Late-Term Abortion
A late-term abortion is also known as a partial birth abortion. This is an abortion that is done during the late stages of pregnancy. In this case the fetus is more developed, and can be able to survive outside the mother’s womb. It’s actually not possible enough to state which stage of prenatal development is justifiable for abortion. For any ethics that cherishes life, it will consider abortion as not right and the more mature the fetus is the more should be the objection. In a late-term abortion the fetus is presumed to be periviable or viable, which means that it can be able to survive outside the uterus. At this point the fetus is grown and actually resembles a human being (Raymond, pp 358-361).
There has been allot of controversy on late-term abortion, giving a rise in heated political, ethical and legal debates. In the recent times the debate on late-term abortion is on whether abortion is morally right, given the human rights to life, control over one’s body and the right to privacy. The debate mostly arises between the pro-choice and the pro-life, in that the pro-choice argue that a woman has the right to abortion which should never be restricted whatsoever. Whereas the pro-life argue that a fetus has the right to live which should not be interfered with, through abortion. The main question that is mainly asked is whether a fetus can be assigned the same rights to live as an adult person, and can a late-term fetus be regarded as a child? (Tamara, pp23)(Knowledgerush, Web page).
Some of the reasons why women go for abortion are; the mother may be too old to raise a child, the mother may also be too young or immature and as such not ready to take any responsibility of parenting, fear of single parenthood, health risks that the mother may be exposed to, rape or incest, inability to afford the costs of taking care of them child, when the father does not want a child, disruption of education or career, and the disruption of the kind of lifestyle that the mother or the father was enjoying and given that the child is unwanted(Tamara, pp 3-5).
Morality and abortion:
Morality is all about the treatment that people give to each other, and what is accepted as good by a particular society. This in this case may include, the survival of people on the planet, reducing harm to people, the quality of life, making other people’s lives to be as fulfilling as possible and not forgetting the treatment that we give to children which should be great, given that they are the most precious resources in the society as they are perceived as the generation to come. This will mean providing children with adequate environment of good nurturing, love, proper parenting and the opportunity for them to be responsible adults. The controversy that underlies the cases of abortion is whether women should be given the right of choice on either giving birth or terminating a pregnancy for whatever reasons. This is what drives the point that abortion should be legalized, as many believe that it should be a woman’s right to decide whether she wants a child at that time when carrying the pregnancy or not. This is regarded as a woman having the right to property including her body and the fetus she is carrying. For those who are anti-abortion of the pro-life, they believe that, “life is present from the moment of conception” (Marquis, pp 526).
The essay by marquis on “why abortion is immoral” considers the immorality that is there in abortion in that the killing of a fetus is being compared to the killing of an adult who is presumed to wanting to enjoy a future life. He is placing the death of both an adult and a child in the same category. It is wrong to kill a person, why? What actually makes killing wrong is not the effect it has on the murderer or even the friends and relatives of the victim, but the effects that killing has on the victim. Losing of one’s life is termed as one of the greatest loses one can ever experience. This is because losing one’s life deprives a person all the activities, enjoyments, experiences, which would have led to a person’s future. When one is killed today, it denies that person what he/she values today, which will make up the future of the person. Therefore according to Marquis what makes the killing of another human being to be considered wrong is the fact that there is loss of future in that human being, that is whether the future was valuable or not but the fact that that human being had a future makes killing a wrong thing to do.(Marquis, pp188-190).
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