Within the last decade, abortions have been a controversial topic in almost all sectors of life: politics, religion, and healthcare, for example. As a future health care professional, I believe in the importance of treating people for the greater good by putting aside my own reservations or opinions and seeking to improve the health and health education of others. After extensive research, I believe that abortions have a justified moral foundation. The examination of three key elements within an abortion procedure: the health professionals, the patient, and the fetus provide an understanding and the necessary ethical support for the validity of abortions. The Hippocratic Oath, commonly known as the ethical code for health professionals, describes
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One specific philosopher, Don Marquis, wrote a small excerpt which primarily argues the immorality of abortion. His most predominant reason is that abortions deprive fetuses of their future; he then proceeds to argue, “ When I am killed, I am deprived both of what I now value which would have been part of my future personal life, but also what I would come to value” (Marquis, 1989). In other words, killing someone takes away their values and future experiences; Marquis coined the term “future like ours”, or FLO, to ethically define the wrongness of murder (Marquis, 1989). Although his point is certainly valid for the immoral act of killing a human, it does not apply to a fetus. FLO only applies to a human who has previous experiences and has the desire to gain future experiences. Furthermore, a fetus does not have any memorable situations outside of the womb; therefore, a fetus cannot have any future desires or values. Simply, a person cannot have the desire of something that they do not have any knowledge of. Moreover, he further argues that a zygote (a fertilized ovum) has the genetic code for a human, and therefore must have the same moral standing as a human. Scientifically, he is correct that the zygote contains the genetic sequences for human development, but at this point the zygote is just a group of cells with a genetic sequence with an uncertain potential to be a human. So, at this stage in a pregnancy a zygote has the same moral status as a simple bacteria or stem cell. In other words, a simple genetic sequence does not give a zygote or fetus the same moral standing a
One specific philosopher, Don Marquis, wrote a small excerpt which primarily argues the immorality of abortion. His most predominant reason is that abortions deprive fetuses of their future; he then proceeds to argue, “ When I am killed, I am deprived both of what I now value which would have been part of my future personal life, but also what I would come to value” (Marquis, 1989). In other words, killing someone takes away their values and future experiences; Marquis coined the term “future like ours”, or FLO, to ethically define the wrongness of murder (Marquis, 1989). Although his point is certainly valid for the immoral act of killing a human, it does not apply to a fetus. FLO only applies to a human who has previous experiences and has the desire to gain future experiences. Furthermore, a fetus does not have any memorable situations outside of the womb; therefore, a fetus cannot have any future desires or values. Simply, a person cannot have the desire of something that they do not have any knowledge of. Moreover, he further argues that a zygote (a fertilized ovum) has the genetic code for a human, and therefore must have the same moral standing as a human. Scientifically, he is correct that the zygote contains the genetic sequences for human development, but at this point the zygote is just a group of cells with a genetic sequence with an uncertain potential to be a human. So, at this stage in a pregnancy a zygote has the same moral status as a simple bacteria or stem cell. In other words, a simple genetic sequence does not give a zygote or fetus the same moral standing a