Abortion is described as the act of terminating a pregnancy before the baby comes to full term. Abortion has been a controversial issue due to the ethical and social perceptive that divide the different groups. Those who support abortion are termed as pro-choice in that the woman bears the final responsibility of determining whether they want to raise a child or not. Those who oppose are known as pro-life and emphasize on the sanctity of human life. The divide between pro-life and pro-choice is determined by a religious perceptive and liberal perspective. The issue of abortion is discussed based on its moral and ethical perspectives, and this bears more weight. The need to protect every life is important and a way to control moral and ethical behaviors is supporting pro-life but not in all circumstances.
Arguments in favor
Those who support the implementation of abortion argue on the basis that pregnancy and raising a family is a social decision that an individual makes by themselves and these decisions should not be imposed upon by legal or social institutions as noted by Faúndes & Shah (2015). Pro-choice supporters identify that the woman has a right to her body and make decisions she feels suit her body. Making abortion illegal does not stop the level of abortions, but smiley makes them less safe as noted by Faúndes & Shah (2015) who identified that over 78,000 women die annually by procuring safe abortions. According to Lopez (2012) the only way to control abortion is not by stopping it but by applying methods that do work such as extensive sex education and advocating for safe and affordable contraceptives. The individual has the ultimate liberty and power to make decisions that matter to them. Every individual is driven by self-interest and therefore promoting abortion allows women to make a decision on whether they are financially, socially, or emotionally ready to become parents.
Pro-abortion supporters identify that the argument that the fetus is a living being to be wrong as the right to life only applies if one can live on their own and is not using another body for survival. If another knows that they are not going to provide for the child or meet its basic needs, then they have the right to terminate the pregnancy. There is no need to bring a child into a world of suffering where even their basics needs cannot be met. For example, breaking children when one is not ready can result in neglected children which is a far worse crime than terminating the pregnancy. Not everyone has access to contraceptives of good sex education to know when to obtain contraception, and this guilt lies on the government, not the citizens. Legalizing abortion makes abortion safe which reduces the mortality rate of women who have unsafe abortions. The freedom of choice has been granted to the people to act as they please and not respecting the right to abortion infringing on this fundamental right.
Moral and Ethical Issues Associated
The moral and ethical issues raised by pro-life supporters bear more weight as mentioned in the report of Help in Homework’s Essay Writing Services. The fundamental morality of a society is affected when women acquire an abortion. Every life is important whether looking at it from a religious or humanists perceptive. Most religious teachings from Islam to Christianity identify the purity of the soul and the body and that of the sanctity of life even before birth. By the fifth week, the fetus already has already developed a functioning heart which means it is alive. Abortion, therefore, stops the heart and removes the fetus from the body which is an ethical issue. Religious beliefs, therefore, identify that all life is, therefore, sacred and that abortion terminates this life.
The moral relativism of abortion identifies that allowing abortion deteriorates the moral development of society. Individuals are guided by their own consciousness and therefore know that having unprotected sex would result in pregnancy. Individuals would, therefore, have casual sex knowing that they can easily abort the fetus leading to a deteriorating of morals. According to Alcorn (2012), the unborn should be treated as a moral subject and therefore should be protected. The moral relativism in this issue is that if the unborn child is human, it is entitled to full rights and therefore the right to life.
Pregnancy is an empowering fact of life and for any woman to take it lightly is unacceptable. Abortion treats women as sexual objects, and this cannot be allowed to exist. Even feminists identify that abortion does not only degrade the value of the unborn child but the woman in question. Most women do not seek abortion because they cannot raise children but because they lack the support of the men they have been with which shows that it is a moral and ethical perceptive, not a mandatory choice.
Conclusion
Abortion is, therefore, unethical and immoral from the point of view of the pro-life supporters as analyzed by Homework Help. Although pro-abortion supporters identify that the right of women to make judgments or decisions regarding their bodies is critical, it does not outweigh the fundamental moral and ethical perspective raised by pro-life supporters. Abortion should only be provided in cases of emergency where the women’s health is at risk or in the case of a rape case. Otherwise, abortion is not just morally wrong it is a socially constructed view that holds no weight in a world guided by values and ethics. The right of the fetus and the need to define the right to life is an important aspect. Life is important, and nobody would feel happy that their parents tried to abort them. It is not just an ethical or moral issue but one that raises the fundamental issues of the society we live in. Abortion should be eliminated and only allowed in the two extreme cases of rape or risk to the mother’s life.
