Title: Discuss the arguments for and

against abortion.
Should it be legalised anyway?
Abortion is a deliberate medical intervention to end the life of an unborn
child. No issue brings out so much passion and hatred on the other side.
The arguments for and against abortion have been raging since the very
beginning of human civilisation but it remains a controversial issue today.

Abortion is a major advancement in the emancipation of women. In a

modern and democratic society, personal freedom should prevail in every
sphere of life. A woman should indeed have full right over her body. It is
her whole life, her physical and mental health that will be affected if she
decides to give birth to the baby. In fact, in all circumstances, a woman
should be allowed to decide for herself without any impediment.

Besides, if abortion remains an illegal act, back street abortion will peak
up. In Britain, before it was legalised in 1967, it is estimated that there
were around 100000 to 150000 abortions every year. Widespread injury
often led to infertility and other permanent problems. Death by
septicaemia and haemorrhage was very common. In 1966, around 40
women died in UK due to unsafe abortion. Nowadays, there are around
20 million unsafe abortion annually worldwide, causing the death of 7000
women.

Furthermore, abortion should be allowed in the case of physical

deformity or poverty. If the foetus is found to be handicapped and the
woman give birth to the child, the latter may be bound to lead a
miserable life and suffer a lot of pain till death. In the case of poverty, it
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Imperial College

will be to the welfare of the family to abort the child. Instead of giving
birth to the child and involve him in the vicious circle of poverty, it is
preferable to sacrifice him. It will help greatly in reducing the number of
children left neglected. In these circumstances, adoption seems to be
the option.

In addition, abortion appears to be a blessing in disguise in the case of

rape, incest or even teenage pregnancy. The mother may not have the
capacity to raise the child. In the case of rape, it appears that abortion
should be granted. By giving birth to the child, the woman may suffer
throughout her life. On seeing the child, she will always think about the
hectic and painful experience she had endured. She will always
remember such sufferings.

However, abortion has also an overwhelming plethora of pitfalls. Firstly,

abortion is an unfair choice. Each pregnancy concerns two bodies. It
therefore violates a childs right to life. When the foetus kicked in the
mothers womb, the woman does not say the foetus kicked, but my child
kicked. Thus, since the foetus is already considered to be a precious
human life, no one has the right to end his life.

Moreover, abortion may also mean killing of a future genius. The societal
contribution of a potentially valuable person is being wiped. The child
may be destined to do something great. In fact, the world would have
lost a lot if Nancy Edison, mother of Thomas Edison, Pauline Einstein,
mother of Albert Einstein and Nancy Lincoln, mother of Abraham Lincoln
had aborted. These famous personalities have contributed tremendously
to mankinds progress. We are still reaping the benefits of their
discoveries.

As a further matter, it is an immoral act to grant abortion if the foetus is

found to be handicapped. During an abortion, the baby suffers a lot until
its life ends. The film Silent-scream, made by doctor Nathanson shows
Eershad Guness

Imperial College

how the foetus moves helplessly to save its life. Disabled people have
full right to be treated equally. In fact, killing a handicapped baby simply
because it may be having two senses less such as blindness and
deafness is not a lesser crime and should be more severely punished.

Needless to say that abortion is often decided by young minors who lack
maturity. The fact that a minor cannot drink, smoke and do other adult
activities, why should he be given the right to make decision about life
and death. Minors that have aborted during tender age also suffer from
past traumatic disorder at a later phase of their life. Women live in a
perpetual guilt. In most cases, the mother may think that she has
committed an evil act and surveys have shown that these women suffer
from suicidal shocks. After all, its not the child who has to suffer from
errors of others. All that a baby wants is to be loved by his or her parents
and a mother is really good to give love to her baby. It is also a joyful
moment when a mother handles her first baby and cuddles him or her.

In addition, in the case of incest or rape, the child may be given away in
adoption instead of aborting. Human life remains a human life, whatever
circumstances in which it has been conceived. There are many barren
couples awaiting to adopt a child since many years and the number is
too numerous to count. Those couples have always dream to hug and
cuddle a baby when he or she is crying, play with a baby, buy toys for the
newly born, put nicknames with their child, see he or she growing, in fact
all the pleasures and happiness that only a parent has gone through.
Unfortunately, those couples can only hope for adoption to have a child.
Joan Kemp in his book feminist of life rightly stated that abortion after
rape only adds the surgical rape of abortion to her original victimisation.
Thus, although on the surface abortion might seem to suppress the
victimisation process, it actually ends up enlarging it by assaulting an
additional human being, the unborn.

Lastly, abortion is against both religious and scientific beliefs. In the holy
Bible, God stated clearly that thou shalt not kill. Legalising such an act

Eershad Guness

Imperial College

may be contradictory to religion. In itself, abortion is against the

Hippocratic Oath which states that first do not harm. It threatens the
entire medical field, if doctors start to use their own philosophies to
decide who should be harmed or not.

In the light of the above, it can be found that while having numerous
benefits, abortion also window dresses a myriad of problems. Thus, it
should be granted only in extreme cases, as with approximately 42
million abortions occurring each year, the womb has become the most
dangerous place to live. In fact, human life is to be preserved at all cost
for the value of human life is beyond that of any cost.

Eershad Guness

Imperial College