Introduction
Abortion is an act that entails the termination of a pregnancy through the removal of a fetus from the uterus. It is a controversial aspect and, at times, requires a personal decision of the woman. Abortion could be induced where the person carrying the pregnancy decides deliberately to terminate it. It can also be spontaneous, for instance, when it results from pregnancy complications where the mother could not carry the pregnancy to full term.
Abortion has attracted a lot of debate among people in the world as some tend to defend it, arguing the mother has a right to decide whether she will carry on with the pregnancy or not. Others are completely against it, stating that it is evil and immoral since it denies the child the right to live and is just the same as killing an innocent human being who is already born (Cahn 12).
This piece of work looks into the issue of abortion, taking an argumentative form where a situation will be discussed based on what has been said about abortion with much emphasis on Judith Thomson’s perspective. A personal conclusion will then be made.
Discussion
This assignment will evaluate a scenario where a woman decides to procure an abortion for the sake of the baby she carries. The woman lives in a country where women are undermined and denied many rights making them lead desperate lives. The main reason for this woman to have an abortion is after realizing that the baby she is carrying is a girl, and hence she does not want her to live the same lifestyle and undergo similar problems as she has gone through. The main question is to determine whether she should have an abortion or not.
The common argument given in regard to the concept of abortion is that a human being should be recognized and treated as a person right from the time of conception to the point of death. However, there have been different arguments and against abortion, all based on some beliefs and facts. Morals and ethics are the aspects that are in contention.
Judith Jarvis Thomson and the abortion debate
Judith Thomson is a renowned philosopher, and she is associated with the issue of abortion due to her works on this topic, for instance, her paper entitled A Defense of Abortion. In her argument, Thomas does not deny that a fetus has a right to life, but at the same time, she defends the acceptability of abortion.
Thomas compares pregnancy with a lot of other practical experiences, for example, where you are the only person who is capable of saving individual suffering from a kidney problem and without your consent you are kidnapped to help the person where your circulatory system is connected to the patient’s to allow survival. Even after learning about the situation and the fact that you have a part to play in keeping the patient alive, it is still not your obligation and that you have a right to control your body irrespective of the consequences involved.
Although every individual has a right to life, it does not guarantee him or her to use another person’s body to stay alive and so one could be permissible to detach him/herself from the patient even if it automatically means that the patient will die (Cahn 27).
Thomson, therefore, concludes that going through an abortion is not in any way an act of infringing the fetus’s right to life but rather a way of depriving him or her of the use of the mother’s body of which the fetus has no right. This is compared to how the patient does not have the right to use another person’s body, and detachment could only mean that the patient is deprived of the use of the body for which he or she is not entitled.
According to Thomson, a woman has a right to decide on what to do with her body and so carrying a pregnancy to term is a woman’s decision as opposed to where it could be considered as a moral obligation. In as much as the fetus has a right to life, it does not have a right to use the mother’s womb even if it is the only means that facilitates life and survival. Denying a woman the chance to carry out an abortion is seen as a violation of her rights in regard to deciding on what to do with her body (Cahn 57).
Irrespective of the justifications given by different individuals, it is evident that the point at which abortion should be considered wrong or right is controversial as all cases entail killing, an act that is considered to be an immoral and unethical act. The major objection to Thomson’s argument on abortion is that her case justifies abortion when it is as a result of rape. This is the case of the violinist where the individual was kidnapped, and so is a woman who gets pregnant as a result of a rape incident. Under normal circumstances, a woman should have full responsibility in ensuring that the fetus is alive and safe since she participated in the fetus formation through voluntarily engaging in sexual intercourse.
This is the responsibility objection. In the case of the violinist, there were no blood ties while the mother and the fetus are related, and hence the woman ought to be more concerned when it comes to the abortion case as dictated by the stranger versus offspring objection. The killing versus letting die is also an issue that can be clearly seen in regard to Thomson’s argument.
In the case of the violinist, it is more of letting die as one had no control from the beginning, but in the case of an abortion, it is killing as you have the total control from the conception time, and the fetus is totally dependant on you.
To respond to the objections, we can say that even though consent was involved during conception, if the pregnancy was not out of rape, the consent cannot be deduced when there was the use of contraceptives, and the pregnancy still occurred. Consenting in action does not also necessarily mean full acceptance of the results.
From this discussion, it is clear that the concept of whether abortion is wrong or right is a controversial issue, which is surrounded by a lot of conflicting arguments from different people. The issue of what right an individual holds also raises a lot of questions. In regard to the woman who wants to abort the child because she is a girl and she will definitely face restrictions in life, I would say that she should not abort. This is because the child has a right to life, no matter how hard it would be. The fact that the child would be born in country X does not also mean that she will live in that country all her life or that the rules of discrimination in the country will stand forever. The reason given by this woman is not morally justifiable, and carrying out an abortion would mean denying the child the right to live, which she (the mother) was not denied hence adding to the aspect of discrimination.
I, therefore, don’t agree that abortion should be permissible in this case and that the woman has all the rights in regard to her body, as stated by Judith Thomson. I suggest that the woman carries the pregnancy to term and let the child live since she does not know her fate. The right to live surpasses the justification of aborting to save the child from living a restricted life, which is subject to change with time.
Conclusion
It is evident that the issue of abortion is controversial, with various individuals having different opinions. The main controversy, however, is about when the fetus should be regarded as a human being and on whether a mother has a right to decide on the destiny of the baby she carries in regard to either carry the pregnancy or terminate it. All in all, it is important that all the surrounding circumstances in regard to abortion are evaluated before taking any action. The action should be decided based on the moral or ethical issues involved.
Works cited
Cahn, Steven. Exploring Ethics: An Introductory Anthology. 2nd ed. USA: Oxford University Press, 2010.