2. What is abortion?
The term abortion means to terminate a pregnancy, this
is done trough the removal of the fetes or embryo from
the females uterus either chemically, with pharmaceutical
drugs or surgically. In developing countries abortions are
not carried out safely resulting in over 20 million deaths
each year.
3. Why is it a controversial issue?
Abortion is one of the most controversial issues in
Australia and a widely debated topic worldwide. Abortion
has many ethical and social issues surrounding it which
brings controversy to society at large. Different religions
have different views of abortion and different people within
those religions have different views on it. Governments
around the world have made choices in its legal status and
in some countries it is banned.
4. Laws and Regulations
In different areas of the world there are different laws
and regulations on abortion. Some government’s employ
a direct approach and either ban it completely or allow it
with minimum restrictions, other countries have a half-
way approach and allow some cases of abortion,
depending on the circumstance of the pregnancy. In
Australia, although abortion is legal, different regulation
are put in different states. Other countries such as
America have a federal policy where it is legal
throughout the different states and its regulations are
not allowed to vary in different regions. In most Islamic
countries abortion is totally banned unless the mother is
going to die, in which case the pregnancy can be aborted.
5. Ethical and Social issues
There are many ethical and social issues revolving
around abortion. Many people believe that abortion
is equivalent of killing an unwanted baby and that it
is morally and wrong to do it and that it should not
be allowed, where as other people debate that when
the abortion occurs it is still a fetes or embryo and
that it is not a baby and so therefore could not be
named as murder and as such there is nothing wrong
with aborting a pregnancy. The main argument and
controversy around abortion revolves around if and
when do the fetes or embryo become a human being,
and therefore when does abortion become murder.
6.
7. Religion’s View
This ethical and social debate of whether or not
abortion is morally right is continued throughout the
world’s religions. Different religions all have their
views on whether abortion is morally right or not, but
the majority of religions believe that abortion is the
killing of a life and that under their religions all life is
precious and a gift and therefore killing that or
stopping the process into that life fulfilling its purpose
is wrong. Religions such as Islam and Christianity are
against abortion and only providing an exception if the
state of the pregnancy calls for it.
8. Summary
Although many other religions, social groups and
governments have their different opinions on abortion.
The main controversy is situated at whether the fetes
or embryos is a living human baby that should not be
harmed or whether it is just a collection of cells which
only have the potential to become a human being and
therefore is not a human being.
