The ethics of reproduction

Ethics of Reproduction

Of the six million women who become pregnant in the United States each year, half of the pregnancies are unintended. Each year, about 1.3 million American women end the pregnancy with abortion. What would the consequences be if these women were allowed abortion only in the case where the pregnancy was a threat to their lives?

The unintended pregnancies in married women can result from lack of precaution. If these women are not allowed to resort to abortion, the result may be only economic -- being saddled with costs of a baby. However in the case of a rape, a woman is subjected to the trauma of rape and a pregnancy that she has not even thought about. In that case if she were to be forced to deliver the baby, it is imposing the trauma on her all her life, and this is patently unjust. In the case of rape with a minor, the 'mother' is still a child and not up to the task of being a parent and secondly economic and other burdens is likely to be cast on her.

Dionne (2009) argues that in the case of teenage pregnancy, moral and social institutional control has to be initiated with abstinence and contraception devices and education has to be provided to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Still the issue of unwanted pregnancies in teens cannot be ignored and they are a social problem for which abortion could be the solution. As long as the society cannot ensure that there will be no rape and teen age pregnancies, prohibiting abortion for these victims will lead to hardships for a lot of people. Therefore such a move is unwise. It is also a flaw that people will be forced to make huge sacrifices for what they did not cause or desire in the first place. (Munson; Munson, 2000)

Q2. Do people have the right to do anything they want with their bodies?

Theoretically a person must be able to do anything they want or can with their bodies, but by a fiction of law the state can prohibit that freedom and that is why in most cases suicide is punishable. Individuals in the state are obliged to look after their lives and the state is obliged to preserve their life from other dangers. However while there is a claim that there is a right to life, therefore the individual must do things necessary to do whatever is possible to maintain life -- including forcing the individual to keep his life. That argument is pertaining to an individual and his or her life. (Beauchamp; Walters, 2003)

The duty of maintaining another life is cast on a person only if there evolves an obligation that is contracted wherein the person is obliged to do so. A woman who willingly becomes pregnant as in the case of a married woman may be thought of as a person who has voluntarily contracted an obligation with her spouse to see through the birth and preserve the fetus. What happens when the woman was raped? The actions of another individual by force would not create consent for the pregnancy and hence the obligation to preserve life cannot be read into it. (Beauchamp; Walters, 2003)

If destroying the fetus is found to be right in saving the mother's life, it is also assumed that the mothers life somehow is paramount than that of the child in the womb. There cannot be exceptions for situations for one set of events merely because the people or religious percepts believe it to be right.

Q3. Some people argue that a fetus is a human being because it has the unique DNA of a human being. Does this mean that no one knew what a human being actually was until DNA was discovered?

The cat is a cat because the DNA of a cat created it. A cat for example cannot become anything else. DNA is not unique to humans, and it appears to be the molecular building block of all creatures of the animal kind. DNA may be an explanation for the reason why many people look, live or exhibit certain characteristics, but it cannot be the absolute definition of the individual by itself. The cat's qualities that are exhibited by all cats may be resulting from the DNA -- but we define cats based on not the DNA chain but its general features which we are aware of. While DNA analysis may tell us why Cleopatra's nose was long, it cannot define Cleopatra. (Gentry; Durand, 2008)