Goal Setting Theory

6 Pages 1383 Words

Abortion


Abortion In our media-intensive culture it is not difficult to find different opinions,

thousands of newspapers and dozen of radio and television talk showes resound different

points of view. One important issue that is being wildly discussed is of a woman’s right

to determinate an unwanted pregnancy by making a choice to have an abortion. This

issue can be considered from different perspectives. They can be moral, religious or legal.

Those who oppose the abortion rights and call themselves pro-life claim the abortion as a

criminal act. They believe that it is a murder to terminate the life of the

zygote/embryo/fetus ( Currie 24). To murder means to kill a person. The embryo is not

equal to a person. It has only the potential to be one, but it does not have any of the

mental, emotional or physical features. We can not say that the baby is equal to an

embryo ( Currie 32 ). The obstetrician and gynecologist Don Sloan argues that although

an abortion destroys an embryo it is not a murder because the embryo is not a separate

human life. It is not able to live outside the woman’s body. He says: I wonder if people

realize how big a fertilized ovum is. Half an inch? A quarter inch? It is less than the

thickness of one of your hairs! That is not a “baby”. Many zygotes or embryos

spontaneously abort and over 90 % of deliberate abortions happen in the first trimester

when the embryo is less than two inches long. Yet the pro-life movement persists in

pretending that aborting a zygote or an embryo is the same as “killing a baby”. (40) Even

though it kills life, abortion is a moral choice when “would-be” mothers realize that their

present circumstances do not enable them to raise a “would-be” child responsibly (Muller


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25). In a case when the woman is not pr...