Ethical Debate
Ethics refers to "moral philosophy", or the study of values and the analysis of right and wrong. The ethical debate over abortion usually surrounds the issues of whether a fetus has rights, in particular a right to life, and whether the pregnant woman's rights over her own body justify abortion even if the fetus has a right to life. For many, there is a strong association between religion and abortion ethics.
Ethical question regarding abortion usually include:
- Are embryos, zygotes and fetuses "persons" worthy of legal protections?
- Should the potential to be a person give embryos, zygotes and fetuses a right to life?
- Does a fetus gain rights as it gets closer to birth?
- Does a woman have an absolute right to determine what happens in and to her body?
- Is abortion acceptable in cases of rape, incest, or contraception failure?
- Is abortion acceptable in cases where the fetus is deformed?
- Is abortion acceptable in cases where if the pregnancy were to continue, it would pose a direct threat to the life of the mother?
Read more about this topic: Abortion Debate
Famous quotes containing the words ethical and/or debate:
“The repudiation of the primacy of understanding means the repudiation of the norms of judgment as well, and hence the abandonment of all ethical standards.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)
“Abject flattery and indiscriminate assentation degrade, as much as indiscriminate contradiction and noisy debate disgust. But a modest assertion of one’s own opinion, and a complaisant acquiescence in other people’s, preserve dignity.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)