abortion

Question 1

what is abortion

Answer 1

• termination of pregnancy
• induce abortion is when embryo is intentionally removed

Question 2

legal situation in uk

Answer 2

• 1967: legalised in england, scotland, wales till28th week
• 1991: can only be performed till 24th weeks unless serious physical or mental health issues
• 2019: legalised in northern ireland
• uk’s are some of the most liberal in europe
• 2 doctors to consent

Question 3

biblibal passages in relation

Answer 3

• ‘god created humankind in his image’ genesis 1:26-7

Question 4

nml

Answer 4

• human is with rational soul is present 60-80 days after conception
• catholic church reinforces nml approach as forbids abortion
• fails all tests for nml
• takes away from god’s role as creator
• whatever causes death of rational soul is guilty of homicide
• fails double effect as even if life endangered it violates means end as uses bad means (killing foetus) to save woman
• pojman - say a woman’s uterus happens to be cancerous she may havr to have a hysterectomy to save her life which will result in death of foetus & removing to cancer is morally good and death of foetus is unintended side effect as the death of the foetus isn’t means of saving the woman the hysterectamy is

Question 5

situation ethics

Answer 5

• entirely situational
• refers to a lady who in 1962 was unmarried with radical schizophrenia and was raped by another patient & her father demanded abortion but authorities refused as was criminal law prohibiting all abortions
• agapeic calculus always situational and puts people before rules & assess foreseeable consequences
• refers to a romanian jewish doctor who aborted 3000 jewish women who were brought into concentration camp as if pregnant they were to be incinerated so by ‘killing’ 3000 she saved 3000
• unlikely he would accept it if abortion was done for convenience (may ruin career prospects) or materialistic and problem is that it wouldn’t be carried out for sake of agape love

Question 6

virtue ethics

Answer 6

• in his politics, aristotle says if parents have too many kids abortion should be brought about ‘before sense & life have begun’ so should take place before signs of human
• hursthouse noted for her works in virtue ethics & suggests morality of abortion has nothing to do with whether foetus is a person as we don’t know enough biological facts to be sure so reason hould be weighty & not vain (less about rules more about reasoning)
• better to abort ‘potential’ baby than ‘actual’ baby