The Ethical Dilemma
Rachel is a college student with a bright future ahead of her. By the unfortunate turn of events, she gets raped when she is returning home in the late evening. The criminal gets arrested immediately after the incident. Later, Rachel finds out that she is pregnant, and she is confused what to do. On the one hand, she is known to be an exemplary person who respects others and is against of any kind of unrighteous behavior towards other person. On the other hand, she is afraid that the child will serve as a reminder of the rapist and she has set a lot of plans for her studies and career path. Her parents tell her that she should keep the baby as abortion is a murder of a human being. They say that they are ready to help her raise the child, but Rachel feels hesitant about this decision.
Analysis of The Situation
Abortion calls for very much idea moral and good guidelines since it depends on a crucial part of humankind’s presence, which is human existence. It is characterized as eliminating or barring an undeveloped organism or embryo from the uterus to try not to conceive an offspring. The morals of fetus removal have been a milestone since the ascent of bioethics by the 1970s (Rachels & Rachels, 2019). The conversations on the morality and the sin of ending pregnancy are intensely politicized, particularly in the USA, additionally in numerous other Western nations (Billauer, 2016). The ongoing debate between life supporters and those who favor the right to choose has regularly been introduced as a conflict among conservative and liberal philosophies and various arrangements have been set up by the laws directing abortion on account of various nations (Billauer, 2016).
A reasonable strength of Utilitarianism while examining abortion is that there is no outright worth set on human existence, which means it keeps away from moral inquiries regarding when human existence starts. Act Utilitarianism is especially valuable, as it likes to pass judgment on every individual case on its own benefits, which means abortion would be particularly up to the mother, and what the results would be for her life. This implies conditions like extreme fetal irregularity, assault, and monetary flimsiness would all be able to be considered under utilitarian idea (Cohen, 2015). Notwithstanding, passing judgment on abortion on the premise on government assistance can be hazardous in light of the fact that we are regularly incapable to set up the drawn-out outcomes of the activity, thusly long-term harm cannot be surveyed. Also, Rule Utilitarianism expresses that choices ought not be limited by singular government assistance, however by cultural government assistance (Rachels & Rachels, 2019). In this manner, Utilitarianism is not the best moral hypothesis to apply while talking about fetus removal, as the contentions among Act and Rule Utilitarianism. Notwithstanding the thought for all conditions given by Utilitarianism, eventually it is hard to build up the full outcomes of a fetus removal, which means other deontological speculations might be more valuable.
Natural Law morals forbids direct abortion at any stage since it is the taking of honest human existence. A purposeful elimination would appear to have a place overwhelmingly with the classification of sins considered in opposition to nature (Finnis, 2012). In the event of assault, there is a contention of rights (Finnis, 2012). The privilege of the mother to bear posterity willfully collides with the assumed right of the human embryo to life. This encroachment of the mother’s privilege absolutely affects any commitments the mother would typically have without such encroachment (Ntontis & Hopkins, 2018). If each woman has a privilege to conceive a baby and if it was done voluntarily, she should not go for abortion.
As indicated by Aristotle’s embryological and mental hypotheses, a zygote has a soul, thus, it is a living organic entity. Aristotle’s mean expresses that, ” Moral virtue is a middle state determined by practical wisdom ” (Lawrenz, 2020). Aristotle’s moral hypothesis upholds the possibility that at whatever point there are two limits, settle for the center ground, since it is more secure, as opposed to indulge or under enjoy (Lawrenz, 2020). At the point when this moral hypothesis is applied on account of fetus removal, the two limit contrary energies are one, to have an infant whom the mother does not need while the contrary limit will be to remove the embryo, which is murder. The center ground then for this situation will be to convey the child and surrender it for appropriation. Aristotle’s Golden mean gives a center ground in the fetus removal issue. The mother will not have submitted murder through fetus removal however much she may convey the pregnancy and its difficulties. After the pregnancy, the infant’s life will be saved and, in this way, given the option to live with adopting family.
References
Billauer, B. P. (2016). The First Amendment, Moral Law and Abortion: The Conflict between Fetal Rights & Freedom of Religion.SSRN Electronic Journal. Web.
Cohen, I. G. (2015). Are All Abortions Equal? Should There Be Exceptions to the Criminalization of Abortion for Rape and Incest?Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 43(1), 87–104. Web.
Ntontis, E., & Hopkins, N. (2018). Framing a ‘social problem’: Emotion in anti-abortion activists’ depiction of the abortion debate.British Journal of Social Psychology, 57(3), 666–683. Web.
Finnis, J. (2012). Natural Law Theory: Its Past and its Present.The American Journal of Jurisprudence, 57(1), 81–101. Web.
Lawrenz, J. (2020). Confucius, Aristotle, and the Golden Mean: A Diptych on Ethical Virtues.The European Legacy, 26(2), 149–169. Web.
Rachels, S., & Rachels, J. (2019). The elements of moral philosophy (9th ed.). Mcgraw-Hill Education.