Moral Dilemma Essay 1

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Haley Dallin PHI Ethics Owen Smiley 10/15/2023 Abortion’s Moral Dilemma Dallin 1 Pro-choice vs. pro-life will forever be prevalent in our society. Leading these extremes of one over the other, some think abortion is wrong, while others see it as just right. Abortion is important because it affects the health of women, children, and applies morality to certain situations. While some will defend abortions, others will downright object to the practice. Healthcare is a tricky subject to dance around. Abortion is not equal, dependent on the person, and even dependent on where you live. What can be considered living and what can be considered dead? Is abortion moral or immoral and who gets to decide that? Life is not guaranteed, but death is. It takes two to create life, but to destroy life, it only takes one. This procedure is a medical tool designed to bring safety to women's reproductive healthcare and can be seen as a guide to morality. We are obligated to choose right but that is not always an option, sometimes we must choose the wrong in order to eventually do right. What is abortion? Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal of an embryo or fetus. Abortion is a medical procedure designed to safely remove a pregnancy. What is an embryo or fetus? It is defined as the early stage of human development in which organs, or critical body structures, are formed. An embryo is termed a fetus beginning in the 11th week of pregnancy, which is the 9th week of development after fertilization of the egg. While a zygote is a single-celled organism resulting from a fertilized egg. Now why is this such a big deal? Because these embryos or fetuses have the ability to either grow correctly, or grow incorrectly. The early stages of pregnancy are the most important because it sets the tone for the rest of the fetuses development. Do these so-called fetuses have the right to grow and live? Or do those rights not exist? “Only persons have the right to live,”(Marquis para. 11) Well what is a person and what gives said

Haley Dallin PHI Ethics Owen Smiley 10/15/2023 Abortion’s Moral Dilemma Dallin 2 person the moral rights to this choice? While abortion may not be for everyone, it can be a tool to guide us in safe medical practices. Pro-life: Pro-lifers, supporting all life, fetus and embryo included, sees abortion as murder under any circumstance and demands abortions never to be performed by medical staff. Pro-life wants to protect and give rights to these clumps of cells, believing they are persons capable of thought and perception. If they have these rights and if abortion may be considered killing we are taking away a person's basic right to live. A fetus has these basic rights and deserves to grow and become human. Pro-life supports the notion that all life is considered equal and that we must protect it to the fullest extent. We are obligated to defend these cells and are called to carry them when necessary. The female body was designed evolutionarily to carry said fetus, designed to grow and nurture into a living being. These living beings have a right to become all they are supposed to and can be considered moral beings. We must allow this fetus to occupy the host for 40 weeks or so, allow it to grow further, allow it to become human. We must protect both the lives of the mother and the fetus. The mother has a right to carry this fetus, a right to protect the fetus, a right to allow this person to grow. In the cases of rape, pro-lifers still see this as murder. Some states have even gone to the extreme of banning abortion even in cases of rape or if the mothers life might be harmed. The fetal heartbeat law denies the procedure if the unborn fetus has a heartbeat and signs of life. Some see this as extreme while others, mostly major christian religions, still support the ban of this practice. Pro-Choice:

Haley Dallin PHI Ethics Owen Smiley 10/15/2023 Abortion’s Moral Dilemma Dallin 3 Pro-choice is defending abortion and the basic human rights to reproduce or not. We need the legal right to be able to consider this practice. It allows the individual to choose to kill in order to survive and it begs the question of morality. In the cases of rape, incest, and medial nessasity having the choice is essential. We cannot be forced to carry to term a pregnancy we know will harm us. We cannot be forced to carry a fetus we should have never received in the first place. “If directly killing an innocent person is murder, and thus is impermissible, then the mother's directly killing the innocent person inside her is murder, and thus is impermissible. But it cannot seriously be thought to be murder if the mother performs an abortion on herself to save her life. It cannot seriously be said that she must refrain, that she must sit passively by and wait for her death”(Thomson para. 10). Why would someone passively sit by and wait for the inevitable? Why would we choose this willingly? She wouldn’t, she would save herself. We all have the right to life, but we also have the right to death. We have a right to choose to live or die, we have the right to make these difficult choices for ourselves. We have a right to house this child. We require access to birth control, to sex education, to reproductive healthcare. We require the legal right and protection to make these choices and we socially understand the implications of our actions, and still choose our moral rights. We must support this choice, we must believe it is moral to have this choice in the first place. Development is continuous, it is a slippery-slope in deciding what is a person and what is not. Pro-choice not only protects the life of the host but also of the fetus. My personal choice: I choose pro-choice but not because I don't believe in pro-life but because we as

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Haley Dallin PHI Ethics Owen Smiley 10/15/2023 Abortion’s Moral Dilemma Dallin 4 individuals have a basic freedom of choice. We as Americans are lucky enough to have the right to choose. We have a right to choose right and wrong, and are allowed to act upon those instincts. Now I'm not saying that those cells aren’t a human being, but scientifically speaking they are just that, a clump of cells, capable of becoming a human being but not guaranteed to become one. Those clumps of cells could grow and thrive, but they could also turn and attack the host, which one would you rather have dead? The mother or the clump of cells? In the case of rape, ectopic pregnancy, and if a mother is unfit to care for said child, then abortion should be aloud. While abortion should not be a form of birth control, it should be a viable option. Women should have access and education before resorting to extremes like an abortion but unfortunately these resources are not always available. Abortion should be used as a safe medical tool, not seen as murder. While I agree if someone were to have an abortion say 4-5 months into the pregnancy then I understand the pro-lifers point of view of murder, as the fetus is already halfway developed. Overall, Women deserve the right to choose, they must have a legal system that supports them. Several countries have universal healthcare, sex education, paid maternity leave, and actually makes sure a mother is ready for said child. We must protect these basic rights and hope that others will support us. While I am a perfect example of this choice, I too became pregnant, I chose to allow this fetus to grow, I allowed this fetus to be born into a person, but I had the choice to terminate this clump of cells. The choice was not an easy one, one of the most difficult ones, one that didn’t just depend on me, but on my circumstances. I deserve that choice, I require this basic right to choose what to do with my body. "This body is my body!" (Thomson para. 14). My body, my choice, and it is immoral for you to take that choice away from me. That clump of cells is now a

Haley Dallin PHI Ethics Owen Smiley 10/15/2023 Abortion’s Moral Dilemma Dallin 5 human being, capable of making his own choices, living today because I was able to make that choice. I could have chosen to terminate this life, he could not exist, but where would I be if I did choose to terminate? Where would I be without him in my life? It is not my place to make that choice for other women around me, I do not and should not have a say and what another person decides and our laws should protect that right. We must exercise our 14th amendment rights and protect our basic privileges. Sample Case: Roe V. Wade, or a citizen against the state of Texas, alleged that the state laws were unconstitutionally vague and abridged her right of personal privacy, protected by the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments. “In Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decided that the right to privacy implied in the 14th Amendment protected abortion as a fundamental right. However, the government retained the power to regulate or restrict abortion access depending on the stage of pregnancy,” ( In Brenner Center for Justice para. 2). In that decision, the court ruled that the right to choose abortion is protected by the Constitution and that abortion will be legal throughout the United States. Abortion should be a natural human right and should protect one's privacy. Then the overturn of Roe v. Wade was a monumental setback in reproductive rights. Anti- abortion is the support of overturning the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade. On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which means that states can now ban abortion. Leaving the choice up to the states instead of it being a basic human right has caused outrage and scarcity among civilians and disruption to our healthcare system. The overturning of Roe v. Wade means women's ability to choose to have an abortion or continue a pregnancy is no

Haley Dallin PHI Ethics Owen Smiley 10/15/2023 Abortion’s Moral Dilemma Dallin 6 longer protected by the constitution of the United States. Originally designed to protect human rights, have turned into a battleground of right and wrong. To give the choice to the states, it has now become a fight of beliefs and values. Clashing religion and science to a stand still, demanding the nation's attention. Your rights were taken away from you and are now in the hands of the state, you no longer have a voice, you no longer get to choose for yourself. This overturn is immoral and should have never occurred. The World Health Organization, or WHO, have seen “Abortion regulations that force people to travel to attain legal care, or that require mandatory counseling or waiting periods, burden health systems and can result in women experiencing travel costs, loss of income or the need to resort to unsafe abortion,” (WHO para. 4). Turning an abortion into some woman's worst nightmare. Having to face their fears, or perform an unsafe abortion, women have been faced with a moral dilemma they didn’t choose. Being forced to accept their circumstances, trying to do whatever they can to survive, all while the government and society is against them. What will it come to before we realize the problem we've created? Does anyone have empathy anymore? Who do we hold accountable? When will we hit our breaking point and what will come for future generations? Abortion will continue to be debated for generations, and until we can agree on basic human rights we must decide for ourselves if abortion is moral or not. We must educate ourselves and others, we must protect one another and believe in change. We cannot sit by and watch our fellow Americans suffer, we must act now before we have no rights left to protect. Healthcare is designed to serve its people and we must value the system and fight for equal opportunities. Let’s consider all of our options before we make these drastic changes, as we can’t

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Haley Dallin PHI Ethics Owen Smiley 10/15/2023 Abortion’s Moral Dilemma Dallin 7 control everyone. We must decide our morality and how it can affect our people. Works Cited:

Haley Dallin PHI Ethics Owen Smiley 10/15/2023 Abortion’s Moral Dilemma Dallin 8 Brenner Center Roe v. Wade and Supreme Court Abortion Cases: Reproductive rights in the United States, explained. PUBLISHED: September 28, 2022 https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/roe-v-wade-and-supreme-court- abortion-cases?fbclid=IwAR2Kz765sUBsiwqWn8pUki4YpcoxJ5XIvEl- o3OJui8uI1lC__Ix_JJhJU4_aem_AfgrWAFkIRW408Mm01VaIrZ7E38XR6HSpUUMVt GivgFGN7waH7ALIX-9h5PpMj5bFbY#:~:text=In%20Roe%20v.,on%20the%20stage %20of%20pregnancy . ( In Brenner Center for Justice para. 2). Cahn, Steven and Forchimes, Andrew “Principles Of Moral Philosophy” (New York: Oxford 2017) An Abortion is Wrong by Don Marquis (Marquis para. 11) Thomson, Judith Jarvis : A Defense of Abortion” From Philosophy & Public Affairs, Vol. 1, no. 1 (Fall 1971). Shortened for length and clarity by Owen Smiley (Reprinted in "Intervention and Reflection: Basic Issues in Medical Ethics," 5th ed., Ronald Munson(Belmont; Wadsworth 1996). pp 69-80.) (Thomson para. 10) (Thomson para. 14) World Health Organization - Abortion Impact https://www.who.int/health-topics/abortion#tab=tab_2 (WHO para. 4)

Moral Dilemma Essay 1

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