Discussion Board #4 The Question of Abortion due April 8 The Right to Life( PRO LIFE) vs The Principle of Individual Freedom(PRO CHOICE) characterize the abortion debate in your reading this week.These two opposing points of view will be carried over into the remaining Bioethical Issues we will consider for the rest of the semester. How would you characterize (explain) the main differences between these two different points of view. Under present law Roe vs Wade decision , a human being is not considered a “PERSON” until after it is born, given our genetic scientific knowledge today, does this make sense? 

The Dignity of Human Life/

ABORTION

Unit

 Objectives

This week you will have 2 assignments due on Thursday June 11, 2020

Discussion Board#4 covering the Abortion material due at 11pm

Quiz#3 covering the Bioethics material from May 28 class 

Demonstrate knowledge of:     The Topic of Abortion

Principle of Individual Freedom vs Value of Life Principle

· Language of Stages in Fetal Development

· The Legal Question of a “PERSON”

·
What is Abortion (2 types)

· An abortion is the premature termination of a pregnancy that is, a termination prior to birth.

* Spontaneous Abortion is the same as miscarriage, it is natural caused by the woman’s body.

 *Induced Abortion is caused by the woman herself or by another, usually a medical doctor.

*Roe vs Wade Supreme Court Decision 1973

Roe v. Wade (1973) ruled unconstitutional a state law that banned abortions except to save the life of the mother. The Court ruled that the states were forbidden from outlawing or regulating any aspect of abortion performed during the first trimester of pregnancy, could only enact abortion regulations reasonably related to maternal health in the second and third trimesters, and could enact abortion laws protecting the life of the fetus only in the third trimester. Even then, an exception had to be made to protect the life of the mother. Controversial from the moment it was released, Roe v. Wade politically divided the nation more than any other recent case and continues to inspire heated debates, politics, and even violence today (“the culture wars”). Though by no means the Supreme Court’s most important decision, Roe v. Wade remains its most recognized and hotly contested decision.

*Principle of Individual Freedom (Secular Humanism) PRO CHOICE 

                                                                                                  THIS PRINCIPLE SAYS THAT WOMEN HAVE ABSOLUTE RIGHTS OVER THEIR BODIES, INCLUDING PREGNANCY. NO WOMAN SHOULD BE FORCED TO GO THROUGH PREGNANCY AGAINST THEIR WILL

 * Value of Life Principle (Judeo-Christian tradition)    PRO LIFE                                                                                                                 EVERY UNBORN CHILD,MUST BE REGARDED AS A HUMAN BEING WITH RIGHTS OF PROTECTION FROM CONCEPTION FOR HUMANITY  IS BESTOWED AT CONCEPTION. The baby’s life is also of value. The right of the child to live once conceived is always a value.

·  

*Language of Stages in Fetal Development

   a.Zygote A CELL OR GROUP OF CELLS THAT RESULT FROM THE UNION OF SPERM AND EGG CELLS

   b.Embryo REFERS TO THE DEVELOPING HUMAN INDIVIDUAL FROM THE SECOND THROUGH THE SEVENTH OF DEVELOPMENT

   c.Fetus REFERS TO THE DEVELOPING HUMAN INDIVIDUAL FROM EIGTH WEEK UNTIL BIRTH

   d.Child THE TERM CHILD IS USUALLY USED AFTER THE FETUS IS BORN

*The Legal Question of becoming a “PERSON”

· Under the present definition the law says, a “legal person” has been born alive when the fetus has exited the woman’s body and shows signs of life. The law specifically mentions breathing as one of the signs. But the law also mentions other evidence of life, such as a beating heart. It is only until after physical separation at birth that the child is considered a “legal person” with a right to protection from harm. This is also the Secular Humanism View/ Human at Birth/Separation from Mother

*Fertilization the union of the sperm and egg

*Conception Penetration of an 

OVUM

 by a 

SPERMATOZOON

, with the initiation of a new individual and the state of pregnancy.The formation of a 

ZYGOTE

. This is the Judeo-Christian Tradition View /Human Life is bestowed at Conception

*The Genetic View/based on DNA according to this scientific view human life starts at conception, as soon as the 23chromosomes of the father are united with the 23 chromosomes of the mother thus creating a new human being. A person’s genetic code is established at conception and once established ,it programs the development of a new individual . Therefore under this view a human being from the point of conception onward with a unique DNA and must be valued as human life. This view supports the Judeo-Christian teaching.

*The Question of Viability    Viability occurs somewhere between the 26th and 28th weeks of gestation. This is when the child is considered able to survive outside the mother’s whom if born prematurely. It’s critical bodily systems would be developed enough to support the life. Birth usually occurs between the 39th and 40th weeks of pregnancy.

Direct and Indirect Abortion                                                                                                                                        In a Direct Abortion the object is always to kill the child                                                                   

In a Indirect Abortion the object is not to kill the child but to save the life of the mother and child in cases of threatening serious illness such as leukemia or cancers. The treatment used to hopefully heal the medical condition may have side effects on the developing child.

· Partial Birth Abortion

· Partial Birth Abortion is a procedure that eliminates the unborn child at any time during a womans pregnancy.It can be done at 7,8 or 9       months into the pregnancy even while the child is being born.The procedure is done by partially removing the baby up to the head.In other words it’s feet,torso and arms are removed from the mother.The abortionist then takes an instrument which is a tube that has a knife along side of it and shoves it into the back of the baby’s head where the neck begins.It sucks out it’s brains thus killing it and collapsing it’s skull to more easily remove it from the mother. 

· NOTE: Recent state law in New York now allows for the termination of the babies’s life after birth depending upon the decision of the mother and physician. Baby is to be kept comfortable until termination and allowed to die without medical intervention.

*Pro-Life vs Pro-Choice Position

Pro-Life Position is based on the dignity of every human life to live. The dignity of every human life is sacred created by God. Natural birth to natural death is their view.

· Pro-Choice Position is based on the legal right of mother to choose to carry child, that is the ultimate right to be protected. Women should be able to abort. People in general should be able to determine when and how they want to die. The right of the individual is the only consideration according to this view

·  

Assignment Summary

Readings on Abortion:

· Medical Ethics by O”Rourke  Chapter 4 Abortion pg. 35-44

· Bioethics by Shannon  Chapter 5 Abortion pg.67-84                                                                  

· Watch 5 Videos:

Catholic Dictionary

Term

ABORTION

Definition

In Catholic morality, abortion is either direct (induced) or indirect. Direct abortion is any destruction of the product of human conception, whether before or after implantation in the womb. A direct abortion is one that is intended either as an end in itself or as a means to an end. As a willful attack on unborn human life, no matter what the motive, direct abortion is always a grave objective evil.

Indirect abortion is the foreseen but merely permitted evacuation of a fetus which cannot survive outside the womb. The evacuation is not the intended or directly willed result, but the side effect, of some legitimate procedure. As such it is morally allowable.

The essential sinfulness of direct abortion consists in the homicidal intent to kill innocent life. This factor places the controverted question as to precisely when human life begins, outside the ambit of the moral issue; as it also makes the now commonly held Catholic position that human life begins at conception equally outside the heart of the church’s teaching about the grave sinfulness of direct abortion.

Abortion has been condemned by the Church since apostolic times. The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, composed before A.D. 100, told the faithful “You shall not procure abortion. You shall not destroy a newborn child” (II, 2). Direct abortion and infanticide were from the beginning placed on the same level of malice.

Hundreds of ecclesiastical documents from the first century through to the present testify to the same moral doctrine, with such nuances as time, place, and circumstances indicated. The Second Vatican Council declared: “Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception,” so that “abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes” (Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, IV, 51). Pope Paul VI confirmed this teaching in 1974. “Respect for human life,” he wrote, “is called for from the time that the process of generation begins. From the time that the ovum is fertilized, a life is begun which is neither that of the father nor of the mother. It is rather the life of a new human being with its own growth. It would never be made human if it were not human already.” Consequently, “divine law and natural reason exclude all right to the direct killing of an innocent human being” (Declaration on Procured Abortion, III, 12). (Etym. Latin abortivus, born prematurely, abortive; from aboriri, to miscarry.)