Religious Teaching To Abort A Fetus example essay topic

Thursday, June 05, 2003 by: Xiao Feng Huang (Charles) World Issues can be defined as any issues that affects globally, world issues are almost always inter-connected with all aspects of life. One of the most controversial issues included the topic of abortion; this issue is inter-connected with nearly all aspects of life, including different array of perspective interpretations of life, political, human rights, religious, and moral. For example: since abortion was legalized in Canada, nearly every week there is something in the local newspaper that debates about abortion, whether it be the fetal rights or the rights of women. Many see this topic as a just a local political issue since abortion, since it falls into the provincial health jurisdiction.

However, other sees what we outlaw in our province will watched by various religious groups, and human rights activist worldwide, because of its complexity and different interpretations of life. Abortion is considered extremely political sensitive, since it involves the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and which clearly states that every citizen are entitled to equal fundamental rights and freedoms. In other words our civil liberties had given all women the rights to abortion. At same time many politicians have passionately debated that abortion should be banned under Section 7 of our Charter, since it clearly stated that "that no individual shall be deprived of life, liberty or security of person". Their perception of a fetus is that of a life, and aborting the fetus is exactly same as deprived of life, rights to a life and liberty. In the other hand the abortion ban would create lots of controversies, since the pro-choice activist debated that if abortion was banned, the women would have lost control of their body since they are force into giving an unwanted birth.

As result the pro-choice view the banning of abortion would result in loss of liberty for the women, which Canadian Chart of Rights and Freedom have entitled them. Therefore, it is inevitable that such political action would undoubtedly be complicated by an array of perspective interpretations. Secondly, equally as complicated is the question of morality. Those who are against abortion had the ray of perception that it is absolutely immoral for anyone to deprive a defenseless innocent life, just because someone doesn't want it. If that is the case, should we then allow parents to deprived their mentally ill children or allowing putting anyone down who is a disadvantage to the society?

However, the pro-choice's perception is its not immoral, because it would be a disadvantage to the child if they are born to any women that are not financially stable to raise them, and have no other means to able to support that child. Further more, if the abortion is ban, then those women who are addicted to drugs or diagnosed with AIDS would all be force to give birth. As result it would create even more strain on our health care system, when there are babies born with HIV, or mental illness. Again this situation created an array of personal opinions and controversies. In one hand we have large numbers of people who sees all life is valuable, and in another hand there are people who believe that giving birth to a child born with mental illness or AIDS, is disadvantage to the child and it would be in the best interest of the child to be aborted. Lastly, religion is another big part of this debate, all religion teach the kill of an innocent life is considered against god's will.

However this will also lead to various different arrays of perspective on the definition of life and where does life begins. The Roman Catholic's policies on abortion are mainly based on the teaching of the Bible (Basic Instruction before Leaving Earth), which stated "Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from Him". - Psalm 127: 3 and "God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them" - Genesis 1: 27. Therefore the Catholics believed that the birth is a process of reproducing life from the god's image, and it is a sin to take away the image of God in human beings.

However, the Roman Catholic's perception of life is very controversial; because there are debates even within the Catholic Religion, on where does the life begin. Doesn't it begin at birth or inside the mother's womb, or does life mean consciousness. If the life begins inside the mother's womb, then is it is against the religious teaching to prevent an unwanted birth with birth control pills? In other hand, if life means consciousness, clearly a fetus would not have consciousness, and then what is the different of killing a fetus different from a chicken or pig? So, as you can clearly see this issue really depends on one's array of perspective on the definition of life and where it begins. In the end, we can clearly see no world issues can escape the realm of political, economical, or the moral arenas regardless whether its in local or national level.

We have analyzed both side of the augments and both side provided some very strong perceptions of whether it is moral, or illegal, or against the religious teaching to abort a fetus. For example, in the moral category, we see large percentage of people who values all human life, and it is immoral to take an away any life from an innocent being. In the other hand there is equally large percentage of people who thinks that it is in the best interest of the child to be aborted, if they are going to be born with disadvantaged condition such as mental illness, AIDS, or have a mother who is addicted to drugs. The situation is similar in the political arena, where one side who consider abortion is illegal, because under Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom, which stated that "no individual shall be deprived of life, liberty or security, and they see fetus as no different then us. In the other hand, pro-abortion politicians aged that if abortion were outlaw, the women will be force into giving a unwanted birth, as result they would loss their liberty as promised in the Charter.

Debates even exist in religions, because not everyone had agreed to the same definition of life and where does it begins. In the end, we all can agree this issue had created victims of perception for both sides. One side perceived fetus as the victims of abortion, due to loss of future. The other side perceived women as the victims for lost of liberty. My conclusion is this topic will always be a controversial issue in a democratic society and there will always be disputing sides to the matter. Each person must make their own decisions based on their beliefs and factual evidence.

Both sides must learn to be open-minded to the other side and learn to respect the fact that they have different thoughts and views. None.