CASE STUDY

Case Study 4.1

Case Study 4.1

Introduction

The following case that we are going to be discuss indicates that in sensitive matters or issues, prochoice should be a option for a woman. Actually, the main focus of the dabte is on abortion of Sheng. Nao Vang Xiong, his wife Sheng, and their children were Southeast Asian refugees. Their settlement In the United States was being sponsored by an agency of the Catholic Church. After sometime, both husband and a wife along with their children visited a county health department for health evaluations. Where, they found that nor husband and wife, and nor their children have any type of serious illness. But, some the test results that they got after few days showed that Sheng had active tuberculosis. After eight weeks it was declared that Mrs. Xiong was approximately six weeks pregnant. Therefore, Mrs. Xiong started considering about abortion.

Abortion

Abortion is, by definition, “feticide.” As Naomi Wolf (1995) notes in developing her argument that the pro-choice movement needs to frame its defense of abortion rights morally, “The death of a fetus is a real death” (p. 26). Is abortion “homicide” or simply a “reproductive health procedure”? Consider the bias of the term unborn child. Karen W. Kramer (1990) points out that the terminology of the abortion debate became polarized over the 20-year period of her study. Her content analysis of articles on abortion shows that the proportions of references to “unborn child,” “unborn infant,” and “unborn baby” in sources associated with the pro-life movement increased during this period. Similarly, references to “fetus,” “embryo,” and “egg” increased in sources associated with the pro-choice movement during the period.

Abortion is the deliberate termination of a pregnancy (Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1999). This procedure generally occurs through one of three methods: “Morning after pills” can prevent implantation of a fertilized egg; during the first trimester, drugs such as RU486 or mifepristone can cause spontaneous abortions; or a surgical procedure can remove a fetus from the womb. The debate over abortion is polarized, with the most vocal advocates, both for and against, tending to assume extreme positions in the belief that they are enunciating a principle that allows for no compromise. (Gordon, 1999)

On one extreme, prochoice advocates, those who champion abortion rights-have advanced various arguments, including the need of poor women to control the number of their offspring to escape poverty. The most common argument, however, derives from a woman's right to control her own body. The abortion issue gave rise to the feminist slogan, “a woman's body, a woman's right.” By this logic, the fetus is an aspect of the woman's body, and she is properly free to continue the pregnancy or remove the fetus—the tissue within her body at her sole discretion.

On the other extreme, pro-life advocates—those who seek to prohibit all forms of abortion usually employ religious arguments, among them that the soul exists at the moment a male sperm cell and a female ovum fuse to form a zygote. A significant minority of pro-life advocates, however, argues ...