The Debate on Abortion, Essay Example

Who has the right to use someone else’s body by force? Relatively, this question was the basis of Dr. Boonin’s argument in the debate on Abortion from which he took the affirmative stand. The illustration that Dr. Boonin used in relation to the idea of getting a bone marrow from another person for transplant is rather off-path as pregnancy involves a mother and a helpless fetus who for so many reasons had no capacity to decide for itself nor has it any capacity to force a woman to provide the life that it needs. Nevertheless, it is highly dependent on its mother that it dies when the mother decides that she did not want to support the growth and birth of such a small creation.

First and foremost, whether or not a woman wanted the pregnancy, it is evident that the creation of life in her body has been the result of an interaction that a woman has been involved in. That particular creation process then gives way to the manifestation of humanity. Human rights, as defined by Professor Kreeft in the debate, is a two-way path that defines human existence alongside the others. Hence, in a way, when one decides to do or not to do something that affects another person, he also must be able to recognize that that person has his own rights that must be well protected. A fetus or an unborn child in itself is considered human therefore does have a right. Considerably, this indicates that even though a woman has the right to her own body, her own creation of the unborn child in her womb and her decision to “kill” it makes her accountable for going beyond the rights of the child that she is supposed to give birth to.

Unlike the scenario of the forced bone-marrow transplant, Dr. Boonin looses track of the fact that pregnancy is a bodily process that specifically takes time and is practically dependent on effective mother-and-child nourishment which the body itself can support. The woman’s body is also specifically tailored for birth. Although it does face a 50-50 situation during the actual delivery of the child, proper handling of the process would assure the woman’s safety. After which, the woman’s body begins to regenerate the cells and blood that were lost to equip it to support the growing child. The wonderful aspect of this process specifically manifests how the woman’s body adjusts in itself when a young child is growing in it. The compensation that the body itself creates makes a definite indication that a woman’s body when nourishing an unborn child and even when giving birth to it specifically adjusts to the challenge. This is how creation works.

When ethical consideration of human rights is given attention to, it is then essential to see the unborn child as a human being too who has rights that ought to be fully respected. Even though the child has not been born yet, the mother’s involvement in its creation makes the woman responsible for its growth and how it should be nourished until it is given birth to and onwards. This is how morally consistent mothers would react to the matter. Only when the health of the mother is endangered with pregnancy shall a mother be subjected to a decision of whether or not to keep the child in her womb, the only acceptable for of abortion that hopes to save the life of the more valuable individual when it comes to the existence. Legalizing abortion was formally dependent on this particular cause and recognizing it as the only reason for a mother to have the right to decide whether or not to keep a child in her womb just as she has no right to not feed a child once it has already been born. True, nourishing, giving birth and supporting the growth of a baby is a huge challenge. Nonetheless, its creation is fully supported by a woman’s human body hence making it a natural process that should be recognized with full appreciation for life.