11/20/12 CJ 101
Research mconstitutional right to privacy granted a women's decision to whether or not to terminate her pregnancy. This decision was a major step for women's rights. Resulting in the controversial decision a women will no longer have to be forced into being a single mother, a housewife, or being forced to have a baby while being in poverty. Women now had a choice. That case alone should be enough to silence those pro-lifers who believe that this should be overturned and stating that it is immorally wrong to have an abortion. Abortion can also be argued to be seen as criminal because the unborn child is not able to defend itself at all. As explained by author Caitlin E. Borgmann in The meaning of "life": belief and reason in the abortion debate A person is allowed to defend herself against an unlawful force, but her own force must be proportional to the force used against her. Thus,a person can only use lethal force when it is necessary to defend against an unlawful, lethal force. This means that a non-life-saving abortion is unlawful lethal force if the embryo or fetus is a person but due to scientific fact a fetus is not a person, enforcing the idea that abortion does not fit within traditional legal definitions of self defense Another prime example to illustrate the mortality and accused criminal act of abortion is in the article "Abortion Is Immoral" written by Jeff Jones it illustrates the shared viewpoints of both Jeff Jones and philosophy professor Don Marquis. Don Marquis idea explains the belief that abortion is mortally unjustifiable due to the fact that the fetus, like living human beings partake in a equal valuable future. Jeff Jones states the positives of both pro lifers and pro choicers views in establishing their reasons on why abortion is either an immoral or moral practice. Pro lifers believe that a human beings life begins at conception which can be established scientifically by looking at the number of chromosomes in a fertilized egg giving them the idea that the termination of a pregnancy at any stage, is equivalent to murder. On the order hand, those who are pro choice believe in the concept that the fetus does not have the proper psychological properties ( ex. Reason, consciousness, self awareness) of personhood of that of a human being. Justifying that most abortions are not wrongful killings. Leaving both sides of this issue at a standstill both believing their idea of abortion is accurately precise. Jones also introduces the idea of Don Marquis belief that one should not base the morality of abortion on the concepts of the pro lifers and pro choicers but on the ethics of killing itself which according to Marquis, killing deprives the victim of life. Marquis further explains the primary reason for the wrongness of killing is that the fetus like you and me have identical futures and abortion is just as immoral of killing a person that is living. Concluding that abortion is not based on "being human" that makes the moral difference but the belief that fetuses have a "future like ours" that should be cared for and valued to be able to experience the enjoyments of life. Women have gone through great strides in America's history to achieve various entitled rights in our society, among these rights was the ability to have control of their body. Taking this into consideration many people believe that the termination of a pregnancy is done within a women's right, therefore making the procedure completing morally acceptable. How can one be considered a murder as implied by pro life activist, if the "baby" is still not alive or none the less a human but instead is a fetus, embryo, or zygote which are merely stages of development. The so called killing of the unborn is said to go against natural rights but an embryo has no rights. Rights do not pertain to a potential of being born, only to