Abortion
Religious Studies: KS3, topic 3.2.3
Abortion
Abortion is one example of an important life and death moral issue.
Applied ethics
- So far, we have been looking at moral questions by asking what kinds of moral rules there can be.
- A different approach is to look directly at some real-life moral questions.
- And to see whether that helps people decide on what is right and wrong.
- This is called applied ethics.
- Abortion is an example of applied ethics.
What is abortion?
- Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy that results in the death of the baby or foetus.
- The term foetus is used to describe the baby in the womb.
- The death of a foetus can occur naturally and this is more often called a miscarriage.
- The term abortion usually refers to the deliberate act of ending the pregnancy.
Reasons for abortion
- There are many reasons why abortions take place.
- This depends on what is lawful in a particular country.
- The life of the mother could be at risk if the pregnancy continues.
- The child might be born severely handicapped.
- The child may have been conceived as a result of rape.
- It may be that the mother would be unable to care for the child in a way that would give it a good quality of life.
Test yourself on Abortion
Which branch of ethics involves looking at real-life examples of moral questions?
What are some of the reasons an abortion might take place?
What is the primary distinction between the terms "abortion" and "miscarriage"?