Law and ethics of abortion   Term Paper ID:32355 Click to get this paper

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Paper Abstract: This paper discusses the law and ethics of abortion. It looks at the legal status of abortions and of the fetus, and looks at the ethics of abortion and of making a woman carry a fetus to term. It considers situations where an abortion is ethical, if not legal. Paper Introduction: Considering what is ethical and what is legal in terms of abortioncan become very complex When the Roe v Wade decision was handed down bythe Supreme Court in legalizing abortion many believed that theCourt\'s reasoning in reaching their decision could just as easily be usedto justify infanticide which is clearly against the law Mortimer DR C Everett Koop then Surgeon-in-Chief at Philadelphia\'sChildren\'s Hospital and Professor of Pediatric Surgery at the University ofPennsylvania gave a commencement speech that year at Wheaton College predicting Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Considering what is ethical and what is legal in terms of abortioncan become very complex. Viability is difficult to pin down,because it depends on where the fetus is, i.e. At the same time, Dr. James Watson, the co-discoverer of the doublehelix structure of DNA, was advocating infanticide as a choice (Mortimer,2 3, 155). She is speaking of President Bush's decision to sign thecriminal ban on certain abortion procedures, even when a woman's health isin jeopardy. in a facility that cares forpremature babies. However, the BornAlive Infants Protection Act was passed in 2 2 by the U. Until recently it wasshrouded in secrecy, but it widely discussed and written about today. She should not be condemned to suffer justto save the life of a fetus, for which there is no guarantee of life. (2 3). Infanticide rarelycomes before the law, yet is widespread in practice. Everett Koop, then Surgeon-in-Chief at Philadelphia'sChildren's Hospital and Professor of Pediatric Surgery at the University ofPennsylvania, gave a commencement speech that year at Wheaton College,predicting that imperfect newborns would be at risk next because the Court"left the decision between feticide and infanticide very hazy by refusingto come to grips with the time life begins." Koop identified aphilosophical shift from an ethic of equal human moral worth in which allpatients are cared for to a hierarchical ethic where some are no longerequal, and neglect would be an acceptable treatment option for disablednewborns. These statutes had banned a procedureof "intact dilation and extraction" because they involved a partialdelivery of the fetus, which was often still alive. Her interests outweigh those of the state. Doctors treating pregnant womenwould be treating two patients; it would leave women open to criminalcharges of wrongdoing if they did anything which jeopardized the health ofthe fetus. Duff and G. When the Roe v. (2 1). A woman should not have to give up her rights to autonomy justbecause she becomes pregnant. Campbell regarding 43cases of handicapped infants from whom care had been withheld at Yale-Newhaven Hospital. Wade decision was handed down bythe Supreme Court in 1973, legalizing abortion, many believed that theCourt's reasoning in reaching their decision could just as easily be usedto justify infanticide, which is clearly against the law (Mortimer, 2 3,155). S. (2 3). Wade in 1973,and even further in 2 by the U.S. If a child was not declared to be alive until three days afterbirth, this would give the parents time to decide whether to let the childlive or die under the law. It would incite anever-ending plague of lawsuits for child endangerment, child abuse, andwhatever else people could think up which would serve no purpose. P. Reproductive autonomy and the ethics of abortion. By the end of the 2 th century,it was being rehabilitated as a compassionate medical choice. Now, even medical schools have accommodated to the issue and do notinclude "I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked, nor suggest anysuch counsel; and in like manner I will not give to a woman a pessary toproduce abortion" (Mortimer, 2 3, 155). It was practiced in the US in the early 2 thcentury, promoting marriage between "fit" couples. In countries where abortions are illegal, women are forced to seekbackstreet abortions which may result in injury, infection, sterility, andeven death (Hewson, 2 1, 1111). The tendency to concentrate onfetal rights sidelines women and the realities of their lives. Thirteen percent of maternal deathsworldwide result from unsafe abortions. Carhartwhen it struck down the partial-birth abortion bans in 3 states, accordingto Mortimer (Mortimer, 2 1, 155). On April 25 this year, she will lead a onemillion woman march on Washington to demand a woman's right to choose.Women everywhere are incensed as the present administration continuallyerodes women's rights. Preventing women from obtaining an abortion isunethical because it is equivalent to treating the woman as a means to anend: the fetus becomes more important than the way in which it will comeinto the world, i.e. In March 2 1, theSupreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional to test pregnant women for druguse. One,Michael Tooley argued that since newborns are not "self-aware" truepersons, it would not be a crime of murder to kill them. Opposition to abortion demands that women suffer, no matter whatthe consequences, or the circumstances under which they became pregnant, topreserve the life of the unborn child. Some worry that abortion rights have gone toofar: surely this is a case where they have not gone nearly far enough. ReferencesHewson, B. She points out that since 1995, Congress has voted 152 timeson matters of a woman's right to choose, and on only 26 occasions has thepro-choice view prevailed. President Bush is the first presidentin American history to sign a criminal ban on abortion procedures. Legalized abortion has not made every child a "wanted" child, saysMortimer, but has "heightened the bar at the entrance gates of life at theexpense of less than perfect newborns." He believes infanticide is a formof euthanasia for a particular age group, now that there is a lowertolerance for imperfection. It influencedlegislation to restrict the influx of "deficient" immigrants, and by themid-193 s, most states had eugenic sterilization laws. Abortionis a purely personal issue and should be decided by the woman who ispregnant and not by the law or the constitution. Pete Singer of Princeton, aninfanticide advocate in the bioethics area, believes that not only arethere cases where it is permissible to kill an infant, but there are caseswhere it would be unethical not to. Michelman believes those who chose abortion do so because they cannotgive the child what it needs and deserves (Michelman, 2 3, 6). Pro-choice-a moral and religious cause. The legal status of the unborn was diminished by Roe v. First, trying to undermine contraception, thenstripping foreign family-planning organizations of American funds theydesperately need, and now making illegal the right to an abortion practicethat is rarely used, and only performed if the child is too badly deformedto live or the woman's life is in danger. M. Infanticide may not be legal, but there are timeswhen it is the only ethical choice. In GreatBritain, most doctors rely on the World Health organization definition ofhealth in deciding whether to perform abortions. He pointed outthat neonaticide is common in many cultures. Barbara Hewson, a lawyer, sees abortion as an issue that concerns theautonomy and dignity of a pregnant woman herself (Hewson, 2 1, 111 -1114). She saysthat respect for women's lives and judgement is profound in the Jewishtradition. A woman whosuffered a miscarriage was charged with child abuse. He believes it is time to get rid ofoutmoded religious beliefs and ancient medical oaths because they get inthe way of common sense. Access to abortion is a constitutionally protected rightin the United States. Infanticide isfeatured prominently in the eugenics agenda. This most certainly is a case ofthe law superceding ethics. The science of eugenics, is not new, but isbecoming more fashionable. JewishNews, LVII(46), 6.Mortimer, D. The New Eugenics and the newborn: The historical "cousinage" of eugenics and infanticide. However, once the fetus is viable, the states mayregulate and prohibit abortion to promote its interest in the potentialityof human life. Fetuses are notcurrently recognized as persons under the constitution, otherwise it wouldbe impossible for women to have the right to an abortion. If fetus were to be granted legal rights, this could lead toinnumerable problems (Hewson, 2 1, 114). Ethics & Medicine, 19(3), 155. Senateassuring that an unborn child born alive during an abortion is considered afull legal person under federal law. Toregard the fetus as a person, is an untenable idea. This definitions statesthat health is a "state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeingthat does not consist only in the absence of infirmity." Legally, a fetus is not a person and does not a rights-bearing entityuntil it is born (Hewson, 2 1, 1 13). Supreme Court in Stenberg v. In South Carolina, a woman was arrested for drinking alcohol whilepregnant. He was advocating the extension of the law,currently available only to a limited few, to everyone. A woman remains constitutionally entitled to an abortionpost-viability of the fetus if it is necessary to save her life or herhealth. it is more important than the woman who conceived it.Kant said, "a man is not a thing, that is to say, something which can beused merely as a means, but must in all his actions be always considered asan end in himself." Denying a woman an abortion is unethical because itsubordinates her to a reproductive end. In South Carolina and California, women have been charged withcriminal offenses for taking drugs while pregnant. Such control istantamount to forcing the will of others onto pregnant women, which isforbidden under the constitution. DR. C. This led to a rash of articles form philosophers,psychologists, and other academics favoring eugenic infanticide. The parents of a 13-year-old-girl whose baby was stillborn werecharged with not giving the girl proper prenatal care. Journal of Medical Ethics, 27, 111 -1114.Michelman, K. This raises the question, daysHewson, of whether these people feel the same way towards the taking ofinnocent lives under other circumstances, such as the bombing of Kosovo, orby careless driving. Eugenic infanticide has beenprominent throughout history, in ancient Greece, in early Rome, in the19 s in Europe, and in Hitler's Germany. In1973, the New England Journal of Medicine first exposed the practice whenit published data from Raymond S. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.