Abortion As An Ethical Dilemma

Improved Essays
An ethical dilemma is a complex situation that challenges our moral values and beliefs. We are presented with choices/options each day, and our decision to pick one option over the other is usually based on our ethical stance, beliefs, and values. Once these decisions are made, there are consequences, which could be positively or negatively impactful. Abortion has been a very sensitive topic over the years and once again one of the topics that takes center stage during this election year. There are many sides to the argument. There are Pro-lifers who believe babies should not be aborted under no circumstance; Pro-choicers who believe that the mother has every single right to abort the fetus. Aside these groups, is another group that believes …show more content…
According to Christian worldview, this would be the most ethical option. Susan seems to be leaning towards this option as she is not comfortable with aborting her unborn baby. When we are faced with ethical dilemmas, we make decision based on our past experience, values and beliefs. Using our innate instinctual feelings is a tool that guide us through the process and this innate feeling or voice is God’s way of guiding us.
• The other option would be aborting the baby. This option is considered unethical and goes contrary with the Christian worldview. This decision does not even guarantee absolute happiness and joy as the mother can develop post abortion syndrome and other complications from the abortion. Post abortion syndrome is a form of post-traumatic stress disorder. Also, the woman can experience a guilty conscience for the rest of her life or “have a delayed reaction as long as eight years, lastly the memory of it may haunt her for life” (Abortion, 2014).
Core
…show more content…
The holy scripture, which is the blueprint of Christianity, speaks against any form of murder. God values all forms of life, and according to the Bible, human life begins at conception. The book of Jeremiah 1:5 states that, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” This verse and others buttress the point that human life starts right away, therefore termination of pregnancy at any point of gestation is murder. God’s plan for humans might be different from ours. God is in control and have plans for each one of us before our lives even begins. He created human in his own image and likeness. He has a purpose for every single soul. Therefore, the Down syndrome fetus has a purpose on earth and deserve the chance to live and reach his or her full potential. Another core belief that would be applicable in this situation is the golden rule. In Matthew 7:12 Jesus stated that we should "do to others what you would have them do to you" (NIV). In this scenario, the mother should give the unborn child the opportunity to live, as she was given the chance to live. The diagnosis (down syndrome) can be a miss diagnosis or even if it’s a true diagnosis, its God’s plan

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Ethical Dilemma The dilemma that I have chosen to touch on is the choice of abortion. In this scenario, a woman has tried for a very long time to get pregnant, when she finally gets pregnant she learns that her child has Down syndrome. Susan seeks advice, but everyone says to simply abort the baby to keep it from suffering.…

    • 1034 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Abortion is an emotive and controversial topic that raises political, ethical and social debates. According to Dictionary.com, “abortion is the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, usually before the embryo or fetus is capable of independent life; most often performed during the first 28 weeks of pregnancy.” In this paper, I’ll explain the main legal and ethical issues surrounding abortions. Also, I will provide a case that has to deal with abortion. Ethical questions mainly stem from religious, social and professional dimensions.…

    • 826 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    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…

    • 1292 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Who We Are. (2014). Retrieved September 30, 2015, from http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/who-we-are/ Shrestha, L., & Heisler, E. (2011, March 31). The Changing Demographic Profile of the United States.…

    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As she lay in bed from an exhausting, emotional roller coaster of a day, thoughts race through her head. What am I going to do? How do I tell him or do I even tell him? I really don’t even know this guy. How could I be so careless?…

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Woman Implanted with Wrong Embryo This was a difficult scenario to even imagine but when I looked at it from the point of medical mistake, it became obvious that human error abounds in health care and because our business is dealing with human life, any such error can be devastating if not catastrophic. Implanting the wrong embryo in a mother who had undergone the process of harvesting her eggs, fertilizing it and saving it to be used for later fertility is I believe an extremely rare occurrence. I however cannot process what I would do if it happened to me.…

    • 453 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Kant's Deologism Analysis

    • 783 Words
    • 4 Pages

    When applying Kant 's deontologism in this question, it 's of utmost importance to recall "an act can be described as good as is what should be done because it expresses certain characteristic such as universality or conformity with the moral law" (Baillie, Garrett, Garrett, McGeehan, Health Care Ethics: Principles and Problems, 2009, p.5-6). If everybody performed the action with the same purpose in mind, by definition using Kant 's deontologism, giving birth to a child to medically care for another would be ethically permissible. If every child was conceived as a means to prolong the life of another person, the basis of universality would render the action independent of its consequences. This is hypothetically speaking, as our modern world,…

    • 783 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Based on the Christian worldview statements above, it seems that from the Christian perspective Susan should not abort the baby. Regardless of the situation, Susan needs to have the baby, but Susan doesn’t necessarily need keep the baby. If Susan does not want the child and knows that family is willing to provide the love needed for a Child who will most likely have Down Syndrome, then there is basis for her to give the child up according the Christian worldview. Another option would be for Susan to just keep her child and work through the issues and problems they will face as a family because of the baby.…

    • 218 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ethical Views On Abortion

    • 527 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Abortion the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, most often performed during the first 28 weeks of pregnancy. Abortion is a very controversial topic, determining whether abortion is morally right or not. Several ethical views exist on abortion ranging from good to bad. The main two are: pro-life and pro-choice. The pro-life position is that a new human life is created at the moment of fertilization.…

    • 527 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    People who are pro-life believe that abortion should be completely illegal no matter what the circumstances are regarding an unwanted pregnancy. They also believe that life begins at conception; therefore having an abortion would be immoral because it involves killing an innocent life. As a result of…

    • 688 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Germline Engineering is essentially when a parent or parents decide to genetically “design” their child by changing genes contained in the egg, sperm, or early embryos. It is used in many different ways, for example, to prevent disease in a human, enhance the outward appearance, and even make the person more intelligent than the mediocre of society. However, there are many arguements in between the people that agree with this new technology and the people that completely oppose it. The question is, is this morally corrupt, or is this the start of a new way of human life/technology. In my opininion, I believe that engineering your child’s genetics is wrong.…

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Down’s syndrome is a disease that many feel affect the caretaker and family more than the person who actually suffers from it. 92 percent of mothers who find out they have a child with Down syndrome choose to abort the child. At this time there were no tests to determine whether or not a baby could have certain disease or birth defects, so when this mother bore her child she knew there was something wrong. Her fears were later reassured when she found out her son had Down’s syndrome. It is a hard life for families of children with this disease.…

    • 446 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Studies show that in many developed countries, such as the USA, China, and Europe, the pregnant women are offered to screen in order to provide an estimate of the risk that the Down syndrome will affect an individual pregnancy (Silcock et al., 2015). In this scenario, Dr. Garcia mentions that some people with Down syndrome can live a normal life without potential conditions, however, according to Pence (2017, p. 157), Down syndrome always causes mental disability as well as a characteristic facial appearance. In my point of view, if a child is mentally disabled and has a characteristic facial appearance, how can he or she survive without suffering in this world? I think a mentally disabled and characteristic facial appearance child will be a victim of a bully and will suffer from child abuse as well. That is why, if any parents decide to abort their babies after knowing that because of Down syndrome, their babies and even they have to suffer for the rest of their life, this is nothing wrong.…

    • 1161 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Ethical Dilemmas In Babies

    • 1316 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Ethical Dilemma For years Susan was unable to get pregnant, when she finally was able to conceive, doctors suggested she abort the fetus because blood test confirmed the child would have Down syndrome. This causes a huge dilemma for Susan because she wants to keep her successful career and family stable but also does not support aborting the innocent child. In seek of further insight she seeks help from Richard, an influential professor of evolutionary biology. Richard advises her to abort the fetus for he believes that the world should increase happiness and decrease suffering.…

    • 1316 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Abortion: The Ultimate Personal Decision Throughout life people face many decisions, but not all the decisions face are easy; therefore before judging someone on deciding to abort one should first take into consideration the reason behind their decision. When it comes to people making decisions, society has a tendency to frown upon whatever decisions are made. Whether one does something or doesn’t, there will always be critics. There is always an outside opinion that has little to no relevance to the situation at hand. There is always that outside source with the claim of knowing what the right choice is but, the right choice is the choice that best suits that one specific circumstance.…

    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays

Related Topics