Abortion in Today’s Society

Abortion is one of the classical areas of healthcare ethics. It deals with issues concerning contraception, sterilization, and abortion itself. In most of countries, women have legal rights to choose in favor of abortion. However, such decisions do not solve the ethical issues connected with pregnancy termination. The legal right of a person does not necessarily imply moral rights. In the nursing profession, professionals should determine their roles in the abortion procedure. Even if the patient decides to have an abortion, it remains an open question of whether nursing professionals will and should choose to participate in the procedure.

In some societies, abortion involves cultural and religious issues. For example, if an unmarried teenager becomes pregnant, then her parents, relatives, or partner may force her to do an abortion. On the other hand, in other societies, abortion takes place, because the fetus is not of the sex the parents or relatives wanted. In most of the situations, medical authorities perform abortion procedures by applying sterilization methods. Serious issues of consent arise when a young patient claims that she has been sterilized without her permission. Thus, nursing care authorities should be careful in abortion procedures.

Abortion is a difficult moral issue for health care organizations because it involves the moral status of the fetus. Some experts argue that living tissue is endowed with human genetic material, which is enough to make it a bearer of the rights that normally accrue to humans.

A nurse or other medical professionals encounter many ethical questions regarding abortion. In addition to facing them as laypersons who have to make personal and public policy choices, they must face them as clinical experts. Moreover, some nurses believe that abortion is morally unacceptable. Presumably, a nurse with such moral beliefs would face serious ethical conflicts if asked to participate in performing an abortion.

The Freedom of Choice Act of the United States provides women with the rights to terminate pregnancies prior to fetal viability. Also, the act allows a woman to make abortion after fetal viability when it is necessary to protect her health or life. There are many claims and arguments about the consequences of this legislation stating that nurses and physicians are obligated to provide abortion counseling. However, moral rights and ethical values don not allow a person to provide such information. Thus, abortion is an ethical dilemma for health care practitioners. The nurses who are prepared to assess the reasons for abortion will face different types of problematic cases. The “hard case” abortion includes complex situations when abortion is performed for the sake of the health of the pregnant woman. For example, in the cases of incest, rape, and fetal deformity, abortion is considered as a hard case. In some circumstances, women simply do not want to carry a child for economic or social reasons; thus, medical authorities need to make difficult decisions.

Contraception

The issue of contraception is closely related to the ethics of abortion. Some similar issues of sexual morality are raised including the moral legitimacy of manipulation of the procreative process. In contrast, contraception does not usually lead to conflict between a pregnant woman and her fetus with actual and potential moral standing.

Historians have provided two moral arguments against contraception. According to the classical argument, Roman Catholic moral theology does not accept contraception. The moral reason behind this limitation is that there are natural principles of bodily processes that cannot be disrupted without moral impunity. On the other hand, the second argument says that the toleration of contraception will encourage illegal sexual activities. Some people do not regard the first argument as convincing, whereas most of the people consider that the second argument is conclusive because they find that condoning contraception implies condoning unacceptable sexual activities.

Sterilization

The nursing staff is authorized to perform sterilization procedures to make an abortion. However, sterilization raises several ethical questions and complications. Many people find it particularly objectionable because it is often presumed irreversibly. Therefore, many healthcare employees who are committed to rational planning and keep one’s options open have traditionally been unwilling to participate in sterilization methods. In fact, nursing professionals face ethical dilemmas in sterilization; they have been known to refuse considering sterilizing methods especially in relation to younger women and women who have not borne many children.

Nurses must approach complicated issues of abortion with patience and even-tempered methods. They must understand the situation first, such as why the patient wants to undergo an abortion, and then need to make decisions. In some circumstances, if they find that abortion is necessary, then they must provide medical services to the patient. Also, they must follow the medical laws whening perform their actions. In any case, they must not break the legal rights of a person by providing medical treatment. Thus, they can save the lives of women and newly born babies.

The above analysis leads to a conclusion that abortion is an ethical dilemma for healthcare employees. A woman has the legal rights to carry out an abortion, but morally, it is not correct. Therefore, medical practitioners often face ethical issues in relation to abortion. In some societies, abortion involves religious and cultural aspects. Moreover, some medical employees believe that abortion is morally incorrect. The medical professionals with such moral belief often face moral and ethical dilemmas in the abortion procedure. Thus, they must address such issues with patience. They must understand the situation and then take effective decisions. In this way, medical authorities can take fruitful decisions in ethical dilemmas of abortion.
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