Abortion

- Premature termination of a pregnancy, that is,

termination prior to birth
- Spontaneous Abortion is the same as miscarriage
- Induced Abortion is caused by the woman herself or
by another, usually a medical doctor.
Zygote
Embryo
-

The cell or group of cells that results from the union

of the sperm and the egg cells

Amniocentesis
- Can be performed after the 16th week of pregnancy.
- Test to provide information about the conceptus
its sex and the presence or absence of certain
abnormalities can be determined.
- Needle is inserted into the amniotic sac and some
amniotic fluid is withdrawn.
General Statement of the Abortion Issue
2 Basic Principles in conflict with abortion issue:

Refers to the developing human individual from the

2nd through the 7th week of gestation.

1. Value of life Principle

- Basically in relation to unborn life, but also in
relation to the life of the mother.

Refers to the developing individual from the 8 th

week until birth.

2. Principle of Individual Freedom

- The mothers right over her own body,
procreativity, and life.

Normally used after the fetus is born.

Used by strong prolife advocates to refer to the
developing human individual from shortly after
conception.

Fetus

Child

Conceptus
- The term means that which has been conceived.
- Neutrality = The developing human individual from
conception until birth, thus avoiding the many
emotional overtones given to other terms by both
sides of the abortion issue.
Viability
- Ability of the fetus to survive outside of the
mothers womb.
- Occurs somewhere between the 26th and 28th week
of gestation when the conceptus is considered
viable.
- Birth usually occurs between the 39th and 40th
weeks of pregnancy.

Stages of development during 9 months of

Gestation
Potentiality
Refers to the stage of zygote and to nothing
previous.
Human life in potentiality exists from
conception.
3rd wk Fundamental body plan is established.
4th-5th wk Foundation of all organ system is
established and a face & primitive limb buds
begin to appear.
8th wk Brain activity
9th -10th wk Reflex & spontaneous movements
are taking place.
13th -16th wk Movement of conceptus felt by
the mother.

Arguments Against Abortion

1. The
genetic
view of the
beginning
of human
life

Prolife

Prochoice

- Human life starts at conception.

As soon as the chromosomes from
the sperm of the father and the
ovum of the mother are united,
then a human being exists that
must be valued in the same way
as if he or she were already
born.
*The persons genetic make-up is
established at conception

- Until a child is actually born, human

life does not exist, at least not to the
extent that the conceptus should have
the same rights as people who have
already been born.
- Abortion should be performed as
early as possible both because this is
safer for the woman.
- Allowed later in pregnancy,
deformities cant be determined until
4 months after conception.
- Unborn conceptus at any stage
cant be considered a full human
being, then its right to life is not
absolute; rather, it must be
subordinated to the womans right
over her own body and life, which is
absolute, just as mens rights are.

We do not act immorally or

irreverently toward human life,
especially innocent, unborn life.

2. The
sanctity of
life
argument.

Every unborn, innocent child must

be regarded as a human person
with all the rights of a human
person from the moment of
conception onward.
Innocent
- Advocates may accept
killing in self-defense,
capital punishment or war
as moral because the
lives involved are often
not innocent

Absolute rights of women over their

own bodies.
- Women, like men, should have
absolute rights over their own bodies,
including procreative rights.
- Past: accident of nature- they are
ones who get pregnant (not shared in
these equal rights) but now that birth
control is possible, they can.
- Any conceptus is a part of a
womans body until it is born;
therefore, she has absolute say over
whether it should continue to live in

More Moderate Positions

-

Some may allow in

cases of rape or incest
or when the mothers
life is in danger but not
for other reasons.
- Some may allow up to
viability but not after
- Some may allow it up
to 12th week but not
after.
- Some may allow for
psychological reasons
or in cases of fetal
deformity.
*More moderate positions
might hold & that will also
embody criticisms of the 2
extreme positions.
1. Unreasonable conflict
of absolutes.
- Neither of the extreme
positions is workable:
They aye both based
on unresolvable &
conflicting absolutes
that, in turn, are based
on questionable
premises
-

There are no absolute

rights There are
strong rights, but there

3. The
domino
argument

Argue that recent history offers

proof of the validity of domino
argument, stating that individual
killings, mass tortures, and
genocide committed by Nazis under
Adolf Hitler began with the
legalization of abortion.

4. The
dangers of
abortion to
the
mothers
life.
a. Medical
Dangers:

Conceptus not only has a

right to life, but also that
his or her right is
absolute.

The minute we display a

disregard for any form of
innocent life, born or unborn,
we will start the domino
effect, which can only end in
a complete disregard for
human life in all of its
aspects.

that body or whether it should

continue to live in that body or
whether it will be allowed to be born.
- There is no hard evidence showing
that legalizing abortion will necessary
result in a loss of reverence for human
life in any other areas.
- Hitlers motives were never
beneficent in any sense of the word
that he was out to destroy any
enemies of the Third Reich, innocent
or not.

Abortion procedures are dangerous

to the mothers well-being, life, and
future procreativity.
Dilatation and curettage (D &
C)
Womans cervix is dilated
and sharp curette is used to
scrape the entire uterine
cavity.
Usually used up to 12th week
of pregnancy.
Potential dangers:
- Perforation of the uterine
wall by sharp instrument.
- Infection
Uterine Aspiration
Suction machine is used to
aspirate the conceptus

The only dangerous

abortions are either selfinduced abortions or those
performed by unqualified
personnel in unsanitary
conditions at the time when
abortions were not legal.
Many women lost their lives
from these procedures than
have since abortions have
been legalized in some parts
of the world.
As long as abortions are
performed by qualified
medical personnel in

are no rights that

supersede all other
human rights.

a. No absolute right to
life.
-

Value of life principle is

important, but it is not
the only value there is
that is why there are
other principles.

Many people have

sacrificed their lives for
ideals that the other
principles embody:
goodness, justice,
freedom and honesty.

It is also true that the

Value of life Principle is
involves other aspects
besides the mere
existence even the
right to existence of
innocent, unborn life.

One of these aspects

of the life principle is
the survival and
integrity of the human
species.
1. Problem of
overpopulation and
the burden placed
on society when
children are born

b. Psychologic
al dangers:

and related material.

Used prior to 12th week of
pregnancy.
An improvement on the D&C
in that it does not require
sharp curette use, but still
with possibilities of infection.

Hysterectomy
Used after 12th week of
pregnancy.
A miniature caesarean
section can be performed.
Greater danger involved in
major surgery, and once
caesarean operation has
been performed, any babies
she may have in the future
may also be delivered by
caesarean section.
Saline Abortion
Usually performed later in
pregnancy( after 12th )
Some amniotic fluid is drawn
off and replaced by a
glucose, saline, or
prostaglandin solution.
In about 24 hrs, woman goes
into labor and delivers a
dead fetus.
Self-induced Abortion
Most dangerous because
they are not done under
proper medical supervision.
Complications: Infection and
hemorrhage.
Psychologically destructive to a
woman to authorize the killing of
her baby

qualified medical settings,

the risk for all of the
procedures, according to the
prochoice, is minimal

- Some women who decide to have an

abortion may, of course, feel guilt, but
many do not experience any such
feelings because they do not consider
the conceptus as human being in any

with deformities.
2. Right of families to
procreate and
reproduce their
own kind without
hindrance ( in
conflict with 1st
aspect in cases
where families
exhibit a high risk
of passing on
genetic
deficiencies which
may cause burdens
on society as a
whole.)
3. Integrity of bodily
life, which involves
the protection of
human beings from
life threatening
situations such as
war, capital
punishment,
poverty, mercy
death and mercy
killing, suicide, and
abortion
4. Freedom to live life
the way we want to
an aspect that
affects both the
pregnant woman
and the conceptus.
(Value of life Principle
involves a great deal more
than just the right to life of
the unborn, and that is why
we cannot say that anyone
has an absolute right to life)

She has to live with a great deal of

guilt.

respect.
- If guilt feelings do exist, they can
overcome it by either themselves or
by counseling.
- Guilt feelings will be temporary, &
that they are nothing compared to the
psychological damage of going
through 9 months of pregnancy &
then bearing an unwanted and/or
deformed child.

5. Relative
safety of
pregnancy

- Dangers have been virtually

eradicated by advances in
medicine.
There is in fact no commandment
to save the mother at all cost.
There is only obligation to save her
in a morally permissible way
consequently only one obligation
remains:
To save the mother without
attempting to kill the child.
(Fr. Josef Fuch)
-If the mother cant be saved, then
her life will have to be sacrificed to
allow her child to be born, an action
not morally acceptable to many if
not most people.

Danger of pregnancy to the mothers

life
- Pregnancy does pose
dangers to the health and
life of women.
- If human lives have to be
traded off, the life of
someone already born, in
this case the pregnant
woman, should be obviously
take precedence over the
life of an unborn conceptus.
- Abortion is a permissible
way to save a womans life
when it is threatened by a
complicated pregnancy.

6. Existence
of viable
alternative
s to
abortion

- There are childless couples that

would love to adopt a child and
raise it as their own.
- Reputable agencies that can place
children unwanted by their parents
in homes where they will be cared
for and loved.
- Govt institutions in which
unwanted or deformed children can
be placed and cared for by trained
personnel.
(Being unwanted or handicapped

Adoption as poor solution

1. Even if woman agrees to put her
child up for adoption after it is
born, she still has to go through 9
months of pregnancy, which will
hamper her freedom and life a
great deal.
2. It is much more difficult, both
physically & psychologically, to go
through pregnancy & give a child
up for adoption than it is to have
a conceptus aborted before it is

b. No absolute rights over

ones body
- The rights of individual
people over their
bodies is strong but we
dont allow people
ridden with plague or
other contagious
diseases to refuse
treatment or
quarantine, because if
we do, they would
harm or even cause
the death of others.
( No one has the right
to interfere with this
decisions as long as
severe harm is not
being done to anyone
else)
- Problem on pregnant
woman is that her
body and life now
contain another body
and life in some stages
of development.
- Argument on individual
rights over ones body
does not hold in an
absolute sense, bec.
Now what affects this
womans body and life
will also affect the
body and life of
another potential
human being. (involves
her life and the life of
conceptus, the woman
should observe the
value of life principle)
- The pregnant woman
does not have absolute

cant be a moral justification for

murdering it)

born.
3. Adoptive children don always
have as pleasant an existence as
prolifers like to think. (Adopted
children often feel rejected when
they discover that their natural
mothers gave them up. Often
they go in search of their natural
parents regardless of the love and
quality of their adoptive parents &
homes. Also some children end up
moving from foster home to foster
home, enduring a poor quality of
life)

Lack of humane institutions

- Life these days is difficult
enough
- for children who are wanted
or normal, & they question
why women would want to
give birth to children who
are not wanted or who will
be handicapped, especially
those with serious
handicaps.
- Quality of institutional or
even private care available
for deformed children is
below minimum &
sometimes inhumane;
therefore, bringing children
into such situations is much
worse than terminating their
lives before they are born.
7. Irrelevance
of
economic
considerati

- Pregnant woman should accept

the financial responsibility, along
with the conceptus father, for the
birth and raising of their child.

Problem on unwanted or deformed

children
- Possibility to ensure that every child
born into the world is thoroughly

rights over her body,

but neither does the
conceptus have an
absolute right to life.
Problem of when life begins
a synthesis.
- Strong prolife view of
when human life
begins draws the line
too early, even though
this provides for the
safest and the most
consistent means of
protecting human life
from its earliest stages
onward. Its difficult to
accept the idea that a
group of cells
regardless of their
potentiality can be
considered human
being with full
personhood and the
rights accorded to
human beings who are
already born.
- On other hand, waiting
until birth to assign
value to developing
human life seems
wrong because it
disregards the
significance of the
increasing potentiality
toward actual human
life that occurs
throughout the entire
gestation period.
- Ex: What essentially is
the difference between
a fetus in the 38th week

ons

Agencies: society-welfare,
medicare, & private charitable
organizations can give financial
assistance to pregnant woman
whether married or not.
- Families that are
financially overburdened
should be judicious about
having more children, but
if the woman does
becomes pregnant, she
cannot use financial
problems as a reason to
take the life of an unborn
child.

wanted.
- People can limit the size of their
families; they can better control the
quality of their lives and the lives of
their children.
Present Condition: Overpopulation,
pollution problems, economic
difficulties
- Only children who are wanted
should be born and abortion makes
this possible. If a woman becomes
pregnant, she must bear the
responsibility of her pregnancy and
should not pass this burden on to
society.

8. Responsibi
lity for
sexual
activities

- Whenever women engage in

sexual acts with men, whether
contraceptives are used or not,
they must realize that pregnancy
may ensue.
- They must accept the
responsibility for their actions,
whether or not the men shoulder
the responsibility with them and
they cannot sacrifice an innocent
human life because of their
carelessness or indiscretion or
because of the failure of a
contraceptive device.

- Agree with prolife that women must

accept responsibility for their sexual
activities, but this responsibility
definitely includes the right to
terminate a pregnancy.
- Woman does not deserve
punishment any more than does the
man who is also responsible for the
pregnancy; in no way should a woman
be abused or discriminated against for
exercising her free choice in dealing
with her problem.

9. Rape and
incest

- If rapes are reported on time,

contraceptive procedures can be
used effectively.
- They should put them for adoption
or place them in government-run
agencies.
Innocent, unborn conceptus should
not have to pay with their lives for
the sins or crimes of others.

- 2 of the most serious crimes

committed against a woman and that
under no circumstances should she be
forced to endure an unwanted
pregnancy resulting from either of
these actions.

Abortion as the womans choice:

and one that is newly

born? Is this difference
significant enough to
allow one fetus to be
valued as human,
whereas the other is
not?
Takes Daniel Callahan the
developmental view of when
human life begins that
although conception does
establish the genetic basis
for an individual human
being, some degree of
development is required
before one can legitimately
speak of the conceptus as an
individual human being
- Human individual
develops biologically in
a continuous fashion, it
might be worthwhile to
consider the possibility
that human rights
develop in the same
way.
- The simplest and most
satisfactory position on
abortion is to avoid
ascribing any legal or
theological status to
the embryo during the
1st 2 weeks of
development. Beyond
this time, the embryo
becomes increasingly
importand and at
viability the fetus
should have almost the
same rights as a
newborn child.

References:
Padilla, Reynaldo A. (2006). Medical Ethics Revised Edition.
Manila: Rex Book Store

Abortion is purely a medical

problem and, therefore,
women should be legally
free to make a private
decision about their bodies
and their lives that should
not be intruded upon by
others.
No one else has to go
through the childbirth; & no
one else has to devote 18
years or more to raising the
child; therefore, the final
decision to abort or to go
through with pregnancy
must be the womans and
hers alone, with no
interference from anyone
else or any part of society.
Prepared and Reported by:
Russel T. Maris
Medicine 3

Submitted to:
Dr. Irwina Madrid Lazo
Tutor, Bioethics