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ABORTION: Who decides your morality?. Gennifer George Liberal Arts Capstone. What is an Abortion?. Defined by Webster’s Dictionary as “any of the various surgical methods for terminating a pregnancy, especially during the first six months.”. Pro-Choice.
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ABORTION:Who decides your morality? Gennifer George Liberal Arts Capstone
What is an Abortion? • Defined by Webster’s Dictionary as “any of the various surgical methods for terminating a pregnancy, especially during the first six months.”
Pro-Choice • Making an abortion illegal, doesn’t stop abortions. • Approximately 78,000 women DIE each year from unsafe abortions where they are illegal. • The number of abortions does not change regardless of whether abortion is legal or illegal. • Religious ideology has absolutely no place in the law. • The United States is founded in part on a separation between church and state. Why then does religion have any say in what is legal or not? • The majority of law-makers in this country are men. • Men cannot ever get pregnant, so what makes them remotely authoritative of a women’s reproductive system? • An abortion is a medical procedure that should be between a woman and her doctor. • Would you see your local politician for a toothache?
Pro-Life • Abortion is murder. • A child is a life even at conception, and abortion takes that life. • Abortion should not be a form of contraception. • There are perfectly acceptable forms of birth control available to men and women. Use them. • The emotional trauma of an abortion may last a lifetime.
The Moral Arguments • Morality depends upon reality • What is determines what is seen as right. • Does a 15 year old child who was raped by her step-father have a moral obligation to bring his child into the world and raise him/her? • Deontologists View • Morally wrong for another human being to suffer in order for another human being to be fulfilled. • The moral law, or “Categorical Imperative” must be followed in all aspects of life, regardless of the effect on a person’s happiness. • Abortion would be morally wrong.
Morality Continued • Utilitarian View • Takes the circumstances into account in relationship to happiness to use the “Greatest Happiness Principle.” • Abortion does not equate to happiness, however, depending upon the situation, it could be the “greatest happiness principle” for all involved.
Conclusion • Abortion is always going to be an emotional issue with two very different arguments. • Happiness is subjective, and not everyone can be happy about the same things. • Only the pregnant woman contemplating an abortion can decide whether an abortion is right for her.