Personhood and Abortion: The Poll
https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/2966/personhood-and-abortion-/p1
This is following on from the discussion started by @LostThomist about whether abortion is right or wrong. Just state your opinion below and if you want to read the whole discussion just look at the link above. If you want to explain your choice please do so.
This is following on from the discussion started by @LostThomist about whether abortion is right or wrong. Just state your opinion below and if you want to read the whole discussion just look at the link above. If you want to explain your choice please do so.
Comments (6)
I answered for this reason. Though abortion should be the decision of the woman carry the foetus, as the body should be inviolable, abortion is less desirable the longer the pregnancy continues. It is the role of law makers to encourage wise and sensible decisions by those that the law are designed to impose upon. Thus timely abortions that do less hard to both the foetus and the woman need to be encouraged. What needs to be discouraged is abortion as a thoughtless means of contraception.
In the UK where all health care is free the law; best practice; and provision have to agree. It is the duty of the democratic government to reflect the requirements of society. At the moment we seem to have things about right, though I think a reduction in the cut off date might be coming down the pipeline as care of premature children continues to improve it becomes less justifiable to abort what is a viable foetus.
It is not fair on medical staff to expect them to destroy a 24 week old foetus when they know that such a 'child' could survive with the right care.
I think 24 weeks is too long, and needs to drop to 20. The only exception to allowing it beyond 20 weeks would be to protect the life of the woman, and in cases where the foetus would be severely disabled.
If labor has begun, it's just too late, no matter what.
1.3% of abortions are performed past 21 weeks, and most of these are performed because there is something seriously wrong with the fetus. There are a few -- a handful -- of very late term abortions performed. These would typically be a teenager who had been raped but was not believed earlier, or someone who was seriously mentally ill and the pregnancy had become psychologically intolerable.