Should a child be born into a world that does not want it? Can individuals be forced to care and love a child they did not want? The moral dimensions of abortion should be looked through this prism.
Most often pro-life movement activists over simplify the issue of abortion and equate it with murder. They say killing is wrong, and as abortion is termination of the foetus, it is wrong too. Which makes sense on some level I guess, but they fail to see the reason behind people going in for the procedure.
Most people agree that abortion should be granted on medical grounds (if the pregnancy affects the health of the expecting mother) and rape. Therefore I will move on to the more controversial reasons.
“Unwanted pregnancies” is by far the most hated and controversial term. A pregnancy is deemed as unwanted when the child’s health, physical or mental development is going to be abnormal or if it is a case of an accidental pregnancy. We can say that differently enabled people have the same right to life as us and selectively aborting foetuses for this reason is wrong. I agree whole heartily, but if the family does not want the child because they are ill equipped to fulfil their responsibilities, then it becomes morally wrong to deny the family an abortion. Accidental pregnancy is a different, it is an unplanned pregnancy. Abortions should be given in this case too as the person is not in a position to take care of the child. If it arises from outside marriage the child along with its mother will bear a social stigma for life. It may destroy the future of the mother and the child. When the child achieves a higher level of consciousness it will be put through an immeasurable amount of pain which can never, under any circumstance, lead to any good.
Some statistics:
The lowest abortion rate in the world is in Western Europe (12 per 1,000 women aged 15–44), 17 in Northern Europe and 21 in Northern America (Canada and the United States of America). The country with the lowest abortion rates is Belgium and the Netherlands with 7. Eastern Europe had the highest abortion rate 90, Asia is also has high abortion rates and other developing nations in general.
The places with the lowest abortion rates also have the most liberal laws when it comes to abortion. These countries also have better health care, sex education and rank among the highest in the human development index. Many countries in Eastern Europe are experiencing a decline in abortions after the relaxation of abortion laws, availability of better contraception and improvements in the education system. India and certain other countries like china have sex selective abortions which is a different issue that will take the devotion of another article so we will not be looking into that aspect.
The importance of a good environment to bring up our children cannot be overstated. The right environment determines the personality of the child. A bad environment will have negative effects on the development of the child. Can a person who does not want a child be capable of providing a good environment? Is it right to force a child on a person who does not want a child? Is it fair on the child?
Conceiving a child because of carelessness and miss judgement is one thing, but what happens when contraception fails? Where does the fault lye? It is a legitimate reason that is often over looked. Anti-abortionists say that people who are not ready to bear a child should not be having sex. The problem is we often forget or choose to deliberately overlook the fact that sex is as much for pleasure than recreation alone. We can never stop people from having sex for the purpose of pleasure. It is a natural instinct that we cannot get rid of. To bring about lower abortion rates we must tackle the root of the problem. We must bring in a more efficient education system, ensure the availability of contraceptives and bring about socio-economic development.
A lot of women who are unable to get abortions go in for crude methods of abortion like drinking turpentine, consulting various quacks, etc that only leads to the degradation of the woman’s health. What happens to the rights of women - Their right to life, health, dignity? Banning abortions does not in any way lower the abortion rates in anyways. A ban on abortions is not the solution to ensure lower abortion rates. Banning abortions is like putting on a blind fold and standing on the railways tracks in the way of an incoming train, with the illusion that, “if we can’t see it, it isn’t there!”
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6 comments:
The act of abortion to most people is morally wrong, for you are depriving the right of the fetus to see whats beyond his/her future. At all angle you see its an act of murder.
Abortion rates is high on the minor ages due to curiosity and probably their growth were not give proper attention by their parents or due to bad influence of the so-called friends and some other reasons.
Indeed, there are some cases that the pregnancy is unwanted such as the woman was raped, will you rather kill the life inside you so that your family or yourself will be not be ruin in public? Some reason would be the woman is not biologically fit to bear a child that may kill herself if she pursue her pregnancy.
Though, the fact that there are some countries that allows abortion due to their policy on family planning and birth control still abortion morally wrong. The point is, why having irresponsible sex without thinking the consequences.
" There is one girl, who have intentionally took pills to kill the baby inside her womb, she had too much bleeding and most of the hospital did not accept her despite of her pale condition due to blood lost. But there is one private hospital that took her in with high rate of charge, after they removed the fetus from her womb, the doctor gave the dead fetus to the girl. That was the boy you killed. That woman beside your bed, she have 5 miscariages already and despite of her willingness to bear a child, yet, here you are killing your own flesh."
but don't u think that the child deserves a good environment? how can people who don't want the child raise it properly?
with regards to rape, i think its much deeper than "public ruin". why should she be forced to take care of a child she never wanted?
Agree with you Sid. A good article after a LONG time. Continue writing on debatable topics.
Abortions are a matter of choice and if you exercise restrain on the freedom of that choice, the well being of the child is under peril.
As a matter of fact, everyone have their own degree of freedom. How if that child inside the womb is you, would you rather be aborted? Rather to live to an environment where you can make changes as you grow with your own hands. Choices are made as a matter of gamble either risky or the otherwise.
I have seen a scenario where girl have given birth to the child whom she did not like to give birth and she even tried to kill herself, somehow her parents did convince her to let the child see the world and decide for his own life in the future despite of the pain that was caused to her. After the baby was borne, the girl's parent adopted the baby as their own child. This baby boy is 5 years old already, very talented and every time I meet him in the morning, he smiles and greets "good morning auntie, how are you". In the back of my head, was this the same baby inside the girl's womb that cause so much misery for the girl?
In my point of view, choices are not freedom it is a privilege.
@ adi, thanks man :)
@ Holyen, if i was a child and i had to decide between being aborted and growing up in a horrible environment, i would choose abortion. regarding the case of that girl and her young son, it could have gone both ways.... i still feel the women should be given a choice.
This is an interesting article, if, a one-sided one. It depends on whose side each individual decides to take-the foetus or the "world that does not want it". The sensible people I've red suggest that it is difficult enforce a ban though.
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