Abortions On Other Grounds example essay topic

An analysis of the ways in which acceptance of abortion has affected women today with particular reference to Christian beliefs. Unto Us... Somewhere at some time, they committed themselves to me And so, I was! Small, but I WAS! Tiny, in shape, lusting to live I hung in my pulsing cave.

Soon they knew of me, my mother -- my father. I had no say in my being, I lived on trust and love. Tho' I couldn't think, each part of me was saying A silent 'Wait for me I will bring you love!' I was taken, blind, naked, defenceless By the hand of one, whose good name Was graven on a brass plate in Wimpole Street, and dropped on the sterile floor of a foot operated plastic waste bucket. There was no Queens Counsel to take my brief. The cot I might have warmed stood in Harrod's shop window. When my passing was told my father smiled.

No grief filled my empty space, my death was celebrated With tickets to see Danny la Rue, who was pretending to be a woman Like my mother. I have chosen to open my essay with this poem by Spike Milligan because I feel it shows precisely the thoughts and feelings of anti abortionists. It gives one side of the story in this heavily debated issue. An abortion is the termination of a pregnancy before the foetus is capable of life. An abortion can be spontaneous or induced. A spontaneous abortion is otherwise known as a miscarriage, An induced abortion is the deliberate termination of a pregnancy by removing the foetus from the womb and this is what I am going to write about.

Deliberate termination in the first nine weeks of pregnancy may be carried out using the "abortion pill". There are also procedures for surgical termination. Worldwide, an estimated 150,000 unwanted pregnancies are terminated each day by induced abortion. One third of these abortions are performed illegally and unsafely and cause one in eight of all maternal deaths. Abortion as a means of birth control has long been controversial. One of the main issues is whether a woman should legally be permitted to have an abortion and, if so, under what circumstances.

Another aspect is whether and to what extent the law should protect the unborn foetus. Anti abortionists believe that human life begins at the moment of conception. This view is held by the Roman Catholic Church, traditionalists who hold the sanctity of life as a moral absolute. Other churches such as the Church of England and Methodist Church say that abortion should be permitted in some rare cases such as rape or incest or if the mental or physical health to the baby or mother is at risk. These Churches give compassion to the pregnant woman and in some circumstances find it necessary to overlook some ethical laws and what the Natural Law says about the sanctity of life. Supporters of abortion believe in a woman's right to choose whether she wants a child and take into account the large number of deaths from back-street abortions.

Some people believe that abortion should be available on demand for specific reasons. For example, if a woman's life or health is in danger, abortion may be recommended and if there is a strong likelihood that the child will be born with severe mental or physical disability. Other grounds for abortion include pregnancy resulting from sexual assault such as rape or incest as I said above. An abortion must be carried out under the terms of the 1967 Abortion Act, which states that two doctors must agree that termination of the pregnancy is necessary and the operation must be performed on approved premises.

The Abortion Act is written on the following grounds: a) Risk to the life of the mother. b) To prevent grave injury to the physical or mental health of the mother c) Risk of injury to the physical or mental health of the mother greater than if the pregnancy were terminated d) Risk of injury to the mental or physical health of existing children. e) Substantial risk of the child being born seriously handicapped. f) In an emergency - to save the mothers life. g) In an emergency - to prevent grave permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the mother. Abortions on grounds 'c' and 'd' permitted up to 24 weeks, abortions on other grounds permitted up to 40 weeks. In April 1990, after 15 unsuccessful attempts to alter the 1967 Act, Parliament approved a measure to lower the time limit on abortions from 28 to 24 weeks. Pregnancy can still be terminated at a later date if the mother's life is in danger. In 1991, there were almost 165,000 abortions in England and Wales. When examining the Abortion Debate, particularly politically, we must look at the Foetal Rights, the Mother's Rights and the socio-economic Impact of Abortion.

Coming from a pro-choice perspective, the foetus may have a potential for life but should not be considered life from the point of conception. They also say that there is no proof that the foetus feels pain and that abortion prevents a severely disabled child from being born into a life of misery. There are some organisations such as the Abortion Law Reform Association who campaign for abortion on request up to the fourteenth week of pregnancy. Pro-Life campaigners such as Life and SPUC have completely different views. They believe that the foetus has a fundamental right to live from the moment of conception. They also say that studies have shown that the foetus might feel pain, no matter what the pro-choice representatives may say.

SPUC (Society For The Protection Of The Unborn Child), Says that aborting a foetus because it is disabled in some way sends out the wrong message to people about disabled people living in the world. They say that it may cause prejudice to that minority of the community. As I have stated above, the Roman Catholic Church says that Abortion is murder and it is not allowed by the Church. Even if a woman has been raped she must continue with the pregnancy because otherwise she is not doing her duty to respect the sanctity of life. The Roman Catholic Church regards the sanctity of life as a moral absolute and insists that abortion is morally and ethically wrong. The following extract is taken from my church newsletter under the heading "Thou shalt not kill" "Respect for human life begins as soon as human life begins.

At the moment of conception a new human being comes into existence. A very small and hard to recognise one, certainly, but one which will become more recognisable human as it grows older. Every one of us was once an embryo. The church is clear that abortion, the killing of an unborn child, violates the principle of respect for human life". An argument used against the view of the Roman Catholic Church is that the Church does not allow the use of contraceptives. Many argue that if they do not allow this to be taught, then they are asking for trouble.

Many people, especially young people of the Church, who would be unaware about the dangers of unsafe sex, could find themselves in a position where an abortion may be necessary but forbidden. An example of this situation is a young girl who has had no sex education as such and is unaware of the dangers of not using contraception. If she gives birth to the baby it may well be a traumatic experience for her at such a young age and also there is every possibility that she may not survive the birth. The child itself will already be born into a difficult situation, with a mother who is too young to really know how to look after a baby and quite possibly no father figure either. The girl will have no qualifications to get a decent job and may well live off the state until she finds some suitable work.

Some might say that it was her own fault for getting pregnant but if she was not given all the facts, how can she be entirely to blame? "The health of the Mother in these situations is Paramount" say some Pro-Life campaigners, They say that no one should be forced in to a physically or mentally demanding pregnancy. Life, an anti-abortionist organisation, put forth the fact that sometimes people overlook the fact that abortion can have a serious mental and physical effect on the woman. Psychologically the woman can be left in a state after the abortion, and abortions carry risks too. It is not unusual for people to have an affect to the general anaesthetic they are put under during the abortion, just as it is not unusual for there to be complications in childbirth. Some people would say that it is the girl's own fault for having sex and that she should take responsibility for the child that she has created.

A Natural Law approach to this would be to say that the reason for having sex is to have a child, so any other reason would be immoral. Situation Ethics is an attempt to give people moral responsibility for themselves. It uses the Natural Law approach and tries to lay down these moral laws but it also compromises with them. So if a woman has cancer of the womb whilst pregnant, she may have to have the womb removed, killing the baby. In the Catholic Church teaching, abortion is wrong, but in this situation, this is not technically abortion so its not technically wrong. A utilitarian believes in the greatest happiness for the greatest number.

So in this case the utilitarian would believe that abortion is right for a young girl. It would take into consideration the fact that she may well have an education to finish and that by having a baby she may well be jeopardizing this, leading to her having no qualifications to go out and get herself a job. Young girls often do not make good mothers, as they have not had as much life experience as older mothers..