What are the ethical issues raised with abortion
What are the ethical issues raised with abortion? (25 Mark)
Abortion raises issues such as murder is wrong, personhood and the sanctity of life. These issues can help decide whether abortion is right or wrong but may sometimes still leave you undecided.
The catechism teaches that human life is a gift from God and is precious from its beginning to end. Only God can give or take it away; so when the idea of abortion comes in, Christians would disagree with it as it foes against the sanctity of life. However, while the life of a foetus is sacred so is the life of the mother. The difference between these two sacred lives is that the foetus has potentiality while the mother has actuality. When there is a choice between saving the mother or foetus, the mother’s need to take priority although both are sacred (doctrine of double effect).
Abortion is the killing of a foetus. Depending on someone’s view of when the foetus becomes a person and when life begins, abortion is technically murder. If someone (e.g. a catholic) said that life begins at conception or at ensoulment and that every life is a human person, to them abortion is murder because deliberately killing a person for a selfish reason is murder. However the definition of personhood requires the person to have emotions and have sentience; depending on the stage of the pregnancy, the foetus may not be able to feel anything therefore they are not a person and abortion wouldn’t be murder.
Every single human life is entitled to human rights. If a foetus is life then it is entitled to its rights also. John Locke (1632 – 1704) held that individuals have certain rights because they are inherent in our nature. The foetus has the right to stay alive and become a baby. However, it is using the mother’s body to grow. Because it is the mother’s body she should have the right to decide what she wants to do with it. If she doesn’t want a human life to be growing inside of her then she shouldn’t have to. It would be against
Abortion raises issues such as murder is wrong, personhood and the sanctity of life. These issues can help decide whether abortion is right or wrong but may sometimes still leave you undecided.
The catechism teaches that human life is a gift from God and is precious from its beginning to end. Only God can give or take it away; so when the idea of abortion comes in, Christians would disagree with it as it foes against the sanctity of life. However, while the life of a foetus is sacred so is the life of the mother. The difference between these two sacred lives is that the foetus has potentiality while the mother has actuality. When there is a choice between saving the mother or foetus, the mother’s need to take priority although both are sacred (doctrine of double effect).
Abortion is the killing of a foetus. Depending on someone’s view of when the foetus becomes a person and when life begins, abortion is technically murder. If someone (e.g. a catholic) said that life begins at conception or at ensoulment and that every life is a human person, to them abortion is murder because deliberately killing a person for a selfish reason is murder. However the definition of personhood requires the person to have emotions and have sentience; depending on the stage of the pregnancy, the foetus may not be able to feel anything therefore they are not a person and abortion wouldn’t be murder.
Every single human life is entitled to human rights. If a foetus is life then it is entitled to its rights also. John Locke (1632 – 1704) held that individuals have certain rights because they are inherent in our nature. The foetus has the right to stay alive and become a baby. However, it is using the mother’s body to grow. Because it is the mother’s body she should have the right to decide what she wants to do with it. If she doesn’t want a human life to be growing inside of her then she shouldn’t have to. It would be against