In the case of abortion, the ethics of virtue would take into account the virtues of the mother involved in the decision. The most important virtue for a mother is compassion, as she must be able to care for her child both physically and emotionally. The child who has not yet been born cannot have virtues or duties to act in a certain way. Ultimately, the decision to abort should be based on what leads to the greatest prosperity for mother and child. Download the full report in PDF format (36 pages) Download the Topline questionnaire PDF (10 pages) For example, non-existence in itself does not seem morally bad for the utility. A non-existent being has neither luck nor misfortune. Depriving someone of birth will both cut off their future happiness and spare them all suffering. What is expected of each life will determine whether abortion is good or bad in relation to the child as a stakeholder. We`ve talked about the abortion debate here before, but in this article we want to go a step further and look at the arguments for and against abortion itself.
Since this topic (like most issues today) is often discussed on the basis of beliefs, emotions, and outrage rather than actual thoughts, let`s take a look at the classic arguments in the abortion debate today. Given these difficulties and the fact that we now live in multicultural societies where we cannot assume that all citizens share the same religious beliefs, it seems safer to find non-religious arguments in favor of the position on abortion. Not only can these be rationally more easily justified, but in principle, we can all evaluate and agree with them, regardless of the religion to which we belong. Of course, all these arguments must be applied with common sense. We cannot expect every child to have a perfect genetic makeup. Some people are taller or smaller than others, others are more beautiful or uglier by the standards of their societies. We cannot argue that it is right to abort all but the most perfect children. „Normal“, happy human life is available to a wide range of people. If exaggerated, this argument could be used to promote eugenics, the idea that only „perfect“ children should be born (or that parents or society should actively seek desirable genetic traits of future children). This would not be a good thing for many reasons, both related to social justice, human dignity and worth, and the biological resilience of a genetically diverse population.
So we have to be a little careful about how we argue on this. Judith Jarvis Thomson`s famous „unconscious violinist“ argument is often used in abortion debates. The basic premise of the argument is that even if a fetus has a right to life, the mother`s right to her own body is stronger. Judith Jarvis Thomson Also note that, according to BBC data cited above, more than 92% of abortions take place during the first trimester of pregnancy. This means that they are well within the 24-week window. So if we adopt this understanding of a human being, then 92% of abortions would not be problematic at all. There is no right answer to these questions, they depend on how we define things, and these definitions depend on many factors: our religious beliefs, the other laws of our society regarding life, death and bodily autonomy, and the value we attach to certain functional abilities as markers of personality. Since the Godhead doesn`t seem to care about the large number of natural abortions and the deaths of innocent people, why should we bother adding induced abortions to their number? I doubt God cares. A majority of white evangelical Protestants (58%) say their religious beliefs determine their views on abortion. That number approaches seven in ten (68%) of white evangelicals who attend services at least once a week.
Traditional Protestants are much less likely to cite their religious beliefs (22%), but there is still a striking gap between white mainline Protestants who go to church at least once a week (41%) and those who attend less frequently (14%). Non-Hispanic white Catholics are also divided on this issue, with 60 percent of those who attend weekly services saying their religious beliefs have the main influence on their views on abortion, compared to only 19 percent of those who attend less regularly.
