Abstract
This paper discusses ethical issues in medicine regarding the performance of the abortion. Since abortion is interpreted comprehensively in society, nurses should consider these characteristics. Personal anti- or pro-abortion beliefs should not guide into practice. In the case of adolescent minors, nurses should be guided by legal and medical principles, not religious ones. Otherwise, it would violate the teenager’s rights and the principles of medical care.
Ethical Considerations
Within ethical dilemmas, the issue of abortion and its implementation for women is a central one. Some people favor women’s rights and freedoms, actively protesting the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in 2022. Another part agrees that abortion is an immoral decision and should be banned. In medicine, the ethical side of abortion is realized as follows. According to Svenaeus (2018), abortion is not human murder because human beings are understood to be persons with self-awareness. Niţă & Ilie Goga (2020) point out that abortion is a confrontation between a woman’s right to her body and concepts that put fetal life above. However, women are given priority when the mother and the fetus are threatened, despite the legal term of the abortion – usually 12 weeks after the fetus. Consequently, medically, a woman’s decision on her right to an abortion cannot be seen as wrongful or unethical because she will stand up for her rights.
Decision
In resolving the conflict between the decision to obtain an abortion from a minor adolescent and the nurse, there may be the following solution. First, this dilemma relates to the nurse’s perception of her role in organizing gynecological care. Second, the legal issues of performing an abortion on a minor and the timing of the abortion do not play a role because the nurse has a personal justification for refusal. The nurse uses her religion to pressure or induce the teenager to believe that abortion is not morally correct. Whatever the nurse’s beliefs, the teenager has her views that must be respected. Also, planning a pregnancy at an early age does not lead to positive outcomes. Girls carry significant risks, so in terms of medical ethics, the nurse’s decision could potentially harm the teenager (Zhang et al., 2020). A decision should be made to remove the nurse from the procedure and conduct ethical, religious, and medical education sessions with her. To perform an abortion on a minor, the gestational age, the availability of insurance coverage and parental consent must be ascertained.
References
Niţă, A. M., & Ilie Goga, C. (2020). A research on abortion: ethics, legislation and socio-medical outcomes. Case study: Romania. Romanian Journal of Morphology and Embryology = Revue Roumaine De Morphologie Et Embryologie, 61(1), 283–294. Web.
Svenaeus F. (2018). Phenomenology of pregnancy and the ethics of abortion. Medicine, Health Care, and Philosophy, 21(1), 77–87. Web.
Zhang, T., Wang, H., Wang, X., Yang, Y., Zhang, Y., Tang, Z., & Wang, L. (2020). The adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes of adolescent pregnancy: a cross sectional study in Hebei, China. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 20(1), 339. Web.