Abortion: An Ethical Understanding

In this country, very few topics are debated quite so hotly as that of abortion. In fact, the issue remains so ever-present that even a simple discussion on the topic can lead to insult-laden arguments, each side deriding the other as evil or heartless regardless of which position an individual happens to take on the issue. The debate is understandable, truly, considering what the issue is and how many people are affected by it, whether in reality or as a hypothetical. The goal of this essay is not to prove that abortion is moral or correct. No, the goal of this essay is simply to make an argument for the procedure itself, an analysis on the ethical justification for the act.

To begin, I would like to define two terms; utilitarianism being the first, and abortion the second. Utilitarianism is a theory in philosophy about right and wrong actions. It says that the morally best action is the one that makes the most overall happiness. Furthermore, the core idea of whether actions are good and bad under utilitarianism reside in whether or not they produce good or bad results. Utilitarianism will be utilized throughout this essay to discuss the problem of abortion and provide reasoning to it. Ultimately, as utilitarianism is focused on the idea of judging situations by their results, I feel that it is the best moral theory to discuss such a divisive problem.

The word ‘abortion’ as defined by Merriam Webster is defined as “the termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus. (Merriam-Webster)” One of the common arguments against abortion is that it is an act that kills a “baby”, harms a “child”, or murders a “infant.” The use of language here is important in understanding the terminology and why that is important in discussion of this issue. The embryo and fetus are extremely different from one another, let alone comparing either of the two to a fully-formed newborn.

Another, more clinical, point to be made here is that abortion is first, and foremost, a medical process, one that focuses on the preservation of the mother’s life and wishes as to her body, first and foremost. Abortions performed in the first trimester are the majority of abortions at over ninety percent (Planned Parenthood, 2015). For nearly two-thirds of this time, the fetus is just a literal clump of cells with no development made toward vital organs, limbs or even a brain. Even by the end of the first trimester, they have no gender. The fetus doesn’t even begin breathing on its own until the third trimester has already begun.

First-trimester abortions are usually performed through medicine and operate by loosening the vaginal wall and causing the embryo to detach. This can be looked at in the same manner that a court of law would look at a case of someone refusing their home to a homeless person on a cold night. Even if you argue that a fetus is deserving of the same sort of reverence an actual child would receive, abortion cannot be considered murder in the same way refusing your home to a homeless man or an animal on a cold winter night is not considered murder.

Further on this, arguing that abortion is murder means that miscarriages are also a form of murder. I say this due to the cause of many miscarriages being caused by neglect on the part of the mother, often due to engaging in undue stress-causing situations, drug use, alcohol use or many others. Claiming as such means that women should be imprisoned for accidentally causing the death of their baby. Even before this point, it has to be understood that a woman's body will naturally reject roughly three-fourths of fertilized embryos from implantation, which means that most fetuses are killed off by the woman’s body herself before any other action is taken.

From a utilitarian standpoint, the act of abortion is an attempt to maximize the potential pleasure in a sense. Woman who have abortions undergo the process for a variety of reasons, each of them individually pressing and important. It could range from anything like financial worries, educational goals, family needs, career, or any number of valid reasons, really.

A mother saddled with an unwanted child would have to spend the next nine months of her life putting her wants and needs second to preparing for the birth of said child. Not only is preparation for such a thing often expensive, the actual act of giving birth is extremely so, often sending many two-parent families into debt. Even after the birth, the mother is now struggling with the child that she did not want. She likely has to focus all her free time on her newborn child, buy expensive food and clothing for the newborn and likely has to work much harder to support the both of them.

Not only that, but the struggle of being an unwanted child is to have a parent or parents who never wanted you. Such a life for a child, at least in the earlier days, would be likely filled with poverty and emotional abuse, this sort of struggle likely leading to a later life continuing along a pattern of poverty or crime. On average in the United States alone, roughly fifty percent of all pregnancies are unplanned every single year. This number becomes even more shocking when one realizes that roughly six million pregnancies occur on average. The idea that three million children would be forced to undergo suffering and their parents would undergo a similar suffering rings does not seem like it would serve utilitarian maxim.

In his book, Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill argued that utilitarianism essentially means that “actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. (Mill p.55) Forcing a woman to restructure her life to take care of a child that she did not want is an attempt to override her autonomy and preventing her from maximizing her happiness. Fetuses are simply potential forms of life, much the same as sperm in a male. To prohibit a woman's right and access to her own body even goes further to make the implication that women, to some degree, have less rights than men.

From a deontological standpoint, abortion would be inherently wrong. Deontological ethics rely on a duty-based morality, meaning that “actions are not justified by their consequences. Rather, factors other than good outcomes determine the rightness of actions. Unlike utilitarianism, where the ends justify the means, deontologism argues that it is the “means that are important (All About Philosophy).” As such, using those standards, the act of abortion would be considered immoral.

However, the most immoral act is refusing a person a right to make a personal decision about their own body and essentially using them as a tool for a purpose. Deontological ethics argues that we should never treat someone as a mere means, essentially treating them as a tool for a purpose. While using someone as a means to an end is permitted, simply because of the nature of consent, using them as a mere means is impermissible. Using deontological understanding, the welfare of the mother should be the end goal. Her desire for physical autonomy and self-determination should supersede that of an unwanted organism that by all inherent standards, is not truly living. In this way, forcing a woman to give birth to a child that she cannot care for goes against both deontological and utilitarian values.

On the whole though, it is important to understand that the importance of utilitarianism as an ethical theory is that it allows for judgement with as clear a mindset as possible, meaning that it places no absolute value on human life. Utilitarianism is very useful inasmuch as it is placed in a judgement field as it allows said judgement to apply onto each individual case on its own merits. This means that abortion would be entirely up to the mother, and what the consequences would be for her life. This means that factors relating to abortion such as severe birth defects, rape, incest, and financial instability can all be considered under this maxim.

What has to be understood about abortion is that regardless of moral value judgements, it has remained an issue for a very long time and will continue to remain one for as long as differing ideals exist. However, simply because disagreements occur on the topic does not mean that there is not reason for it to exist as a medical procedure; the importance of which cannot be denied if a woman’s rights and bodily autonomy are to be respected.

Bibliography

All About Philosophy. "Deontological Ethics." 2018. All About Philosophy. Document. 6 December 2018.

Fox News, Planned Parenthood. "Fast Facts: U.S. Abortion Statistics." 13 January 2015. Fox News. .

Merriam-Webster. Abortion. n.d. Document. 4 December 2018.

Mill, John Stuart. Utilitarianism. n.d. Book.

Oberman, Michelle. "What Happens When Abortion Is Banned?" 31 May 2018. The New York Times. .