Reproductive Rights essay

It is necessary to discuss in this paper one of the sharpest question of our contemporary world. I would like to talk about abortion in this paper. First of all it is necessary to define this term and then it will help us to plunge into the question with more details. It is necessary to answer on the question: What is abortion? According to Schwarz (1990), “abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo, resulting in or caused by its death.” We can see that there are many different reasons can cause an abortion. Let us explore if it is ethically to make an abortion.
Abortion has its own history so we can see that this phenomenon is not new. Debates, controversy and activism followed abortion since it was done for the first time with abortion herbs. The position of a person consists of the complex ethical, biological, moral, philosophical and legal issues called a private value system. Some people argue for abortion and some of them argue against abortion. Both of the groups give reasons to support their point of view.
Those people who are against abortion are giving well-known reasons. First of all, it is harmful for a woman’s health. Second, abortion is a murdering. This reason is based on a scientists’ statement that form the very first moment fertilized ovum is a person with his or her own personality. Also religious ethics is against abortion because according to the Bible any life is sacred even if this life is just some minutes old and is still living inside a womb.
Let us see what the Fetus apart from religion is – is it a person with his or her own rights or it is just a part of a woman’s body?
Maybe if the legal, status of fetus is a status of a person then we ought to consider the abortion a murdering without any doubts. Tribe (1992) demonstrated that the abortion is illegal and non-moral did in such case according to the religion and according to the law. Nevertheless, there is no law now that could make a woman to carry her pregnancy.
What are the reasons that make a woman to agree for abortion?
Many women decide to stop their pregnancies because it will lead to woman or child’s death. Tribe (1992) concentrated on fact that sometimes it happens that abortion is the only treatment for a woman for example if a woman has the extra uterine pregnancy. Every doctor knows that it is impossible to give birth to a child in such case. Moreover, if a child not be removed a woman will die. Singer (2000) stated that those people have nothing to say against such case of abortion. The life of woman is a stake against the life of non-born fetus. What is better in such case? Should doctors save a child by letting mother die? However, there is no 100% guarantee that such child could be able to live. Among the cases with extra uterine pregnancy almost 100% of women and children die.
We can see that there at least one case when abortion is necessary and it is a kind of treatment that helps to save woman’s life.
Other reasons are congenital disease and different kind of deflections in a fetus’s intellectual and physical development. Sometimes woman start caring a healthy child but during her pregnancy woman get some sickness and it kills her child. For example, if a woman gets German measles the disease kills a fetus inside a womb. If it became obvious that a child will not be healthy mentally or physically some families can decide that they are not able to care about such child. They may think that it is not according to morality to give birth to a kid who will never become the full-fledged person. Boonin (2003) notes that they may think about the child’s feelings when he or she starts realizing that people around are different and they have much more opportunities and they are able to live full life. Sure, that often women who want to stop the pregnancy because of sick fetus think first of all about themselves and about the difficulties they could face after the child will be born.
One more reason of why a woman can decide to make an abortion is that she got her pregnancy as a result of violence. Woman can think that she does not want to have the reminder of this unpleasant incident at her eyes always. She may be sure that she will never be able to love the kid and take good care about him or her.
Young women are among the most numerous group of those who decide to make an abortion. There are also many reasons why they decide to do it. They have no husband and they understand that they will not be able to care about the child. A young family has no good job and place for living. Young family can decide that it is early for them to have children or they do not want to have children at all.
We are talking about the moral side of abortions. We can see many reasons why a woman can decide to stop her pregnancy. So it is hard to decide definitely if it is according or against morality. I think it depends on the one separate case and debates on the topic of morality of abortion will be continued.

References
Boonin, D. (2003). A Defense of Abortion. Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Public Policy. Boulder: University of Colorado.
Schwarz, S. (1990). The Moral Question of Abortion. Chicago: Loyola University Press.
Singer, P. (2000). Writings on an Ethical Life. Ecco (HarperCollins).
Tatalovich, C. (1996). “Abortion Controversy in Canada and the United States.” Canadian-American Public Policy.
Tribe, L. (1992). Abortion: The Clash of Absolutes. W. W. Norton.
Warren, M. (1973). “On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion”. in Thomas A. Mappes. Biomedical Ethics. David DeGrazia. McGraw-Hill. pp. 456–461