Nowadays, the problem of abortions interests society. There are many articles, scientific studies, books, many films and social videos about this issue. Some people think that abortion is the murder of an unborn person with all the ensuing consequences (Richards). In the modern world, the permissibility of abortion and its side-streets is an acutely debatable problem. It includes religious, ethical, medical, social and legal aspects. “Are you for abortion or against?”. It is a question that every person can face. From this question follows the main problem, the problem of people’s attitude towards the status of the unborn child, is the “unborn baby” considered to be a full-fledged person with the inalienable right to life? (Warren 2) The public discussion about whether the already existing human life aborted during an abortion is both actual and do not leaves indifferent modern society. The moral question concerning the priority of the interests of “unborn baby” over the interests of the woman or vice versa is the reverse side of this medal.
Now the issue of abortion one can consider from two sides (Warren 1). The first side is individual. That is, abortion concerns only woman and no one else. The second side is capacious. Abortion offends moral feelings, and therefore one can regard abortion as an ethical problem (Richards). One can apply the principle of utilitarianism and Bentham’s Felicific Calculus to this ethical problem (Bentham’s Felicific Calculus). Felicific calculus has seven steps, but not all of them are suitable for this issue. The first step in Felicific calculus is intensity. The first step one can apply to this problem because before committing or not committing an abortion a woman solves a moral problem: the life or death of a future person (Bentham’s Felicific Calculus). The ethical essence of the issue does not disappear even when a woman goes to a doctor, then a third person involved in the problem. The intensity at this stage expressed in the woman’s intention to make a decision. After the woman has already made the decision, the next stage- duration begins (Bentham’s Felicific Calculus). Duration of awareness of the decision to bring it into effect. Since the topic of abortion often arises in recent times, this topic discussed brought to the public eye, many protests held on the theme of “for” and “against” abortion (Warren 7).The problem of abortion in the West has long outgrown from medical to ethical and has evolved into a deeply political problem (Warren). In fact, the West divided into two camps: Pro-life and Pro Choic (Richards). Thus, the problem of abortion one can consider at the third stage of Certainty or Uncertainty. The topic was so close to each citizen that people divided into two categories. One part (Pro-life) absolutely “knows” that abortion is a sin, a crime, and murder because the life of the child begins at the moment of conception. The other (Pro Choic) is exactly sure that until a certain stage of development the child is a part of his mother`s body, whom she can dispose of at her discretion (Warren 6). Such an acute ideological confrontation supports the fact that for many years the heat of passion in discussing the problem of abortion has not subsided (Warren). When one considers the moral aspects of abortion, it is important to pay attention to the mother’s responsibility (biological and social) for the child, as a helpless creature who needs care. In addition, in human society there is the concept of moral duty- the duty of the strong to protect and care for the weak (Warren).
Many people associate abortion with a medical problem, forgetting that it applies to the ethical one. Indeed, the issue of abortion affects morality, as well as religious aspects. Many people know that the church condemns abortion regardless of the cause. The church regards abortion as a sin (Warren). From a medical point of view, abortion is harmful to a woman’s health. From an ethical and moral point of view, it harms a woman’s consciousness because throughout her life a woman lives with the realization of what she has done. It is obvious that the problem of abortion will remain an “open” moral problem until one will find worthy morally ways of solving it.
