Abortion Flashcards
What is procured abortion?
where steps are taken to prematurely end a pregnancy. Procured abortion can mean many things. It may mean simply taking a pill which will cause a miscarriage to occur. At later stages, the foetus may need to be cut up inside the womb, or even partially delivered. For Catholics, many contraceptives (such as ‘the pill’) are concerned to be “abortifacient” (they cause an abortion) by not allowing the embryo to attach to the wall of the womb.
What does the law say about a foetus with a disability and what is the issue with that?
The law in the UK allows abortion up to 24 weeks unless the mother’s life is at risk, or if there is a risk of serious disability. The way this law is applied was famously challenged when it was used to end a pregnancy at 28 weeks because of a cleft pallette. However, what about real cases of serious disability? The law does not allow us to treat a new-born with Downs any less favourably, yet it allows late abortions for Downs Syndrome and other conditions. Is this consistent?
What are the other questions that surrounding abortion?
What would happen if we didn’t have legal abortions?
Should the foetus be given pain relief/anaesthesia prior to late abortions?
What is the status of a foetus born alive during failed abortions?
What say, if any, should the father have?
Should a surrogate mother have the right to abort?
Should under-16s be allowed to have abortions without their parents’ consent?
Is it ever right to abort one of twins?
What counts as a good reason to have an abortion?
Should women have rights over their body?
What happened in the Roe Vs. Wade case?
In 1973 (Roe v. Wade) the US Supreme Court held that a pregnant woman has a constitutional right, under the Fourteenth Amendment, to choose to terminate her pregnancy before viability as part of her freedom of personal choice in family matters – abortion became legal across the US.
What is Uk law in regards to abortion?
The Abortion Act 1967 provided a legal defence for carrying out an abortion up to 28 weeks (24 weeks since HFE Act 1990) or ‘viability’ if:
continuing with the pregnancy involves a greater risk to the physical or mental health of the woman, or her existing children, than having a termination.
there is a substantial risk that the child when born would suffer such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped.
What happened in the Rev Joanna Jepson case?
Rev Joanna Jepson was born with a cleft palate – usually very easy correct with an operation. She campaigned – unsuccessfully – to bring criminal charges against two doctors who performed a late abortion at 28 weeks in 2001. The doctors argued that a cleft palate could lead to ‘severe disability’ and abortion was therefore legal after 24 weeks. The CPS announced in March 2005 that it would not bring charges against the doctors.
In what ways could Utilitarianism support abortion?
Utilitarians would ask whether having an abortion brings about the greatest good. Having an abortion because of financial pressures, other family members’ needs, education, work - any of these reasons may be justified by the hedonic calculus.
Utilitarianism challenged traditional views that abortion was an ‘evil’ act, arguing instead that the end justifies the means. Utilitarianism generally supports a pro-choice position, and Mill strongly believed in individual sovereignty:
“Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign”
In what ways could Utilitarianism disagree with abortion?
However, the pro-choice movement argument that a woman has the right to choose is not supported by classical utilitarianism. The concept of absolute rights is not compatible with utilitarianism. Mill can be seen as arguing for rule utilitarianism, saying we should give freedom of choice to all people. Rule utilitarianism says that we should make rules that bring about the greatest good. Either way, a utilitarian response should accept that it may in some circumstances be right to deny a woman the right to choose to have an abortion if doing so would bring about the greatest good.
In what ways do Kantian ethics disagree with abortion?
The maxim “You should have an abortion” becomes a self-contradictory universal maxim “Everyone should have abortions”. It couldn’t possibly work, as there would be no people to have abortions. Choose a different maxim, such as “People who have been raped should have abortions” and you no longer have a self-contradiction. However, this must be a contradiction of the will. Would you want to make a law of nature that ended pregnancy naturally if it arose out of rape? if I willed such a law of nature, I might be willing myself out of existence, as there are undoubtedly rational agents who have been born as a result of rape. I couldn’t will a universal law of nature that would have prevented my own existence. Abortions could be seen as using the foetus as a means to an end.
In what ways could Kantian ethics support abortion?
In ectopic pregnancies, the foetus will not survive. There are no rational agents alive after ectopic prenancies, so it wouldn’t be contrary to their will to have a law of nature that prematurely ended ectopic pregnancies.
A further potential exception would be foetuses with severe learning disabilities. If there were mental illnesses that prevented a person from imagining maxims as universal laws, it could never be contrary to the will to will that these pregnancies naturally terminated before birth. You wouldn’t be willing a law that would have prevented you from being born, as the mere willing of it means that the law would not have applied to you.
How can Natural Law be against abortions?
Natural Law asks what our design or purpose is as humans. One of the primary precepts is to protect and preserve the innocent. This alone leads to a secondary precept ‘Do not abort.’ Secondary precepts are absolute deontological principles - there are no exceptions. Many Catholics say that this takes the pressure off people faced with difficult decisions, such as a woman whose pregnancy is threatening her life. Abortion is not an option.
In what ways could Natural Law support abortions?
Due to the principle of double effect. If something is done to save the mother’s life that is not evil, even if it results in the foetus being killed, because it was the intent to save the mother’s life and not to abort.
When would situation ethics be against abortion?
both Singer’s utilitarianism and Fletcher’s situation ethics say you should act in the ‘best interests’ of those affected. The real question is what counts as being in someone’s best interests. This is where a Christian ethics will include the idea that God created us, instructed us to reproduce etc. Seen in this light, Situation Ethics will start from the belief that it is generally in our interests to create families, nurturing and educating our children.
When would situation ethics support abortion?
If certain factors made it the most loving thing to do, For example, where a foetus has a serious disability and the parents are worried that they would be unable to bring up the child financially, or that doing so might take time away from their other children, it may be a compassionate response to abort the foetus to take away such a great burden.
How does virtue ethics view abortion?
virtue ethicists see justice as a cardinal virtue. If justice includes the foetus, abortion is wrong. However, in the UK, America and most other countries, the foetus does not have the rights of a person, and justice doesn’t include them in this way. As with many ethical responses, the status of the foetus affects the response you give.
What Bible versus would be in favor of abortion?
God made Adam, and then “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.”
Genesis 2:7
“If some men are fighting and hurt a pregnant woman so that she loses her child, but she is not injured in any other way, the one who hurt her is to be fined whatever amount the woman’s husband demands
and the court allows. But if the woman herself is injured, the punishment shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth.”
Exodus 21:22
“If a man does not get his share of happiness……then I say a baby born dead is better off. It does
that baby no good to be born…….It never sees the light of day or knows what life is like, but at least it has found rest.”
Ecclesiastes 6:3
“But better off are those who have never been born, who have never seen the injustice that goes on in the world.”
Ecclesiastes 4:3
Bible Versus against abortion?
“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, before you were born I set you apart” Jeremiah 1:5 "Before I was born, the LORD chose me and appointed me to be his servant." Isaiah 49:1 "You saw me before I was born” Psalm 139:16 “God... chose me even before I was born” Galatians 1:15 “In the image of God” Genesis 1:26 “Do not kill” Exodus 20:13 ”You yourselves are God's temple” 1 Corinthians 3:16
What is the Roman Catholic view on abortion?
Abortion is always wrong. Life begins at conception, therefore abortion is murder.
-Unborn child is a sacred human life; it deserves the same respect as any other human being.
-Rape: RC Church does not support abortion
the foetus is paying for so meone else’s crime
What does the declaration on procured abortion from the RC church say?
Abortion is a serious sin. Everyone,
whether Catholic or not, should have a proper respect for human life.
“From the time that the ovum is fertilised a new life is begun which is neither that of the father or the mother. It is the life of a new human being with its own growth. It would never become human if it were not human already”
Declaration on Procured Abortion (1974
What are the quotes from the RC church about abortion?
“Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception; abortion and infanticide are the most abominable of crimes.”
(Second Vatican Council, Encyclical Gaudium et Spes )
(“Humanae Vitae”, 1968) - “Human life is sacred”.
(Pope John Paul II, 1985) -“The unborn human being’s right to live is one of the inalienable human rights”
