Spontaneous vs. Procured Abortion
There are many views on whether the human fetus can be considered alive and whether abortion is murder. Spontaneous and procured abortions are different: spontaneous abortion is a health incident, a miscarriage, which often leads to the fetus’s death, while procured abortion is a deliberate decision to terminate the pregnancy. While the former is a sad accident, the latter is an ethically ambiguous decision, as seen below.
Abortion Methods Depending on the Stage of Pregnancy
Various abortion methods are used in different stages of pregnancy: vacuum aspiration for early stages, which removes the fetus using a vacuum source. Dilation and extraction are used for the later stages to remove the fetal tissues from the uterus directly.
Other Abortifacients
Medicine usages, such as contraceptive pills and the “morning after” pills, can also be considered an abortion, as they potentially treat the fertilized egg. Taking the fetus’s development process, there is no moment when it becomes a human from being non-human. There are moments when a heart starts beating, and the brain develops enough to form a fundamental consciousness, but the zygote and fetus are human beings from fertilization.
Ethical views on abortion are very different: from the total refusal to full acceptance as a viable and even necessary option. The latter category justifies their views that removing the unconscious fetus is morally acceptable. However, even if unconscious, it is still a life. So, even if one does not consider abortion murder, it still eliminates possible life.
The Roe v. Wade Case and McCorvey’s Life
The Roe v. Wade case decision led to the forbidding of local state governments to ban abortions, enabling women to terminate their pregnancies when they want. However, Norma McCorvey, who initiated the case, later became a Protestant and changed her opinion to the contrary, becoming against abortions and treating the case as her big mistake.
Better Alternatives to Abortion
While abortions can be treated differently, their ethical implications are pretty significant, as there is no moment when a zygote becomes human from being non-human. Choosing to terminate the pregnancy using such a harsh method can be very hard, and adoption can be proposed as an alternative. Many people would like to have children, and they may be happy to adopt a child if they are unwanted by their parents.