Abortion arguments Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Abortion arguments - Essay Example Before going into the discussion regarding ethical issues related to abortions, let us get a better understanding of what abortion actually is. â€Å"Abortion is the intentional termination of a pregnancy after conception† Abortion in medical science is a process in which doctors, with the approval of the pregnant women, kill the fetus in order to terminate the pregnancy. â€Å"Abortion can lead to problems later in life as after all you are tampering with your body and obstructing the natural course of happenings† (Godbole). Abortions are either first trimester abortions or second trimester abortions (Ravichandran). First trimester abortions are caused due to genetic abnormalities, uterine abnormalities, or placental abnormalities, whereas second trimester abortions are caused due to trauma, hypertension, or increase in the cervical incompetence. Depending on the status of fetus, there are two different viewpoints regarding abortions. The people who consider abortions legal believe that fetus is not a person and a woman has the right to decide whether she wants to carry on with the pregnancy or not. Whereas the other side believes that fetus or embryo is a life within a woman, and killing a fetus is same like killing a human. There exist some ethical issues related to the decision of a woman to abort her pregnancy. Let us discuss some of those issues in some detail. Status of Fetus Fetus is an unborn form of a human whose development takes place inside the womb of a woman. The decision of a woman to abort the pregnancy is ethical if the fetus is dead and the woman do not feel any kind of movement inside the womb, whereas if the woman starts feeling some movements inside her womb, it means that the fetus is alive and in such cases, abortion is considered unethical in many societies. Some of the conditions in which abortions become ethical and make sense include dead fetus, abnormal structure of the fetus, and threat to the life of the mother. Rape of Forced Sex Rape or forced sex, makes abortion an ethical decision because the pregnancies, which occur due to rape, are without the consent or will of the woman involved in the incident. Therefore, a woman holds the right to terminate her pregnancy because neither she was ready for pregnancy nor she had any will for that. In the United State of America, people view rape or forced sex as the valid reasons of abortion. However, in Southeast Asian countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, majority of people does not consider abortion ethical in any case because they have little awareness of the ethical dilemmas related to abortions. People belonging to such countries are usually more concerned about the issue rather than the cause of abortion. Whereas, in the European and American countries, people are very much aware of all issues related to abortion and they take the decision to abort the pregnancy based on valid justifications, such as, rape, forced sex, abnormal str ucture, threat to the life of the mother, and some other reasons. Health of Mother â€Å"An abortion can happen spontaneously as a result of complications during a pregnancy, or it can be induced† (Nordqvist). Threat to the life of the mother justifies abortion. The act of abortion becomes legal for both the woman and the family of the woman if the life of the woman falls in danger due to pregnancy. Life of mother is always more important than the life of an unborn child. A number of cases occur all over the world where doctors recommend the families of the pregnant women to let them drop the pregnancy because of the threat associated with the life of the mother due to some complexities related to the pregnancy. In such cases, the decision of terminating the pregnancy becomes ethical because it saves the life of the woman who can give normal birth to babies in future. Divorce Divorce is one of the major factors behind the increase in the number of abortions that take place al l over the