An abortion is a common medical practice. It is safe when carried out by professionals with the required training and utilizing techniques suggested by the WHO based on the pregnancy stage. The moral, legal, medical, and religious implications of induced abortion are all topics of discussion in the long-running abortion controversy. The argument has been especially divisive in English-speaking nations, with proponents of the self-declared pro-choice and pro-life groups. Pro-choice activists argue that individuals should be allowed to make their own decisions regarding their reproductive health and should be allowed to end a pregnancy if they so desire, taking into account a range of criteria such as the mother’s health, the condition of the pregnancy, and the stage of fetal development. Contrarily, pro-lifers contend that abortion is ethically wrong in most or all situations and that fetuses are human beings with unalienable rights that the mother’s decisions or circumstances cannot violate. In the media, where phrases like “abortion rights” or “anti-abortion” are typically favored, both concepts are seen as widespread. The main purpose of this essay is to analyze Sherwin’s arguments and perspective on abortion.
One of the numerous distinctions between abortion discussions held by feminists and nonfeminists is that the majority of nonfeminist debates see the morality or legality of abortion as a stand-alone topic. It treats it like that and downplays its importance to other social customs. Those who mistreat females. They frequently fail to consider the needs, interests, and intuitions of many women engaged and are instead founded on masculinist conceptions of freedom. Feminists, on the other hand, try to ground their arguments in moral theories that further their overarching goal of eliminating injustice in all of its forms, including those that are inherent in moral theory itself. There is even disagreement about how to interpret the moral question at hand: feminists argue that other issues, such as accessibility and the provision of abortion services, should also be addressed, while nonfeminist arguments concentrate only on the morality and legality of carrying out abortions.
Sherwin contends and suggests that women ought to have the freedom to choose whether or not to undergo an abortion. The right to self-reproduction is crucial to women’s health. This is because women are often expected to bear the majority of the burden of raising children, and reproduction occurs within the female body. Poverty and belief systems that diminish this autonomy are the main variables affecting their autonomy. Regretfully, most civilizations do not value autonomy like this, which is typically incompatible with their worldviews. At the same time, feminists applaud nonfeminist support for laws that provide women the right to choose whether or not to have an abortion, nonfeminist supporters typically have no understanding of what these laws are intended to accomplish. They have a different kind of policy in mind (Sherwin p.328). Feminists acknowledge that women have abortions for a variety of reasons, contrary to the perception held by anti-abortion campaigners that women frequently make careless and frivolous decisions regarding abortion.
For instance, some pregnant women have severe illness that renders them unable. You might be unable to work any more and find it very tough to handle your household duties (Sherwin p.328). For whatever reason, the majority of feminists think that expecting mothers are most qualified to choose whether or not an abortion is the right course of action in their particular circumstances. Since women are typically the only ones who can evaluate all the factors involved in deciding whether abortion is ethically permissible, most feminists oppose attempts to establish abstract general guidelines (Sherwin p.329). For whatever reason, the majority of feminists think that expecting mothers are most qualified to choose whether or not an abortion is the right course of action in their particular circumstances. Since women are typically the only ones who can consider all the necessary elements and make decisions on abortion, most feminists reject attempts to establish abstract universal standards for deciding whether abortion is ethically permissible (Sherwin p.329).
All people’s right to autonomy and self-determination over their bodies, including children’s, is encapsulated in bodily integrity. Because the notion of rights forms the basis of much of the discussion around the ethics of abortion, thoughts of rights will inevitably arise (Sherwin p.331). Pregnancy is morally relevant from a feminist standpoint since it takes place within a woman’s body and has a profound effect on her life. No information is available on gender-independent pregnancies (Sherwin p.331). Fetal development is viewed from a feminist viewpoint as occurring within the context of the woman’s body, as opposed to the imagined isolation many theories imply. In certain pregnancies within a particular woman’s lifetime, fetuses grow. They are not people in a typical woman’s womb; they are not fully human beings in danger just because they are little and vulnerable to a woman’s whims (Sherwin, p.334).
The claim that abortion is “murder” and that murdering an innocent fetus is the most horrible act a woman can conduct is one of the most often used arguments against a woman’s right to choose. It is believed that the foundation of this method of thinking is a profound regard for human life. However, the roots of this idea are not as humanistic as those who hold it now. Arguments against abortion define the fetus as a distinct human being. We must value and protect individuality in our (abstract) human society. Extraordinary assertions have been made to prove the fetus’s identity and moral agency (Sherwin p.333). Physicians and pro-life campaigners hold the view that the fetus is a physically, ontologically, and socially unique human being, existing independently of the woman who gives birth to it and with its interests. It is encouraging the idea’s societal acceptability.
Pregnant women are compelled for the benefit of the unborn child in this situation because they are either entirely disregarded or seen as flawed in some way(Sherwin p.334). The majority of feminists are aware that many males support women’s abortion rights because they think that if women feel like they can quickly end undesired pregnancies, then they will be more open to having sexual relations (Sherwin p.338). Because the woman might not desire an abortion, some males coerce their spouses into getting one. Feminists are aware that many women reject abortion precisely because of this, and they do not wish to condone actions that make women more vulnerable to sexual assault (Sherwin, p.338).
Unplanned pregnancies and abortions can give rise to several moral and ethical dilemmas. Is it ethically acceptable to end a pregnancy before a natural delivery? Is the question at the centre of the abortion controversy? Some people think abortion is never morally right. It is morally required that public health initiatives be implemented to end the worldwide issue of unsafe abortion. The scope of the issue, the social inequities and health inequalities brought about by the lack of access to safe abortion, the voices of women demanding change, and the threat that abortion represents to world health all serve as catalysts for moral imperatives. Depending on whether the international agreement is acknowledged. I support the author’s argument since the right to family planning, the right to life, and the right to an abortion are intimately linked. In this sense, the abortion debate is a complicated moral and ethical matter involving several basic ethical questions, such as how women feel about abortion, how families, society, the state, and the church feel about it, and how much national policy influences people’s decisions.
Sherwin, Susan. “Abortion through a feminist ethics lens.” Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review/Revue Canadienne De Philosophie 30.3 (1991): 327-342.