Teens and Abortions

Introduction

Over the number of years I have carefully observed a number of different positions on abortion. My observation from these readings is that a fetus is a person and the right to life of a fetus outweighs that of a woman's right to bodily integrity. Hence, that abortion is unethical.

Pro-abortionists argue that a fetus has no substantial right to life on the basis that it is not a lively person. They base this belief off of a set of criteria that suggests that these components are most crucial to the acceptance of personhood. Their criteria are "consciousness, reasoning, self-motivated activity, the capacity to communicate, and the presence of self-concepts and self-awareness" 'Janet, 2001). This set of criteria works off the belief that any being that does not meet one of the five criteria is not a person. They believe that to have none of the five criteria eliminates that being from classification of a person. I believe this argument may not be plausible on the grounds that a fetus can satisfy one of these criteria. (Rickie, 2004)

Why Abortion is unethical?

A fetus is conscious while in the womb. The fetus also has the ability to communicate. If an expectant mother does something that the fetus does not like it has the ability to communicate this by moving or kicking. (Betsy, 2002) It is responsive to pain, sound, and touch. The fetus has the ability to have consciousness to feel the pain and communicate that feeling through its movement. The fetus' brain is active and able to feel pain and communicate. Although brain activity is not one of the criteria, it is the means by which the criteria come about. Now, Warren believes that this brain activity is comparable to the brain activity of a guppy 'Janet, 2001). Warren's position is she believes this activity is not great enough to warrant personhood. 'Janet, 2001)

There is, however, another argument that suggests that a woman's right to bodily integrity is greater than a fetus' right to life. Thomson believes that the right to life does not entail the right to use another's body. She believes that the fetus has no right to life because it has no guaranteed right to use a woman's body and nobody else can grant that right but the woman. Now, one may say that if a woman becomes pregnant due to rape or incest that she can chose to abort also. I wish to avoid this suggestion because I wish to deal with those that voluntarily become pregnant because of their actions. I believe that a fetus' right to life overpowers a woman's right to bodily integrity because a woman grants permission to the fetus when engaging in voluntary sexual intercourse and should accept responsibility for her action. 'Ashton, 1980)

A woman engages in sexual intercourse and becomes pregnant. She then wishes to abort her fetus to maintain her career or way of life. (Rickie, 2004) Thomson would argue that the fetus has no guaranteed right to use ...