Benchmark Assignment: Ethical Dilemmas
The issue of abortion has almost no equal in possessing the potential to polarize two sides of an issue, often resulting in high-emotion and on rare occasions leading to violent reactions including the bombing of abortion clinics and attacks on the doctors who perform them. The controversial issue was decided in the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, which affirmed a woman’s right to have an abortion. However, the issue still remains unresolved in the hearts and minds of many across the country as battle lines are drawn on when life begins. This paper will examine both sides of the abortion debate, and in particular, whether an abortion would be an appropriate response by someone who has become aware that the child they are carrying has Down syndrome.
Ethical Dilemma
The ethical dilemma this essay will address involves a woman named Susan who has just been informed by her doctor that the fetus she is carrying has that Down syndrome. Susan is faced with the decision of whether to terminate the pregnancy or to give birth to her child. Susan seeks advice from a professor of evolutionary biology who clearly holding the Utilitarian viewpoint, advises Susan that human beings are responsible for …show more content…
Pro-choice advocates would argue that the right to life is only for “persons”. Philosopher and author Peter Kreeft is quoted as saying "Persons have a 'right to life ' but non-persons (e.g., cells, tissues, organs, and animals) do not.... If the fetus is not a person, abortion is not the deliberate killing of an innocent person; if it is, it is." (C. Watkins (Ed.), At Issue. The Ethics of Abortion, 2005). Those who identify as pro-choice support selective abortion because they do not believe life begins until birth. Those who identify as pro-life condemn abortion because they believe the fetus (or embryo) is
The issue of abortion has almost no equal in possessing the potential to polarize two sides of an issue, often resulting in high-emotion and on rare occasions leading to violent reactions including the bombing of abortion clinics and attacks on the doctors who perform them. The controversial issue was decided in the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, which affirmed a woman’s right to have an abortion. However, the issue still remains unresolved in the hearts and minds of many across the country as battle lines are drawn on when life begins. This paper will examine both sides of the abortion debate, and in particular, whether an abortion would be an appropriate response by someone who has become aware that the child they are carrying has Down syndrome.
Ethical Dilemma
The ethical dilemma this essay will address involves a woman named Susan who has just been informed by her doctor that the fetus she is carrying has that Down syndrome. Susan is faced with the decision of whether to terminate the pregnancy or to give birth to her child. Susan seeks advice from a professor of evolutionary biology who clearly holding the Utilitarian viewpoint, advises Susan that human beings are responsible for …show more content…
Pro-choice advocates would argue that the right to life is only for “persons”. Philosopher and author Peter Kreeft is quoted as saying "Persons have a 'right to life ' but non-persons (e.g., cells, tissues, organs, and animals) do not.... If the fetus is not a person, abortion is not the deliberate killing of an innocent person; if it is, it is." (C. Watkins (Ed.), At Issue. The Ethics of Abortion, 2005). Those who identify as pro-choice support selective abortion because they do not believe life begins until birth. Those who identify as pro-life condemn abortion because they believe the fetus (or embryo) is