Difficult Ethical Questions

Why I'm Thinking About This

Today, a friend of mine sent me videos about abortion. Usually I've supported the idea of abortion because I believe that a woman should have the choice on whether they want to carry the heavy responsibility of a child, a woman shouldn't have to stop their career due to a mistake, and a child should not be brought into a family where it is unwanted. However, you cannot ignore the fact that abortion does actually involve killing something. It is causing death. The question of whether it is murder is debatable, but the fact that it causes death in something that could otherwise survive is certain.

I don't know if you guys are aware of this, but there are certain conditions where abortions don't work and the baby survives. This happens because many late-term abortions are done by inducing labor in the mother and giving birth to the baby prematurely, hoping it will be dead. Sometimes it's not. When the abortion fails but the mother still doesn't want the baby, they essentially abandon the baby and leave it to die.

This video talks about it. If you ignore the anti-Obama rhetoric, it delivers useful information.

Sometimes though, they reach an in between phase. The baby is alive but the mother hasn't fully given birth. When this happens, they cut the baby's neck with a scissors to kill it. This is called a partial birth abortion.

It is very easy to dismiss conservative arguments as ignorant and old-fashioned, but what does that prove? There is a decent point to be made that these techniques are discomforting and borderline inhumane, and that should not be ignored. I mean you can ignore it, but that just means you're being an ignorant bystander. It's fine if you want to be that way, but I'm not satisfied with accepting things as they are until I fully understand them.

As thus, I figured I had to analyze this issue piece by piece in order to form my own opinion.

Is Abortion Ethical?

Though I have not done in-depth research as of yet, I have seen both sides of the issue. It's a very difficult thing to judge. To try and make sense of it, I created a chart in which I asked numerous questions.

The picture may be tough to read, so I'll type what I wrote.

• Is a fetus a person?
• At conception?
• After _____ weeks?
• Traditions of abortion
• Sparta: Unwanted/Undesirable children abandoned on hilltops
• Spring Awakening: Girl sent to get abortion after coerced into sex. It kills her.
• Women will try to get abortions even if it's illegal
• Many of these women will die
• If an aborted baby survives, are we morally obligated to save it?
• What if it has a terrible disease? (Can this be detected early?)
• What if abortion procedure dooms its death? (More common?)
• If a baby is destined to be born with a major deformity, is abortion to spare it from suffering noble?
• If a person is not ready to support a child, should we force them to grow up and do so anyhow?
• What if it's clear that the child will live a troubled life?
• Should people pay consequences for promiscuity?
• Is promiscuity unethical or simply undesirable?
• Does contraceptive make abortion less of an issue?
• Does downward demographic trend mean that only good parents have children?

Without much information, it's hard for me to make a full judgment. However, I think these are a good set of questions to think about.

One of them, the one about promiscuity, actually spurred another debate inside my head; one that I had been thinking about for a while. I made another chart.

Is Promiscuity Unethical?

In the book Understanding Homosexuality, Roger E. Biery lays out three purposes for having intercourse: Reproduction, Emotional Bonding, and Enjoyment. Thus, I used these categories to analyze the ethics of promiscuity.

Reproduction

• Promiscuity ignores this
• Contraceptive and abortion nearly eliminates consequences
• What about when it doesn't?
• If reproduction is undesired, how will we continue the human race?

Emotional Bonding

• Is emotional attachment always desired?
• What if emotional contact is desired but person does not know how to get it?
• What if it's not?
• What if one person wants emotional bond but other does not?

Enjoyment

• Is using others for sexual enjoyment manipulative?
• What about danger of STD?
• What about pregnancy?
• Is it animalistic? Should we be more civilized?
• Or is it unnecessary to restrain ourselves due to contraceptive?
• If both agree its for enjoyment and contraceptive is used, is it ok?

I started at the board and tried to view the issue from the logical perspective. I ignored theological justifications such as "sex is a gift given to us by God that must not be abused" because I do not find them relevant in rational arguments.

Conclusion

This is what I decided.

In a perfect scenario, where both parties know that the sex is only being used for enjoyment purposes, promiscuity is ok. HOWEVER, this kind of scenario is mostly idealistic for two reasons. First of all, emotional complications are difficult to eliminate (as seen by the questions I listed for emotional bonding, those are serious issues that are difficult to solve or discuss). Secondly, accidents happen, people can get STDs and pregnancies.

In theory, promiscuity is not wrong, and if you are very careful, you can be responsibly promiscuous. However it takes a lot of effort to end up in the ideal scenario, often more than it's worth, and dedicated relationships make life a heck of a lot easier.

More Questions

Throughout my life, I have often had my opinions formed by other people. It's difficult for me to maintain a position on pretty much any subject and I'm easily persuaded into changing beliefs. This exercise is very helpful to me because it helps me find definite logic for my beliefs. Also, I quite enjoy analyzing these questions. It takes the abstract world and puts it into concrete terms that I can understand, which makes me feel more empowered, which makes me happier.

I think as I go on, I'm going to use this approach to analyze many of the world's major issues for myself. Perhaps I'll find some brilliant solutions. Who knows?