Essay Example on Abortion & Child Adoption: Different Perspectives & Laws

Abortion is the process of terminating a pregnancy where an approved health care professional employs medicine or surgery to eliminate the fetus and placenta, or the embryo from the embryo (Naffine, 2019). Different people have different perceptions towards that procedure, and different states and nations also have different laws towards the process. On the other hand, child adoption is the process where another person who is not the biological parent to a child becomes their parent or assumes the role. There is a legal process to adopt a child whereby all the responsibilities and rights, as well as the filiation, are transferred from the biological parents to the adopters (Naffine, 2019).

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Abortion was made legal in the United States in 1973 by the Supreme Court, but the regulations vary from one state to another in a case that was referred to as Roe vs. wade (Brown, 2019). The legal time to conduct an abortion is within the first six months in abortion clinics, which get a lot of critics from different groups of people who view it as murder. In the years, some people think and suspect that this rule or principle will not last forever, and as soon as there is a new set of justices or a president that is not in support with the later(Brown,2019). In 1988 the presidential candidates Michael Dukakis who was a democrat and George Bush a republican disagreed about the issue during the first presidential debate. According to George Bush, he only allowed legal abortion in cases of rape and incest (he was not for it or against it). At the same time, Michael Dukakis was against the whole idea but thought it is the woman's decision (Solinger, 2001). In the current day and time, very many women go through with abortions, in the countries where the abortions are not legal women still undergo through the process, and 47000 women died in 2008 due to unsafe abortions. A study that was conducted by World Health Organization (WHO) that year in the health facilities in the world that were recorded stated that 210 million females get pregnant every year, and 80 million pregnancies are not intended or planned for. Different groups of people have different beliefs, but many religious groups, like Muslims and Christians, are against abortion (WHO, 2019).

After the legalization of abortion in the United States, the number of children who were put up for adoption went down. The abortion legalization opened a safer way of getting rid of unwanted pregnancies. According to a study that was conducted in 2004, one-third of all pregnant women in the United States think of adoption, but most do not get through with the idea. After the legalization, the birthrates in the USA declined by almost 6% after the legalization (WHO, 2019).

According to the common law, abortion is a surgical procedure that has been performed since the Greek and Roman empires. Two basic reasons allowed the procedure, which was to rid if the illegitimacy of a country and also reduce overpopulation (Naffine, 2019). The Christians embraced the philosophy of Aristotle, which was a three-stage soul that is animal, vegetable, and rational. The punishment was only granted to the abortive whose soul was rational according to the canon law. According to the civil law, it did not conquer with the three-stage soul as it stated that the fetus gains the soul from when it starts moving hence adopting the quickening concept, where the mother was to make the judgment. The crime was to abort after quickening where some courts termed it as murder. The abortion process was passed and granted in 1803, with laws like pre and post quickening (Naffine, 2019).

The current status law entails the religious controversy, medical complications of criminal abortions, and the statutory provisions. In the religious controversy, the Catholic Church states that the unborn child died in eternal damnation because it did not get the chance of baptism. The church only approves the process if it was due to a treatment that was being issued to the mother (Naffine, 2019). The statutory provisions are laws that allow abortion and those that allow due to certain circumstances. Most of the states in the American nation perform abortions due to certain circumstances, mostly to protect the life of the mother. Still, others allow the process, but the processes must be conducted by a professional health practitioner (Naffine, 2019). According to medical complications, some methods are used to conduct the practice, such as the use of medicines or insertion of certain instruments in the uterine cavity. When in abortion clinics, medical practitioners perform the process carefully, just like other patients, but the illegal process might lead to deaths and infections due to unprofessionalism and lack of required and safe tools. There are other criminal abortions like jumping from high places, knocking yourself out, and carrying heavy materials, which is classified as violent abortion (Naffine, 2019).

Pros of Adoption

1. The chance of life that is given to the child

2. The childless couples are given a chance to be parents

3. The mother gets a chance to major in other things, peruse their dreams fully

4. In cases where the minors are raped and cannot parent, the baby is given a better chance to live.

5. There is a chance to choose a family that will adopt the child.

Cons of Adoption

1. It is a very emotional process that needs guidance and counseling, various tests are also needed.

2. The adopted child might develop identity issues

3. The biological lose the chance to be the mother to the child.

Pros of Abortion

1. In case the mother has complications, her life is saved instead of losing both lives.

2. In case of rape or incest, where the mother does not want to get a child from such horrific moments

Cons of Abortion

1. It might lead to post-traumatic stress disorders

Life is lost

2. One might die on the process, or get infections, or complications that might hinder them from getting pregnant again

3. The abortive will never have a chance to witness what the baby would have come to be.

References

Brown, J. (2019). Without Apology: The Abortion Struggle Now. Jacobin. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=PROtDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=Brown,+J.+(2019).+Without+Apology:+The+Abortion+Struggle+Now.+Jacobin.&ots=BKIB4GSEGE&sig=tWDhtXT1cjCkAYwy1FwTypreXr4

Naffine, N. (2019). Criminal Law and the Man Problem. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Solinger, R. (2001). Beggars and choosers: How the politics of choice shapes adoption, abortion, and welfare in the United States. Macmillan.

World Health Organization (WHO). (2019). Unsafe abortion incidence and mortality: global and regional levels in 2008 and trends from 1990-2008. Geneva: WHO; 2012. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/75173/WHO_RHR_12.01_eng.pdf