Pro-reproductive Right: a Christian Immorality

Sexual adventurism penetrates in today’s generation that commonly leads to unpreparedness for motherhood. Thus, abortion became the very solution to this unpreparedness and recklessness. It became the best choice in trying to decide how to stop or end an unwanted pregnancy. Abortion has been a very hot topic across the world and had been debated for centuries. Some countries across the world legalize abortion with arguments about woman’s rights whereas women had the right to choose and had the right over her body. Pro-choice tend to focus on the woman's right and set aside the immorality of doing such.

Further, pro-choice tend to forget about the side effects of doing such a procedure. They choose to put a woman's life at risk just to find the solution of their recklessness. Aside from physical problems, women can also encounter both psychological and spiritual problems which result in challenges for ethical values and the social structure of families. The procedure does not just affect the physical state of a woman, but it can also affect the mental state of a woman. After the procedure, the woman may experience heavy pain and maybe traumatized because of the procedure that she has undergone. Thus, it further affects the cultural aspects of a certain nation. In this sense, the sanctity of marriage and the importance of life will be greatly affected and set aside.

Life is a precious gift from above. It is an honor to be able to be born and enjoy the beautiful creation of God. Thus, some people have forgotten about how important life is and how immoral abortion is. Human life is both a blessing and a sacred. It is sacred the moment of conception up to natural death and humans don’t have the right to steal someone’s life both born and unborn. Life is a blessing granted from above and only Him have the right and the only one who had the authority to decide about ending someone's life. He has the full authority of doing such and humans must respect and treat life as a sacred one.

As time pass by, as premarital sex became rampant in today's generation, abortion is illegally done widespread. Abortion typically happens for those young individuals who are engaged in premarital sex and accidentally conceive a child. Abortion may be an immoral act for some cultures, but some cultures accepted the concept of abortion and made a law about it. Is it immoral to kill the life of an unborn baby? Should abortion be legalized?

Legalizing abortion and pro-reproductive rights is supported by the Principle of the Totality whereas it stated that abortion in the sense that the mother can decide to abort the baby if it would cause harm. The mother may decide to terminate the fetus in the mother's womb if she is trying to protect herself from any harm. In this principle, abortion is not considered as ethically wrong because aborting the baby is the best thing to do in order not to harm the mother's health. It is accepted that a person has a right to protect or defend themselves.

Moreover, the utilitarian moral theory asserts that the value of every act is grounded in the consequences.

'An act is to be evaluated based on its tendency to bring pleasure or utility. Human action by its nature does not possess any moral qualification. If the activity makes one happy, then it is good. Happiness is the intended pleasure and the absence of pain and by unhappiness, pain and the privation of pleasure.'

This principle emphasized that, if getting an abortion will make a woman feel at ease and happy, then doing such an act will not be considered as morally wrong. If the effect of an act is desirable, then the act possesses moral worth. If having an abortion makes a woman feel pleasure, then abortion is not morally wrong. Moreover, this principle focuses on the result of doing an act rather than the act itself. 

Contrary, I strongly opposed this principle because human life both born and unborn is sacred and must be respected and protected. Thus, I condemned doing such and still classified it as morally wrong. Unborn babies do deserve to enjoy the life that was given to him, being unborn does not give someone the authority to steal the life that was given to him. Further, William Saunders of the Roman Catholic Church argued that abortion is an immoral act and consistently condemned abortion.

'In principle, Catholic Christians believe that all life is sacred from conception until natural death, and the taking of innocent human life, whether born or unborn, is morally wrong. The Church teaches, 'Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains for ever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can under any circumstance claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being'.

Saunders strongly believes that human life is sacred and doing abortion is immoral, unjust, and morally wrong in the eyes of the Holy One. Persons who go through this procedure undergo mental conditions that affected her as a whole. Individual tends to seek comfort and atonement to express their guilt about the deed. It does not just deeply affect the mind but also the heart itself. This procedure involves life and death, making it unacceptable reasons in dealing with this kind of scenario. It involves a life of an innocent human being that was given as a precious gift to those who are engaged in sexual activities. It does not just concern about the conscience of a human being but involves God and the person involve.

Throughout the years, different religions have been constantly criticized for abortion and condemned it as an immoral act. Muslims do not acknowledge abortion as wrong and forbidden but some circumstances or certain cases permitted abortion. Buddhists on the other hand, believe that killing or destroying one's life is morally wrong. It is forbidden when it is caused by negligence. Buddhism believes in rebirth and teaches that individual human life begins at conception. The new being, bearing the karmic identity of a recently deceased individual, is therefore as entitled to the same moral respect as an adult human being. 

Furthermore, humans are created in the image and likeness of God and we don't have the very right to end life, instead, we should be thankful for the blessing that He has given upon. Life is important in all aspects, it is a heavy topic to discuss and Christian's stand about this topic will be irrevocable and will remain unchanged. Thus, the principle of the inviolability of life argued that life is precious. This principle stated that every life is a precious life from our Almighty Creator. Its importance outweighs above anything in this world. It can never be sacrificed above by what so ever means and reasons. Every life is valuable and precious in its different ways. Every life is important, no matter how it is lived, have equal worth and dignity.

“Human life from the moment of conception and through all subsequent stages is sacred, because human life is created in the image and likeness of God. This divine truth demands that we all must protect and preserve human life. Even an embryo is marked with a unique identity from the moment of conception.”

Moreover, the Catechism of the Catholic in their teaching about abortion has been and will remain unchanged through the time states that:

“Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person - among which are the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.”

Life from the moment of conception is valuable and it must be protected for it is considered as a precious gift granted to those individuals that can conceive. It shouldn't be wasted; instead we should give importance to it because it is given as a special blessing and gift that others can have. Life shouldn’t be wasted because circumstances might not permit you to have the blessing from above to have a little one.

Moreover, Pope Francis believes that protecting human life is preeminent social and political issue that needs to be addressed. Thus, the Vatican City strongly believes that an unborn child has every right to live and human are in task to protect that life. An unborn baby should be given the right to live and enjoy the life that God has given to him. No one is allowed to steal that life, stealing it is considered a moral sin and disobedient of God’s commandments. Thus, Pope Francis states that:

“Without life, what other rights are there? So, you have to begin with that. It's not the only issue -- I don't think anybody has ever said that. But when you're looking at the core beliefs and the more essential rights, the right to life of the unborn is very important.”

Thus, the right of life is indeed a very important that everyone should considered. If we enjoyed the right of life that was given to us, we don’t have the right to take someone’s right of life for they themselves deserves to enjoyment of beauty of life and the beauty of God’s greatest creation.

Conclusion

In today's setting, abortion became normal among youth. Many cases that involve abortion became rampant widespread. Several countries legalize abortion and disregard the importance of life. Many principles supported abortion as a way of making someone feel fulfilled and happy. What's alarming about this situation is the fact that as time passed by, the importance of life is slowly forgotten and took for granted. Generation by generation, life is treated like a material thing.

Pro- reproductive rights tend to argue about women's rights to be the main argument as to why abortion should be legalized, but as a woman who is capable to conceive, I strongly opposed such an argument because it is not acceptable and it will never be acceptable. The fact that you engage in sexual activities, means you should already expecting to conceive. Interacting with such activity, it is already given that it has a big possibility that it will result in life. An adult who is engaging in such activity must be responsible for the action and must be brave enough to face the consequence of doing such.

Furthermore, reasons like you are not yet ready, or you are not happy to have one is not and will never an acceptable reason to take away someone's life and opportunity to enjoy the creation of God. It will never be valid because life is an important thing to be considered and it is not just something to talk recklessly. Pro-reproductive right only focuses on women's rights and happiness to the point that they have forgotten the right of the unborn. Born or unborn deserves and has its human right and it shouldn't be disregarded.

Cutting someone's life can be considered as morally wrong, but having an abortion because of the reason that it might harm the woman's health can't be considered as morally wrong. Thinking that terminating the baby can make a woman's feel safe and happy should be considered, but it doesn't mean that all sort of abortion is morally right. In engaging in various sexual activities, we should always expect pregnancy as one of the possible effects of engaging in such activity. There's no excuse for ending one's life, we should give fair opportunity in giving an unborn baby the chance to experience how great life is.

As a steward of God, we don’t have the right to cut someone’s life. Each one of us was given a chance to experience His beautiful creation. It is not in our hands to judge someone’s life. Born or unborn have an equal right to live and live his life according to his purpose. Abortion does not just kill the baby itself, but it also kills the conscience of the mother. And if abortion is illegal, maybe some women feel the happiness that only a parent can feel.

Reference

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2. Maboloc, C.R. Applied Ethics Moral Possibilities for the Contemporary World. (SMKC PrintShoppe., 2018, p. 15&16)
3. Saunders, W. The Catholic Church and Abortion. Catholic News Agency. Retrieved from https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/resources/abortion/catholic-teaching/the-catholic- church-and-abortion
4. British Broadcasting Corporation. Religions - Islam: Abortion. 2014. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/islamethics/abortion_1.shtml.
5. British Broadcasting Corporation. Religions - Buddhism: Abortion. 2014. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/buddhistethics/abortion.shtml.
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