Essay Example on Abortion: A Wrong Act Except in Certain Instances

Abortion is one of the many topics in modern discourse that are divisive with misinterpretations entrenched in deeply-held beliefs. It is quite clear that good arguments concerning abortion have to have claims and moral principles that link characteristics of fetuses to having or not having the right to life. The purpose of this paper is to set out allegations that abortion, except in certain instances, is a wrong act. Exceptional cases include when the mother's life is at risk due to the pregnancy, cases of rape, or when the fetus presents medical defects that will hinder its growth. In presenting arguments against abortion, this essay will address and explain claims concerning realism of moral rationalism, body rights and moral ethics.

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A fetus has personhood and life. Arguments against abortions claim that the fetus is not necessarily a person, so it does not have a right to life (Hendricks, 2019). In her defence of abortion, Judith Jarvis Thompson writes that a fetus is not a person and doesn't get to choose whether to live or not (Beckwith, 2017). However, in her ethical explanation of the rights that the mother has in terminating the pregnancy, she recognizes that the fetus is a living thing. According to science, from the point of conception where the sperm meets the ovum, a life is formed, and a new unique individual starts to grow with its separate genetic combinations (Li & Winuthayanon, 2017). Therefore, to destroy an unborn is to kill a potential human life.

Ethically, it is wrong to take away an innocent life. Utilitarianism believes that as long as the action makes the person doing it happy, then it is right. However, Locke in his support for natural rights claims that every human is given a reason to live and enjoy all that comes with it and no one should be killed and snatched that right (Seliger, 2019). In the case of abortion, considering that a fetus grows because it is given life at conception, it has all the right to live and not even the mother has a right to take away its life. Abortion causes punishment of an innocent human being who has a right to life.

Abortion increases the tolerance of killing. By legalizing abortion, the murder of a fellow human being is made lawful. A fetus suffers the same loss that a grown-up person does. However, Thompson, in her theories, uses the story of a violinist being forcefully attached to a person's life without consent to support abortion (Beckwith, 2017). Thompson argues that the mother to the fetus has a right to refuse another being attached to her and feeding on her if she is not okay with it (Beckwith, 2017). However, Thompson is not successful in her argument because, by giving women a right to refuse the attachment of other beings to them, means tolerance of killing is increased because it provides a right to an individual to kill another grown person if they fill they do not like them.

Abortion is wrong because it creates new problems in society. These problems range from equality, justice and law establishment. According to Thompson, a fetus has no right to use the mother's body without permission (Beckwith, 2017). She uses the case of rape that results in pregnancy to defend her point. However, this is a justification that is done on a small portion of victims of rape. The argument fails to give a substantial debate about those women who abort intentionally with no medical complications or rape ordeal. If lives conceived from rape should be aborted then, it means that persons will not have the same rights in cases where some of the pregnancies of rape are allowed to grow into a life. This would mean that persons born from rape will be given fewer rights in society than others. This argument leaves no choice but to declare abortion a wrong act because the fetus does not choose from where and if it wants to be conceived.

Abortion is immoral, the same way as killing an adult or a child. Marquis, in his writings, quote that "When I am killed ... I am deprived of all the value of my future. Inflicting this loss on me is ultimately what makes killing me wrong..." (Marquis, 1989, 185). The standard future of a potential human, in this case, a fetus, include projects, activities, plans experiences and such that are the same as those in the future of an adult human beings. Depriving an individual a potential future of value wrong, and that is why it becomes a sad issue with concern when a breadwinner of a family is suddenly killed by another person. The same values for future that an innocent fetus has is the same that a child or adult has; therefore, making abortion morally wrong.

Conclusion

In conclusion, when presenting arguments for or against abortion, it is the crucial address and explains cases concerning realism of moral rationalism, body rights and moral ethics. Moral rationalism involves discussions of whether it is right or wrong to abort according to the mother, the law or moral standings in the society. Arguments for body rights are presented by Thompson in the claim that a person is not to be attached to another without the host's consent. However, Marquis dismisses this by claiming that it is wrong to abort if the life connected has a future. Finally, according to ethics, it is morally wrong to intentionally terminate the pregnancy because the fetus has life and killing it is compared to snatching life from a fully grown human.

References

Beckwith, F. J. (2014). Does Judith Jarvis Thomson Really Grant the Pro-Life View of Fetal Personhood in Her Defense of Abortion?: A Rawlsian Assessment. International Philosophical Quarterly. Retrieved from http://www.baylorisr.org/wp-content/uploads/Does_Thomson.pdf

Hendricks, P. (2019). Even if the fetus is not a person, abortion is immoral: The impairment argument. Bioethics, 33(2), 245-253.Retrieved from https://jme.bmj.com/content/45/1/22.abstract

Li, S., & Winuthayanon, W. (2017). Oviduct: roles in fertilization and early embryo development. J Endocrinol, 232(1), R1-R26. https://joe.bioscientifica.com/downloadpdf/journals/joe/232/1/R1.pdf?pdfJsInlineViewToken=1748631248&inlineView=true

Marquis, D. (1989). Why abortion is immoral. The Journal of Philosophy, 86(4), 183-202. DOI: 10.2307/2026961

Seliger, M. (2019). The liberal politics of John Locke. Routledge.