{"id":245,"date":"2006-10-12T09:19:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-12T16:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bhagwad.com\/blog\/2006\/10\/ethics-of-abortion.html"},"modified":"2006-10-12T09:19:00","modified_gmt":"2006-10-12T16:19:00","slug":"ethics-of-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2006\/philosophy\/ethics-of-abortion.html\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethics of Abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"

This isn’t a topic I spend sleepless nights over. However, since the West seems to be particularly interested in it, I’m going to have my say. For me the issue is a no brainer. Abortion is<\/span> ethical. And for the following good reasons.<\/p>\n

First. Let’s open up a different view of looking at a foetus. Anti-abortionists say that we’re killing innocent children. However, I can just as easily see the foetus as a parasite. Something growing inside you, sucking off your nutrition from inside, feeding itself, with nothing you can do about it. In addition, it almost kills you when it emerges. Damn, I’d hate to have something like that inside me<\/span>. I’d want to crush the thing as soon as it came out. Luckily now, women can remove it while it’s still inside them.<\/p>\n

Second, let’s say that we don’t<\/span> see it as a parasite. But is it conscious? For me, life has no meaning unless it’s conscious, or was conscious at one point. By this definition, I feel no great ethical qualms about killing plants. Anti-abortionists will say that it’s heart is beating, that brainwaves can be detected, but the truth is, we’ll never know if its conscious. Most probably it isn’t<\/span>, since consciousness is of no use whatsoever to a foetus. It may respond<\/span> to stimuli, but that is probably just mechanical. Not conscious response. As far as I’m concerned, a foetus is a plant. Kill it if you want.<\/p>\n

Third, let us say that is<\/span> conscious. The fact is, that it’s inside a women’s body and she doesn’t want it. I don’t care how innocent it is. Protecting the innocent can’t be done at the expense of someone else if they don’t’ want to help. If I refuse to help a five year old child who comes to my door, and who’s lost, I may be called heartless, but I’m fully within my rights not to do so. The woman had sex for satisfaction, or joy, not to get pregnant and the foetus is a side effect. She may be the cause of it, but she’s not responsible<\/span> for it, especially so if contraceptives were used, and didn’t work.<\/p>\n

If she did use contraceptives, then it’s obvious that the foetus got attached to her by accident, and as I said, you can’t protect the innocent at the expense of someone else. It may be unfortunate, and I fully agree that it’s not the foetus’s fault (All this has meaning only if it’s conscious, which I doubt, for the above reasons), but that’s too bad. If a foetus is latched onto me without my consent, I have every right to cut off supplies to it, if those supplies come from me. I have no responsibility to keep something alive if I don’t want it, and it’ s hoisted on me.<\/p>\n

Finally, if all my arguments above fail to convince, if a woman had sex, knowing<\/span> that she would get pregnant, she still<\/span> has the right to abort. It’s her body. And it’s every man (in this case every woman) for himself. For a woman, she is more important than anyone else. A foetus has no innate right to expect nourishment from her. If she wants<\/span> to nourish it, well and good. If not, it’s just too bad. She can’t be expected to live for it.<\/p>\n

If the government is so concerned about life being lost, let it take the foetuses, and keep them alive. It has no right to expect others to do the same, if it doesn’t benefit them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This isn’t a topic I spend sleepless nights over. However, since the West seems to be particularly interested in it, I’m going to have my say. For me the issue is a no brainer. Abortion is ethical. And for the following good reasons. First. Let’s open up a different view of looking at a foetus. … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-philosophy"],"yoast_head":"\nEthics of Abortion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2006\/philosophy\/ethics-of-abortion.html\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ethics of Abortion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This isn’t a topic I spend sleepless nights over. 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