Bioethics Essay - Assignment 9 - Final Draft*

Tamura 1

Outline

　Thesis statement: To avoid having an abortion is preferable even if there seems to be some situations that women have an abortion.

Ⅰ. Introduction

　　A. Background informaion

　　　　ⅰ. The present states of abortion

　　B. Thesis statement

Ⅱ. The two positions of abortion

Ⅲ. For abortion

　　A. Undesirable pregnancy

　　　　ⅰ. Rape (National Police Agency)

　　　　ⅱ. Japanese law (Researchers)

　　B. Economical problems

　　　　ⅰ. Economical factor (Henderson)

　　　　ⅱ. The expense of bring up a child (AIU)

Ⅳ. Against abortion

　　A. Referring to safety

　　　　ⅰ. Unsafe abortions (World Health Organization)

　　B. Suffering from killing an unborn baby

　　　　ⅰ. Risk of depression (Bennet)

　　　　ⅱ. Trauma and Stress (Reardon)

Ⅴ. Evaluation

　　A. Pro-Abortion

　　　　ⅰ. The percentage of the case of rape (Reinhard)

　　B. Anti-Abortion

Ⅵ. Conclusion

　　

Hisayuki Tamura

Professor James

ARW Section AE

24 January 2007

The Better Choice of Abortion

Introduction
　　Nowadays biotechnologies are dramatically more developing than that of a past era. The more biotechnologies are born, the more problems are made. These are some examples, euthanasia, IVF and cloning. These issues have been discussed all over the world because they have many problems causing ethical dilemmas. One of the issues of bioethics is abortion. It is fact that about 46 million abortions occurs per year throughout the world. For example,1.37 million abortions in the United States (The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform), 186,400 abortions in the United Kingdom (Government Statistical Service) and 289,127 abortions in Japan (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare). Moreover, 126,000 abortions occurs per day all over the world, that is to say losing 126,000 new lives per day. This fact can not be overlooked. Abortion makes it possible that a woman decides her childbirth. In other words, she can choose whether she has a baby or not. However, this decision makes dilemmas because it is related to a matter of life and death. This paper will discuss which is the better choice between women having an abortion and not having an abortion, and suggest that to avoid having an abortion is preferable even if there seems to be some situations that women have an abortion.

The two positions of abortion

　　Before beginning, it is necessary to know that there are two types of supporter. They are pro-choice and pro-life. Pro-choice people support having an abortion. On the other hand, pro-life people support the right to live, namely having a baby. Each of them has several reasons why women need to do it or not.

For abortion - Undesirable pregnancy

　　One of the reasons why women need abortions is undesirable pregnancy due to the crime like rape. An average of 2,000 rapes occur each year in Japan (National Police Agency), but this data is an only case which was reported by victims. Thus, there might be more cases because it was not easy for victims with mental injury to report their tragedy. In order to avoid undesirable pregnancy, Japanese law permits an abortion if a pregnancy is the result of rape (Researchers). In this case, abortion seems to be a significant way because women never want pregnancy caused by rape and never want such childbirth. It is difficult that a woman defends herself physically when a man attacks her. Generally men are stronger than women. Therefore, it is hard to take precautions against rape, but the law of abortion is helpful to women.

For abortion - Economical problems

　　In addition to the above, there is another reason why women need abortion. Pro-choice people are worried about women’s economical factors that lead to abortion (Henderson). To raise a child costs a large sum of money. For example, in Japan if having a child it costs parents at least 30 million yen to bring up (AIU). Recently the birth rate is decreasing in Japan, and parents pay more money to raise their child because today people are wanted not a number of children but a child who have a lot of skills, but to learn skills costs much money. The problem is that if parent is too young or single it is hard to pay much money because their income is usually low. They have to work hard, but a hard life makes them exhausted, and raising a child is stressful. As a result, a child abuse sometimes occurs. They need a time of relax supported by surrounding people. However, the present state in Japan is not enough. Therefore, such people who have economical problems can't help but have an abortion.

Against abortion - Referring to safety

　　On the other hands, pro-life people think not only the right to live but also the influences on mother. One of them is safety of abortion. 19 million unsafe abortions still occur around the world annually and that 68,000 of these result in the woman's death (World Health Organization). It is surprised that there is possibility of death of mother instead of death of an unborn baby. In this case abortion makes the opposite effect. Essentially abortion should be the way not to kill women but to protect them from the danger of pregnancy or childbirth. Therefore, if there is the factor causing the woman’s death, people should avoid having an abortion and people need to know the possibility and pay attention to other possibilities of death due to infectious diseases or complications before having an abortion or getting pregnant.

Against abortion - Suffering from killing an unborn baby

　　Furthermore, another influence is mental anguish. Women who have abortions have risk of depression and other mental illness (Bennett). In addition, the existence of trauma after abortion is now almost universally accepted, and also abortion is always stressful. Whether a person can cope with this stress depends on the condition. When a woman's psychological state is already fragile, the stress of an abortion can more easily distress her (Reardon). That is because a feeling of guilt for killing an unborn baby makes a person suffered. Therefore, in order to alleviate that feeling, it is necessary that surrounding people support her as well as she thinks about these in advance of having an abortion.

Evaluation

　　Comparing the idea of pro-choice people with the idea of pro-life people, both sides have some advantages and disadvantages. Having an abortion prevents undesirable pregnancy and economical worries, but abortion sometimes leads a woman to die and makes a woman feel guilt for killing her unborn baby. In addition, abortion caused by rape is actually the rare case, less than 1 persent of all abortion (Reinhard). On the other hand, although not having an abortion have problems with the case of undesirable pregnancy and problems with economical worries because it costs parents much money because of a new family member, not having an abortion does not lose any lives and can be mainly good for mother's mental condition.

Conclusion

　　In conclusion, even if there are such hard situations as this paper show, to avoid having an abortion is preferable because it is possible to overcome the situations. The case of undesirable pregnancy caused by rape is few, though it can not be overlooked. Furthermore, concern about economical difficulty can be resolved by more governmental support.

(1014 words)

Work Cited

　　AIU insurance company in Japan. Economical examination of modern child raising in 2005. American International Group. 17 Jan. 2007 <http://www.aiu.co.jp/about_us/parenting/index.htm>

　　Bennett, Rosemary. Social Affairs Correspondent." exposes women to higher risk of depression ." The Times (London) 27 Oct. 2006, sec. Home News Pg40

　　The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform. Abortion Facts. 17 Jan. 2007 <http://cbrinfo.org/fastfacts.html>

　　Government Statistical Service. The Department of Health. 4 Jul. 2006. 16 Jan. 2007 <http://www.dh.gov.uk/PublicationsAndStatistics/Publications/PublicationsStatistics/PublicationsStatisticsArticle/fs/en?CONTENT_ID=4136852&chk=Ei3Teu>

　　Henderson, Tom. "It seems we all want to save the world; go figure" Lewiston Morning Tribune (Idaho), 10 September. 2006, sec.Pg.1F,

　　Japan. Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. 16 Jan. 2007 <http://www.mhlw.go.jp/toukei/saikin/hw/eisei/05/kekka5.html>

　　Japan. National Police Agency. A police white paper in 2006. 17 Jan. 2007 <http://www.npa.go.jp/hakusyo/index.htm>

　　Reardon, David D. Identifying High Risk Abortion Patients. (Lifeissues.net) Kochi, Japan. 16 Jan. 2007 <http://lifeissues.net/writers/rea/rea_29highrisk.html>

　　Reinhard, David. "PARENTAL NOTIFICATION Yes, but what about a rape-and-incent exception?" The Sunday Oregonian 15 Oct. 2006.

　　"Researchers: Allow abortion in case of genetic disorders." The Daily Yomiuri 31 Mar.1997

　　World Health Organization. Unsafe abortion - Global and regional estimates of the incidence of unsafe abortion and associated mortality in 2000 - 4th edition. 2004. 16 Jan.2007. <http://www.who.int/reproductive-health/publications/unsafe_abortion_estimates_04/estimates.pdf>