NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
... lure, life threatening situations all are such cases. This could be argued against by saying that, in case of economic hardships, or instance, the damage to the Mother's future is certain. Her value filled, meaningful future is granted - and so is the detrimental effect that the foetus will have on it, once born. This certainty cannot be balanced by the UNCERTAIN value-filled future life of the embryo. Always, preferring an uncertain good to a certain evil is morally wrong.
But surely this is a quantitative matter - not a qualitative one. Certain, limited aspects of the rest of the Mother's life will be adversely effected (and can be ameliorated by society's helping hand and intervention) if she does have the baby. The decision not to have it is both qualitatively and qualitatively different. It is to deprive the unborn of all the aspects of all his future life - in which he might well have experienced happiness, values and meaning. The questions whether the foetus is a Being or a growth of cells, conscious in any manner or utterly unconscious, able to value his life and to want them - are all but irrelevant. He has the potential to lead a happy, meaningful, value-filled life, similar to ours, very much as a one minute old baby does.
The contract between him and his Mother is a service provision contract. She will provide him with goods and services that he requires in order to materialize his potential. It sounds very much like many other human contracts. Take education: children do not appreciate its importance or value its potential - still, it is enforced upon them because we, who are capable of those feats, want them to have the tools that they will need in order to develop their potential.
In this and many other respects, the human pregnancy continues well into the fourth year of life (physiologically it continues in to the second year of life). Is the location of the pregnancy (in uterus, in vivo) to determine its future? Why should the Mother be denied her right to terminate the pregnancy after the foetus emerges and the pregnancy continues outside her womb? Even after birth, the woman's body is the main source of food to the baby and, in any case, she has to endure physical hardship. Why not extend the woman's ownership of her body and right to it further in time and space? Contracts to provide goods and services (always at a personal cost to the provider) are the commonest of contracts.
We open a business. We sell a software, we publish a book - we engage in helping others to materialize their potential. We should always do so willingly and reasonably - otherwise the contracts that we sign will be null and void. But to deny anyone his capacity to materialize his potential and the goods and services that he needs to do so - after a valid contract was entered into - is immoral. To prevent a service or to condition it (Mother: I will provide the goods and services that I agreed to provide to this foetus under this contract only if and when I will benefit from such provision) is a violation of the contract and should be penalized.
Admittedly, at times we have a right to choose the immoral (because it has not been codified as illegal) - but that does not turn it into a moral choice. Still, not every immoral act involving the termination of life can be classified as murder. Phenomenology is deceiving: the acts look the same (cessation of life functions, the prevention of a future). But murder is the intentional termination of the life of a human who possesses, at the moment of death, a consciousness (and, in most cases, a free will, especially the will not to die). Abortion is the intentional termination of a life which have the potential to develop into a person with consciousness and free will. Philosophically, no identity can be established between potential and actuality.
The destruction of paints and cloth is not tantamount (not to say identical) to the destruction of a painting by Van Gogh, made up of these very elements. Paints and cloth are converted to a painting through the intermediacy and agency of the Painter. A cluster of cells a human makes through the agency of Nature. Surely, the destruction of the painting materials constitutes an offence against the Painter.
In the same way, the destruction of the foetus constitutes an offence against Nature. But there is no denying that in both cases, no finished product was eliminated. Naturally, this becomes less and less so (the severity of the terminating act increases) as the process of creation advances. Classifying an abortion as murder poses numerous and insurmountable philosophical problems. No one disputes the now common view that the main crime committed in aborting a pregnancy - is a crime against potentialities.
If so, what is the philosophical difference between aborting a foetus and destroying a sperm and an egg? These two contain all the information ( = all the potential) and their destruction is philosophically no less grave than the destruction of a foetus. The destruction of an egg and a sperm is even more serious philosophically: the creation of a foetus limits the set of all potentials embedded in the genetic material. The egg and sperm can be compared to the famous wave function (state vector) in quantum mechanics - incorporating millions of potential states. The foetus is the collapse of the wave function: it represents a much more limited set of potentials.
If killing an embryo is murder because of the elimination of potentials - what should we say about the intentional elimination of many more potentials through masturbation and contraception? The argument that it is difficult to say which sperm cell will impregnate the egg is not serious. Biologically, it does not matter - they all carry the same genetic content. Moreover, would this counter-argument still hold if, in the future, we will be able to identify the chosen one and eliminate only it? In many religions (Catholicism) contraception is murder. In Judaism, masturbation is "the corruption of the seed" and such a serious offence that it is punishable by the strongest religious punishment: eternal ex-communication ("Karen").
If abortion is indeed murder what should be the answers to the following moral dilemmas and questions (some of them patently absurd): Is a natural abortion the equivalent of manslaughter (through negligence)? Do habits like smoking, drug addiction, vegetarianism - infringe upon the right to life of the embryo? Do they constitute a violation of the contract? Reductio ad absurdum: if, in the far future, research will unequivocally prove that listening to a certain kind of music or entertaining certain thoughts seriously hampers the embryonic development - should we apply censorship to the Mother? Should force majeure clauses be introduced to the Mother-Embryo pregnancy contract? will they give the mother the right to cancel the contract?
Will the embryo have a right to terminate the contract? Should the asymmetry persist: the Mother will have no right to terminate - the embryo will or vice versa? Being a rights holder, can the embryo ( = the State) litigate against his Mother or Third Parties (the doctor that aborted him, someone who hit his mother and brought about a natural abortion) even after he died, living no heirs (except the plaintiffs)? Should anyone who knew about an abortion be considered an accomplice to murder? If abortion is murder - why punish it so mildly? Why is it that there is a debate raging on regarding this question? "Thou shalt not kill" is a natural law, it appears in virtually every legal system.
It is easily and immediately identifiable. The fact that abortion does not "enjoy" the same treatment says a lot.
Free research essays on topics related to: goods and services, year of life, foetus, intentional termination, future life
Research essay sample on Goods And Services Year Of Life
