Medical Ethics
You must be able to describe and explain the ethical issues in:
This includes a knowledge of the issues surrounding:
Here abortion will be covered as an outline for the whole section of Medical Ethics.
Abortion
Abortion is a controversial issue which has been well versed throughout the ages. It basically rests on two fundamental questions, which when answered differently present us with alternate ‘solutions’ to an age old moral dilemma.
These two questions are “when does life begin?” and “is it wrong to end a life?” They both rest heavily on the definition of a human life.
If one concludes that it is not wrong to end a human life then abortion, in the same way as murder would not be wrong regardless of when life begins. This of course is a very rarely held view. Instead, it is generally accepted that life is sacred or important to preserve in someway, whether that view be supported by Natural Law, Utilitarianism or Kant’s Categorical Imperative.
In this case therefore, the question of whether abortion is wrong depends on the interpretation of when life begins. Once this is established, the morality of abortion can be answered.
However, life is complicated and according to the majority of people the morality of an act is never absolute but often depends on the situation at hand and its conflicting ethical concerns. This is the main area of ambiguity in the discussion of abortion for most people.