Bioethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Bioethics - Essay Example According to the World Health Report 2005, 68,000 women die from unsafe abortion (51). My aim in this paper is to persuade the masses to be pro-choice, in matters of abortion. The ruling of Roe v. Wade of 1973 has made abortion a safe medical procedure in the United States. In the United States alone, about 1.6 million pregnant women seek and carry out abortion. Many people have desired to minimize the number of unwanted or unplanned pregnancies. However, due to the insufficient supply of adequate contraception, contraception failure or unwanted sex, the resulting unwanted pregnancies bear similar risks as those deliberate and desired (50). Singling out abortion from a woman’s reproductive choices is unfair, to say the least. Therefore, legalizing abortion is keeping it safe. Many countries that keep it legal ensure the safety of women who desire to terminate their pregnancies. Unfortunately, as we have seen earlier, not every country supports abortion and this result in an estimated 68,000 deaths. If governments around the world would recognize the right to abortion as a human right, women would be safer. The right to privacy should not exclude the choice of a woman to do what she pleases with her own body. For example, a woman, raped, glares at the reality of raising a rapist child. This will have life-long psychological effects on her. Such a woman may more often end up losing her social standing, and in extreme cases, even losing her marriage. It is safer, therefore, for such a woman to choose abortion, than live a life of regrets and psychological torture. She should not be denied this right. The United Nations Human Rights Committee views a criminal penalty for a pregnant woman who contracts an abortion, as being a dire violation of her right to be free from degrading and inhuman treatment when the pregnancy is a result of rape. In a different scenario, a teenage girl, if raped, will lose her virginity and might more often than not, end up pregnant.