on abortion should apply. Following the set rules outrightly makes the determination of self-interests easier. As Harrison (2011) explains, women facing the difficult decision on whether to keep or abort the pregnancy should base their decisions on the divine command theory rather than follow self-interests as advocated by egoism. Adoption of a pro-life stance would make the woman view the unborn child as God given hence have a reason to maintain the pregnancy to the third trimester. The divine ethical perspective view considers unborn babies to be humans. Therefore, termination would be tantamount to killing a human being. The discussion on ethics rests on the foundation that the foetus is a human being. The foetus therefore has a greatly increased potential thus should be owed some moral obligations. The embryo deserves moral and legal protection which denies the woman right to kill the foetus. Ceasing bodily life support to the foetus can be described as breach of the motherly duties. Another ethical view states that life starts at conception and therefore terms acts of abortion as reprehensible. The unborn baby’s life therefore ought to be protected with utmost caution from the moment of conception. If human life is present from conception, it is only ethical to protect it from that juncture. The view is also pro-life which considers abortion and infanticide as heinous felonies since they infringe on the integrity of the human person ( Milne, 2018). Procuring an abortion is equivalent to being hostile to life. As long as the foetus is conceived by human parents, it is human also and therefore ought to be safeguarded. The assertion regards conception as an ethical moment which marks the beginning of human existence. Don Marquis advanced a version which termed the act of abortion unethical as it deprives the foetus privileges entitled to being human such as enjoyments, fulfilling projects and experiences ( Milne, 2018). The Marquis ethical argument on abortion emphasizes that a foetus has a person like characteristics for example consciousness and therefore fits the description of a human being. The foetus has a right to life and the pregnant woman has an ethical obligation to preserve it. Additionally, every woman should have respect for sanctity of human life and hence should not see abortion as an option. The right to life ought to outweigh the entitlement of an individual to control their own body by soliciting an abortion. As a public policy, women ought to be denied free access to abortion and instead be assisted to enable them survive socially and financially ( Sheldon, 2015). The government should come in and offer inexpensive and readily available childcare, reintegrate them into workforce and provide a flexible maternity leave and scheduling. Abortion becomes unethical since it catalyzes women oppression. There exists other real issues that ought to be addressed such as rape, starvation and abusive relationships which culminate in unwanted pregnancies. Outright approval of abortion is unethical as it fails to address the cause of the pregnancy. Procuring abortion violates the ethical female principles and damages the long term emotional and physical health or women ( Kaczor, 2014) . Approval of abortion downplays the principles of non-discrimination, justice and non-violence. Abortion initiated by men compromises ethical tenets since they do so to serve their own self-interests such as having sex when they want. Abortion creates a leeway for men to have sex without responsibility. Arguing for abortion by men amounts to women exploitation and puts women lives into risk which is outrightly unethical. The foetus is a person growing inside a woman’s womb which makes abortion equivalent to murder. Abortion can also be argued from the deontological ethical approach. The model formulated a system of duties encompassing perfect and imperfect tasks. In perfect duties, deontological view terms the act of killing a person as repugnant. In a pregnant woman context, the foetus if allowed to develop until birth would become a complete person. From conception, the embryo should be viewed as a separate person hence abortion ought to be ethically outlawed based on life values. Fetuses are not just biologically alive cells but are also human organisms. The foetus is a complex and developing being which makes abortion ethically wrong. Unless extreme circumstances justify abortion, it is wrong to terminate the growing being at any stage of its development. Some proponents of abortion uphold the view that is it ethically acceptable to perform an abortion since the growing foetus is not a person ( Vaughn, 2015). Albeit not being complete persons, they are still potential humans which makes it ethically repugnant to terminate pregnancy. The potential beings have equal rights akin to those entitled to actual people. Fetuses have valuable futures which imply that abortion prevents the unborn from experiencing the valuable posterity. Human being’s futures are plausibly valuable since presently, everyone looks forward to having fulfilling later years. Likewise, a fertilized egg and sperm or foetus has a future and therefore supporting abortion prevents the future from materializing. In the past abortion has been used as an a public policy to curtail growth of population groups, suppress racial groups regarded as genetically inferior and terminate the life of fetuses found to have genetic defects ( Sheldon, 2015). From an ethical point of view, using abortion as basis for eugenics and gender selection is a grave breach of human rights which makes the act unethical. The premise that abortion should be permitted if the fetus is detected to be physically or mentally challenged is offensive. Passing public policy based on disability is unethical as it implies that the handicapped unborn baby’s lives are less worthwhile than the ‘normal’ ones. Permitting pregnancy at any stage due to disability is a fundamental error since all unborn lives should be valued equally in their own ways. Termination of life on the ground of disability attacks the ethical principle that all beings are equally valuable ( Watt, 2016). Abortion causes harm to a child’s father which makes a woman’s decision to have an abortion ethically wrong. Procuring an abortion deprives a father’s right to become a father or forces him to accept a decision which against his will ( Milne, 2018). A father has a legitimate right to have a family which makes it repulsive to deliberately prevent him from owing a child.
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Conclusion
The decision to abort or not ought to take into consideration the woman’s autonomy and the fetus well-being. There exists an interdependence between the woman and the fetus as the unborn entirely relies on the woman for its welfare right. Several reasons may compel a mother may not give birth but instead seek to have an abortion. Prevention of birth through deliberate abortion presents ethical conflicts and questions. Even though abortion may be a lawful option, the ethical view puts a restraint on it being considered a justifiable or a right unless in extreme cases. The ethical perspective of abortion focuses on the status of the foetus or the autonomy of the pregnant woman. The debate on abortion seeks to address a woman's right on her body and that of the fetus to life. The ethical lens emphasizes on the need for a woman to weigh several factors prior to making a decision that abortion would be a right option out of a dilemma. The woman should consider is the pregnancy was undertaken voluntarily, the validity of reasons for wanting the abortion, the time of pregnancy, the fathers consent to the act, a technique used in abortion and if all alternatives have been exhausted for example adoption. Countries or society ought not to consider abortion as a policy at the expense of other options such as sterilization and contraception.
References
Harrison, B. W. (2011). Our right to choose: Toward a new ethic of abortion. Wipf and Stock Publishers.
Kaczor, C. (2014). The ethics of abortion: Women’s rights, human life, and the question of justice. Routledge.
May, S. C. (2005). Principled compromise and the abortion controversy. Philosophy & public affairs, 33 (4), 317-348.
Milne, E. (2018). The Moral Case for Abortion, written by Ann Furedi. European Journal of Health Law, 25 (2), 223-227.
Sheldon, S. (2015). The regulatory cliff edge between contraception and abortion: the legal and moral significance of implantation. Journal of Medical Ethics, 41 (9), 762-765.
Vaughn, L. (2015). Doing ethics: Moral reasoning and contemporary issues. WW Norton & Company.
Watt, H. (2016). The ethics of pregnancy, abortion and childbirth: Exploring moral choices in childbearing. Routledge.
