Assignment task: Please help me to answer to my peer discussion, it has to be one full paragraph, thank you.
Is abortion morally wrong?
I believe every woman has the right to choose what to do with their own body. Therefore, I do not believe abortion is morally wrong if done within the medical regulations of when it is ethically acceptable to have the procedure. If a person chooses to have an abortion early in their pregnancy, one would expect they have already considered the alternatives before doing so. Not all women want to be mothers; some situations result in a potentially unwanted pregnancy. The pregnancy could result from rape, defective birth control, a fetus that is developing abnormally, and other personal reasons the expected mother may have. A fetus cannot be considered a person yet, as they do not acquire the traits of 'personhood .'For something to have 'personhood,' it would need rational nature, reasoning, choice, belief, desire, emotions, and self-awareness (Tosh, n.d.). A fetus is still part of a mother's womb. It is incapable of surviving on its own within the placenta. It has yet to exist on its own (Pence,2021). I would have to argue that a fetus is not yet a person.
In the cases of late-term abortions, I still view the fetus as not fully developed, as it is still a part of the woman's body and has yet to breathe on its own. Nevertheless, each case of abortion after the first two trimesters should have a solid and legitimate reason to obtain an abortion. Multiple medical advances now exist, like genetic screenings and ultrasounds to determine if a baby is healthy within the womb. There should be fewer and fewer cases of late-term abortions to occur if. Ethically, a woman has the right to her own body; however, it should examine if the fetus is healthy. Is this woman depriving her fetus of the right to live? In these cases of late-term abortion, the utilitarian viewpoint has to be questioned, if abortion is a morally good action for the majority of people involved or if it is occurring because the woman has a change of heart to follow through with the birth (Tosh, n.d.). In the misfortunate event, if having the baby comes down to the mother or the child surviving, the actions taken should be solely up to the mother.
Jaci Shea
References:
Pence, G. (2021). Medical ethics: Accounts of ground-breaking cases (9th ed.). McGraw Hill Education.
Tosh, N. (n.d.). Week 5: The ethics of abortion - presentation [Video].