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 increasing pleasure and decreasing suffering and that it would be immoral to have a baby with Down syndrome. Doing so would subject the child, and Susan as the caregiver, to needless suffering. Making the decision even more difficult is the fact that Susan has built a successful career and would like to preserve the work-life balance. With all of these considerations, Susan is very uncomfortable with the abortion, which suggests that on some level she sees abortion as immoral. Core Beliefs Should Susan choose an abortion, the rationalization for such a decision is often that life does not begin until birth. …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 life. To a Christian, abortion is simply not an option for consideration. The Christian worldview is that life begins at conception. God already knows the plans He has for the unborn. Psalm 139:15-16 reads: My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. To the Christian, to take the life of an unborn child, even one with Down syndrome, is to interfere with God’s plans for the unborn child. According to the Christian, God has already settled the matter of whether life begins at conception. God clearly identifies an unborn child as a life. Exodus 21:22–25 reads, “When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, … if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life…” God calls the unborn “children”. It is clear in Exodus 21:22-25 that God sees the life of an unborn child as being of equal value to a person already born. Another issue for the Christian is that humanity is created in God’s image; that life is sacred. According to Diffey (2014), “The creation of humanity in the image of God shows the special relationship between God and humans. While God created all things, humans are the only creatures that God created in his image and that God breathed the breath of life into” Having been made in God’s image holds special meaning in preserving life. Genesis 9:6 reads, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image”. God specifically mentions
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 increasing pleasure and decreasing suffering and that it would be immoral to have a baby with Down syndrome. Doing so would subject the child, and Susan as the caregiver, to needless suffering. Making the decision even more difficult is the fact that Susan has built a successful career and would like to preserve the work-life balance. With all of these considerations, Susan is very uncomfortable with the abortion, which suggests that on some level she sees abortion as immoral. Core Beliefs Should Susan choose an abortion, the rationalization for such a decision is often that life does not begin until birth. …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 life. To a Christian, abortion is simply not an option for consideration. The Christian worldview is that life begins at conception. God already knows the plans He has for the unborn. Psalm 139:15-16 reads: My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. To the Christian, to take the life of an unborn child, even one with Down syndrome, is to interfere with God’s plans for the unborn child. According to the Christian, God has already settled the matter of whether life begins at conception. God clearly identifies an unborn child as a life. Exodus 21:22–25 reads, “When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, … if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life…” God calls the unborn “children”. It is clear in Exodus 21:22-25 that God sees the life of an unborn child as being of equal value to a person already born. Another issue for the Christian is that humanity is created in God’s image; that life is sacred. According to Diffey (2014), “The creation of humanity in the image of God shows the special relationship between God and humans. While God created all things, humans are the only creatures that God created in his image and that God breathed the breath of life into” Having been made in God’s image holds special meaning in preserving life. Genesis 9:6 reads, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image”. God specifically mentions