ktmeng/mec huggingface dataset:
Topic: abortion

An obvious criticism is to argue that a woman has a special responsibility to her foetus, simply because she is its mother—a responsibility that ‘Henry Fonda’ does not owe, so the analogy, is rendered useless. But Thomson postulates that “we do not have any such ‘special responsibility’ for a person unless we have assumed it, explicitly or implicitly.”[12] Thomson therefore argues that if a pregnancy is unwanted, and the woman holds no emotional bond to the foetus, there is no attachment and so no responsibility. A possible dispute to Thomson’s idea is to suggest that the ‘special responsibility’ is bonded through genes rather then emotion. If a child is born and the mother abandons it, her culpability is held through their ‘mother and baby relationship’ rather then what the mother ‘thinks’ of her baby.
Topic: abortion

Another argument that can give claim by the foetus to its mother’s body is one of contract.[13] It could be said that by voluntarily engaging in sexual intercourse a woman—even if using contraception—risks the chance of pregnancy. By understanding the possible consequences of her actions, she must be seen as responsible for the existence of the foetus, because no method of contraception is known to be infallible. Since the woman is accountable for bringing the foetus into the world (albeit in her womb) she assumes an obligation to continue to provide nourishment for its survival.
Topic: abortion

Michael Tooley offers an example that he believes analogises this argument[14] there is a pleasurable act that I practice. But by engaging in it, it can have the unfortunate risk of destroying someone’s food supply. This will not cause the person any problem, as long as I continue to make such provisions, even though it causes me immense trouble and expense. Tooley says that he arranges things so that the probability of the ‘pleasurable act’ having such an effect is as small as possible (contraception). But he says that if things do go wrong, he is still responsible for the person needing food, and therefore obligated to supplying the food needed. Tooley believes that once we engage in an activity that can potentially create a child, then we assume responsibility for its needs, even if bringing that child into existence was accidental and precautions were taken to prevent that outcome.
Topic: abortion

If the room is stuffy, and I therefore open a window to air it, and a burglar climbs in, it would be absurd to say, “Ah, now he can stay, she’s given him a right to the use of her house—for she is partially responsible for his presence there, having voluntarily done what enabled him to get in, in full knowledge that there are such things as burglars, and that burglars burgle.” It would be still more absurd to say this if I had had bars installed outside my windows, precisely to prevent burglars from getting in, and a burglar got in only because of a defect in the bars.[15]
Topic: abortion

As already stated, most views against abortion base their position from the value they place on the foetuses life. Even so, in the case where pregnancy had occurred through rape, most opponents of abortion would believe that there would be sufficient justification for termination. Obviously, there is something paradoxical about this—if the foetus is valuable because it is human, it is obviously no less human because its mother had been raped. So how can some opponents of abortion hold such contradictory ideas?
Topic: abortion

Janet Radcliffe Richards’ explains that when a woman is forced to continue pregnancy until childbirth, “…the child is being used as an instrument of punishment to the mother, and that talk of the sanctity of life is being used to disguise the fact.”[16] The only thing that a woman that wants to abort for reasons of accidental pregnancy has done differently, is to of engaged willingly to sex—and that is what she is being punished for.[17]
Topic: abortion

Richards’ offers an interesting approach to the apparent inconsistency stated, although I don’t find its supposition altogether convincing. I think the ‘double-standards’ described, portray an individual that holds only a relative opinion to the value of life that is held by the foetus. That is, the foetus is human, with rights, but not as human and not as much rights as an adult human being. And this is how I feel critics of abortion consider priority to women in rape cases.
Topic: abortion

To what degree, if any, does the father’s opinion count on whether his unborn child should die at the hands of the mother? After all, the foetus is very much a part of him—sharing his genetic make-up. It is noted by John Harris[18] that a man is not entitled to violate a woman for the purpose of impregnating her—that is rape—so then it follows that he must not violate her by forcing his wishes for a pregnancy to continue until birth. The counter argument is that by agreeing to sex, a woman has tacitly agreed to carry the man’s child.
Topic: abortion

Ultimately the woman’s opinion must take priority over the man’s—because she has to carry the foetus, but, once a foetus is formed, one can have a degree of sympathy for the man’s situation. If copulation had taken place for the purpose of impregnation, then why should the man suffer a feeling of loss just because his partner changes her mind? Where contraception is used, his argument may be weakened—they did not intend parenthood. But if both were planning for a baby, is it fare that once that child exists, the mother can take it away from its father, even though he has done no wrong?
Topic: abortion

If a pregnancy is terminated during its early stages, the foetus will undoubtedly die. But if an abortion takes place later in pregnancy, and by some miracle survives, the mother has no “right to secure the death of the unborn child.”[19] If the baby was still unwanted, the “woman may be utterly devastated by the thought of a child, a bit of herself, put out for adoption and never seen or heard of again”[20] but she can only demand her separation from it; she may not order its execution.
Topic: abortion

I guess there would be few opponents to this assertion; but it is interesting to understand why. If a person accepts the permissibility of abortion, how is it so different to kill a child that survives its attempted termination? Presumably the foetus has acquired rights that it didn’t hold inside the womb, or perhaps the woman loses her rights during that transition. It seems strange that location should alter the foetuses perspective so drastically—after all, it is the same being. It could be argued that it is independence that qualifies the foetus for its right to live. When it no longer needs its mother for survival, and is not ‘reliant’ upon her in any way, she loses the right to decide its fate.
Topic: abortion

Professor Thomson’s explanation is somewhat different; she too agrees that there is no justification for a woman to order the death of a foetus that lives following an abortion, but her reasoning is not dependent upon any acquisition or loss of rights. Thomson argues that a termination is just the right for a woman to detach the foetus from her body. This is not an act of murder (even though its death is inevitable during its infancy) but an entitlement to liberation, whatever its outcome.[21]
Topic: abortion

Professor Thomson concedes that “It would be indecent in the woman to request an abortion, and indecent in a doctor to perform it, if she is in her seventh month, and wants the abortion just to avoid the nuisance of postponing a trip abroad.”[23] So, even staunch defendants of feminist ethics feel compelled to consider the foetuses interests once its development reaches a mature stage. It could be argued that the foetus has become a baby, and abortion is therefore tantamount to infanticide.
Topic: abortion

There is, in my opinion, a necessary correlation between foetal development and a woman’s right to termination. A woman may exercise her choice without compromise during early pregnancy, because the foetus is nothing more then potential, but justification becomes less palatable as potential becomes actualised. Can a woman really hold the same rights to ‘choose what happens within her own body’ when the foetus is twenty five weeks old, as she did when it was ten weeks old?
Topic: abortion

As previously mentioned, arbitrarily choosing a point in the foetuses life and exclaiming ‘before this point the thing is not a person, after this point it is a person,’ does appear contrived. But its comparison with ‘before this point a woman can choose, after this point she can’t; does seem vindicated against less satisfactory views. The purpose of this essay was to assess a case for abortion that was not dependent on the foetuses right to life, but instead to appreciate a woman’s right to choose. I don’t believe that either position can be considered without respecting the rights of the other. Therefore, in my opinion; a woman holds considerable rights; but they are only relative to the foetuses level of development.
Topic: abortion

The related topic between the four articles listed below is abortion. There will always be an argument for abortion and against abortions. As a women, I can relate to both sides; pro-choice and pro-life. The fact that the government is trying to take away the choice for an abortions, raises a lot of questions to me. Why shouldn’t women have a choice? Krause, K. W. (2011, July-August). Abortion’s still unanswered questions.
Topic: abortion

Kamier’s article “Abortion and Autonomy” points out the ways the laws have both protected abortion and pushed against them. The article shows both opinions about pro-choice and pro-life. Kaminer truly believes the feminist movement has been “fractured”. She also makes points in her article about how the law has had an influence on abortions. McBride, A. December 2006. Roe v. Wade (1973).
Topic: abortion

Joseph, C. (2011). Dems Spoiling for Planned Parenthood Fight. National Journal. Cameron Joseph is a young political journalist. He is currently working in Washington D.C writing about the re-election of Obama. The article listed above is about the republicans “defunding” Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is an organization that provides birth control and also performs abortions. Indiana officials say that taking funding for Medicaid to fund Planned Parenthood is illegal. “To prevent pregnancy or abortions, why don’t we fund organizations that provide birth control to prevent abortions?”
Topic: abortion

Also it’s been said that having an abortion would lead to a greater risk of a miscarriage and pelvic inflammatory disease. For the cases of rape and incest, there’s the 72 hour pill that can be taken or other medical care that can be taken to ensure no pregnancy will happen. Some teenager’s though can’t get their hands on the pill because you have to be eighteen or older to get it. Most teens wouldn’t have been financially prepared for a child or be able to get their hands on contraceptives.
Topic: abortion

People with religious views can be against abortion and argue that a child is god’s gift and shouldn’t be tampered with. Tampering with “A creation of God” would lead to unwanted memories. To argue with that statement, some people don’t believe in God and don’t have any religious views. Therefore, tampering with “God’s gift” by getting an abortion can’t be proven cause there’s no scientific evidence of a God. Another against abortion argument could also be that if abortion is illegal that means there would be more “back alley” abortions.
Topic: abortion

Back alley abortions can kill the mother or cause plenty complications. The contrary to that point would be that there’s plenty of other ways to get rid of your baby. Also, people think abortion shouldn’t be used as a form of birth control. It’s said to be better for society to have babies aborted instead of having them be raised poor, where the child will suffer and be put through problems, and do crimes. There are many couples in the world who want to adopt a child, and have been waiting for years.
Topic: abortion

Abortion is medical process of ending pregnancy. In this article, the writer would like to show that abortion is the worst way because there is some factors that can be considered to someone who will do abortion. Moreover the writer agree that abortion should be banned or it should be illegal. In some countries such as in: USA, China, Canada, Denmark, Australia and etc, abortion become legal. Abortion may be a best way for some people who are their fetus are not growing well.
Topic: abortion

But, that case is rarely happen. However pregnant woman can consume vitamin or drugs during they pregnant in order to their fetus can grow well and health. Every year the birth rate in the world increases. As a result, abortion may be the way to reduce it. It will be better if the country have a balance population. This means that the less population in a country the more chance to be a prosperous country. However, there is another way to reduce the birth rate besides doing abortion.
Topic: abortion

Using family planning is a solution for reducing birth rate, moreover to be a prosperous country is not only depend on how much the population it is, but the way how the government led economic system. People who do abortion is usually because of the free sex and pregnancy that happen to poor people who still having many children. It also can be a good way for them to do abortion because someone who still not be ready to have child especially because of economical factor, they won’t be a good parents.
Topic: abortion

The important thing to grow up the children is having a good economical so that the life needs of children can be fulfilled. However, another way to prevent from pregnancy is using contraception. It also reduce the population moreover someone who already pregnant and they still not be ready because of economical factor, it better if they do not abortion because the government still helping such as give job field and give subsidy to poor people. Abortion should be illegal because it have big risks for women health.
Topic: abortion

Brian Clowes ph. d pointed out that abortion give many deadly diseases such s: the damage of cervical laceration which will give an effect to the next baby, ovarian cancer, liver cancer, breast cancer due to an imbalance estrogen in women, and not able to have child again, not only that abortion can give high risk of the death. Siswanto in his article said that 11% of people who doing abortion die because of bleeding. It can be consideration for women who are going to do abortion. They should think smart and also regard the safety. Having children is a desire for every woman, almost woman in this world have children.
Topic: abortion

But there still some of people who cannot have a child, we can imagine that someone who pregnant and they will doing abortion. That is such an unmoral thing. Abortion is same as criminal or murder innocent child because the fetus is going to be a baby who will be alive. So that it same as murder a mortal. Another effect of doing abortion is not only in physical. It is possible someone who do abortion get psychological problem. As the article entitled “Post Abortion Stress Syndrome” wrote that about 50% women get psychological problem or emotional trauma.
Topic: abortion

Post abortion syndrome is not always happen in the same time, some may happen immediately and another may happen later. Post abortion syndrome have symptoms such as feeling guilty. Someone who did abortion may feel she has already done a violence because she killed an unborn child. The fact told that women who felt like this will experience unhappy events that have occurred since the abortion. Besides, feeling anxiety is one of the post abortion. Someone who do abortion will unconsciously to avoid anything having to do with babies.
Topic: abortion

She doesn’t want to showering babies and skip the things that have related with baby. Another feeling that may appear to women who do abortion is feeling depression. They will be in a sad mood because of feeling melancholy. Uncontrollable crying may also happen because of abortion is such a mystery in her life. Most of someone who do abortion will feel less of motivation, there will a difference feeling before doing abortion and after doing abortion. Some of them cannot accept the difference in her life after doing abortion.
Topic: abortion

In a study done by the Elliot Institute about 33% of post abortion stress syndrome make some women suicide, because they are in very depression feeling then she would rather die than go on. Finally, abortion can be a good way for someone who is really have problem with her fetus. Moreover, it also can be a worst way because there are some factor that may happen after doing abortion. That’s all point can be considered for someone who will do abortion. They should think smart before do abortion because everything that happened cannot be changed.
Topic: abortion

Before 1967, abortion was illegal in the UK. However, backstreet abortions were done, often ending in permanent injury or death. The 1967 Abortion Act was introduced to provide a safe alternative to backstreet abortions (Abortion). In 1973, the Supreme Court handed down its Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions legalizing abortion in all 50 states during all nine months of pregnancy, for any reason, medical, social, or otherwise. The vast majority of all abortions performed today are done for social, not medical reasons (McGee).
Topic: abortion

What personal, familial, social and economic factors lead to the decision to end a pregnancy? Some believe a woman should have the right to choose to have an abortion, whatever the reason. She should not have to persuade two doctors that she is making the right choice. Each year, nearly 1. 2 million American women have an abortion to end a pregnancy (WebMD) . The most common reasons women consider abortion are because they cannot afford a baby, the baby may be severely disabled or sick when born, or pregnancy resulting from rape or incest.
Topic: abortion

A Sep. 2005 survey in the peer-reviewed journal Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health asking women why they had an abortion found that 73% of respondents said they could not afford to have a baby. Babies are expensive and we understand that. We know that it may not be easy to provide for a baby that has come at a time in your life when you are not financially ready. Many women who get pregnant or have abortions are single mothers. Despite declines in rates of teen pregnancy in the U. S. , about 820,000 teens become pregnant each year.
Topic: abortion

That means that 34 percent of teenagers have at least one pregnancy before they turn 20 and seventy-nine percent of teenagers who become pregnant are unmarried (Teen Help). Most young adults who become pregnant are still attending school, have no job, and are still living with their parents and other siblings. How are they supposed to raise a child, when they are still depending on someone else for help? In the economy that we live in today, not only young people are unstable to raise a child, but older adults also due to the lack of job.
Topic: abortion

If someone knows that they cannot afford a child why bring them into this world to suffer? That is why some women choose to pay that one time cost of an abortion , than to pay the dues to raise a child forever. Now that prenatal testing can so easily detect babies with physical and mental disabilities, more and more women are choosing to abort their children if something is wrong with them. For example, up to 92% of women whose tests show that they are carrying babies with Down syndrome abort (Sarah Terzo).
Topic: abortion

A baby with severe disabilities may have a very poor quality of life that also brings trauma to the parents who have to watch it suffer, it may be kinder for that child not to be born (Abortion). When a doctor breaks the news to a woman that her child may suffer from a severe disability, the women begins to have so many thoughts run through her mind. Thoughts such as will my child be picked on / laughed at? Will my child ever be able to play sports? Is it my fault for allowing my child to live?
Topic: abortion

Many mothers suffer the pain of guilt, wishing that they had aborted their child, because their child is not normal like other children. Raped women should not be made to have the baby as they did not choose to get pregnant and would be constantly reminded of their ordeal as the child grows up (Abortion). It is argued that in these tragic cases the great value of the mental health of a woman who becomes pregnant as a result of rape or incest can best be safe-guarded by abortion. It is also said that a not be obliged to carry the fetus to viability.
Topic: abortion

This would keep reminding her for nine months of the pregnancy caused by rape or incest is the result of a grave injustice and that the victim should violence committed against her and would just increase her mental anguish. It is reasoned that the value of the woman’s mental health is greater than the value of the fetus. In addition, it is maintained that the fetus is an aggressor against the woman’s integrity and personal life; it is only just and morally defensible to repel an aggressor even by killing him if that is the only way to defend personal and human values.
Topic: abortion

It is concluded, then, that abortion is justified in these cases (Beckwith). Many people against abortions see the fetus as a distinct human being with its own right. They believe abortion cannot be justified because it is killing an innocent human being (RSrevision). Arguments include: Every child is a precious and unique gift from God, we have no right to destroy this, children with physical or learning disabilities can lead full and rewarding lives, and aborting people because of disability is like telling disabled people that they are worthless.
Topic: abortion

Christian religions believe that abortions are and have always been wrong. Life begins at conception (or at the very least we cannot be certain that it doesn’t), therefore abortion is murder. The unborn child is a sacred human life; it deserves the same respect as any other human being. Even in the case of rape, the RC Church does not support abortion – the fetus would be paying for someone else’s crime (Abortion). Variations exist in arguments on both sides of the debate.
Topic: abortion

Some pro-choice proponents believe abortion should only be used as a last resort, while others advocate unrestricted access to abortion services under any circumstance. Proponents, identifying themselves as pro-choice, contend that abortion is a right that should not be limited by governmental or religious authority, and which outweighs any right claimed for an embryo or fetus (Background). “We know that women have abortions for many reasons. Even if we disagree on the issue of abortion, we can agree that these are private personal decisions we all must be able to make based on our own circumstances, beliefs, and values.
Topic: abortion

We should respect and support a woman and her family as they face the life-altering decision of whether to have a child. It is neither my place nor our government’s place to make such an important life decision for someone else -Louise Melling. (Louise)”. If one is not ready for a child due to whatever the issue may be, why make a child suffer? As we, all know this world isn’t easy to survive in, its hard and it would be even harder with a child that a women cannot bear to take care of.
Topic: abortion

How would you feel if someone took away your ability to live? Imagine not having any say in whether or not you want to have a life. That is how aborted babies are treated, which is why abortion should be illegal. Abortion is the ending of pregnancy by the removal or forcing out from the womb of a fetus before it is able to survive on its own. If a woman decides to abort her baby, the baby cannot do anything about their life being taken away from them, and their entire future is demolished.
Topic: abortion

Abortion is murder. The embryo is a person from the moment of conception. According to Shettles, “Scientists identify the first moment of human life as that instant when a sperm cell unites with an ovum or egg cell” (18). Most pro-choice supporters do not believe the fetus is a person until the first or second trimester. Pro-choice people do not think abortion is murder because they consider the aborted fetus a mass or cells or tissue (Shettles 20).
Topic: abortion

Another reason why I don’t support abortion is because it can harm the mother as well. You are highly risking the mother’s life and affecting her. Not only does it have an effect on the USA but, it affects other countries as well like Spain. According to psychiatrist and member of the Right to Life Committee, Carmen Gómez-Lavín states that: “Sixty five percent of women who abort suffer symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome after undergoing the procedure.” Many women are regretting that choice around the world making it a controversial issue.
Topic: abortion

The debate about abortion focuses on two issues; 1.) Whether the human fetus has the right to life, and, if so, 2.) Whether the rights of the mother override the rights of the fetus. The two ethicists who present strong arguments for their position, and who I am further going to discuss are that of Don Marquis and Judith Thomson. Marquis’ “Future Like Ours” (FLO) theory represents his main argument, whereas, Thomson uses analogies to influence the reader of her point of view.
Topic: abortion

In spite of the fact that Marquis does not rely on the concept of personhood, he shares a key supposition with those who do: whether or not abortion is wrong, in his outlook, depends on something about the fetus; it depends on “whether a fetus is the sort of being whose life it is seriously wrong to end.” He believes the fetus is such a being, and he sets forth an analysis of why. He does this by first stating it is appropriate by discussing what it is about us that makes killing us, not only wrong, but seriously wrong.
Topic: abortion

To understand the wrongness in killing us must be done in terms of what killing us does to us. Marquis states that killing us “imposes on us the misfortune of premature death. That misfortune underlies the wrongness.” Further, that when one is dead, one has been deprived of life due to the fact that premature death is a misfortune. Also, that premature death deprives an individual of a future of value. Thus, killing someone is wrong, in general, when it deprives that person a future like ours, which he calls a “FLO.” In Marquis’ FLO theory are four arguments that support this account of the wrongness of killing.
Topic: abortion

According to www.prolifeaction.org, Life begins at conception. It states that, “Medical textbooks and scientific works consistently agree that human life begins at conception.” We don’t consider an egg a chicken, or a seed a plant. If human life begins at conception then why does the Encyclopedia of Britannica say that abortion is, “The expulsion of a fetus from the uterus before it had reached the stage of viability (in humans the 20th week of gestation).
Topic: abortion

How is abortion for rape, incest or a child with extreme disability justifiable, but not teenage pregnancy? 25% of female college students have either been raped, or victims of attempted rape (rape by acutance). 75% of these girls fail to recognize that it was rape and less than 30% come forward. These girls don’t feel they have been raped so if they can’t have an abortion then they have to live with the consequences this male put on them for the rest of their lives.
Topic: abortion

In 1869 Canada passed a law which banned abortion with a penalty of life in prison. Physicians, not citizens led the battle against abortion in England, the US and Canada. They were trying to protect women’s health but it only resulted in illegal and unsafe abortion practices. If the right to abortion is taken away then it is inevitable that history will repeat itself. Especially in today’s world, if a woman wanted an abortion that badly she would find someone to do it illegally and unsafely.
Topic: abortion

Whatever your beliefs shouldn’t the woman still be able to make her own choice for abortion? Andy Lewis from Capitalism Magazine wrote that, “As a women has a right to chose who she has sex with (as her body is her property), so it is a woman’s right to chose what can and cannot remain inside her body (as her body is her property). As it is evil for someone else to dictate the use of her body by raping her, so it is evil for someone to dictate the use of her body by forcing her to remain pregnant.” Pregnancy is not something a woman chooses to happen. Some people are careless with contraceptives, but why take away that choice from others because a few were careless. It’s too huge of a decision for careless people to ruin it for the people who truly want and need an abortion.
Topic: abortion

Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing is a novel about a woman who seeks redemption because of having her baby aborted. Her name is never revealed what denotes a serious problem in her identity. She has lost all the human characteristics such as the ability to feel (Atwood 22), love (Atwood 36), dream (Atwood 37) or weep (Atwood 166). She has to go through both physical but mainly mental transformation to realize and find her real self; she has to move from denial to self-knowledge.
Topic: abortion

The narrator, hurt by the abortion, seeks comfort in persuading herself that she did not experience the abortion but the divorce, she simply substitutes the word abortion by the word divorce. It might be because ‘to divorce somebody’ means “to separate a person, an idea, a subject, etc. from sth; to keep two things separate” (Oxford Dictionary 444). The same meaning has the verb ‘to abort something’; because when a foetus is aborted it is also separate – from its mother.
Topic: abortion

The second part of the sentence might not speak about their relationship anymore, but about the abortion while using the word ‘separate’. It was the child who was to be kept separate from life, not just their relationship. That means that both words – abortion and divorce – mean to ‘disjoin something’ – the foetus from the mother’s body or two lovers, and that is the way how she deceives herself. Another hint in the text is that she speaks about the abortion and the divorce in the same way: “A divorce is like an amputation, you survive but there’s less of you” (Atwood 49).
Topic: abortion

The way she remembers the abortion is: “I was emptied, amputated” (Atwood 169). That is the point where a denial comes – in psychology it is “a refusal to accept that something unpleasant or painful is true” (Oxford Dictionary 405). The narrator skews what happened to protect herself from grief. It is certainly easier for her to think that she is divorced, because divorce does not mean killing an innocent creature. Killing is regarded as something sinful. Even if it is easier for her to live through what happened when she substitutes it with a divorce, her parents still despise her even if she is ‘only divorced’.
Topic: abortion

“They never forgave me, they didn’t understand the divorce […] What upset them was the way I did it, so suddenly, and then running off and leaving my husband and child […] Leaving my child, that was the unpardonable sin; it was no use trying to explain that it wasn’t really mine” (Atwood 33-34). The narrator herself describes two techniques how to cope with the pain. “I bite down hard into the cone and I can’t feel anything for a minute but the knife-hard pain up the side of my face. Anaesthesia, that’s one technique: if it hurts invent a different pain” (Atwood 13). Firstly, the word anaesthesia comes from Latin, Greek and it means ‘without sensation’.
Topic: abortion

That is an important point; because when one has an abortion she is under the anaesthetic – to not feel anything. The truth is even when one does not feel anything it ‘invents a different pain’ – there is not physical pain, but the emotional pain is unbearable. That is the point in her life where she stopped to feel (Atwood 22) or weep (Atwood 166). Neither is she able to love (Atwood 36), because there is no one to – her unborn baby is dead and her lover, who claims that he loves her, disappointed her by forcing to the abortion; and dream (Atwood 37), because there is nothing to dream about anymore.
Topic: abortion

The strung heron is one of them. “It was hanging upside down by a thin blue nylon rope tied round its feet and looped over a tree branch, its wings fallen open. It looked at me with its mashed eye” (Atwood 137). Supposing that the heron represents a foetus, one might see the connections. A baby before parturition is upside down and it has rope too – an umbilical cord.
Topic: abortion

The projection in this case is that a foetus might be suffocated by the umbilical cord – it might be killed in a mother’s body where it should be protected. “It was hiding in me as if in a burrow and instead of grating it sanctuary I let them catch it” (Atwood 170). She was supposed to protect both of them – her baby and the heron, because it was ‘her land’ where the Americans come. “I felt a sickening complicity, sticky as glue, blood on my hands, as though I had been there and watched without saying No or doing anything to stop it” (Atwood 150).
Topic: abortion

The Americans here constitute the doctors, because both of them killed an innocent creature. What is more, not only the doctors harmed the baby, but also the narrator experienced pain: “She experiences herself as the wilderness innocent and virgin, violated by nameless and destructive men” (Christ 320). She can do nothing but just witness her victimization. Later on the narrator regrets that she did not bury the heron: “In my head when I closed my eyes, the shape of the heron dangled, upside down.
Topic: abortion

I should have buried it” (Atwood 112). She also regrets not having buried her baby: “They scraped it into a bucket and threw it wherever they throw them; it was travelling through the sewers by the time I woke, back to the sea” (168). When a dead body is buried it is generally easier to come to terms with the fact that something has died. Not burying her baby raises her insecurity. There is no place where she can go such as cemetery and grief for the baby, because the foetus is somewhere in ‘the sea’. It is no surprise that the narrator mixes up the foetus with an animal because “He [her lover] said it wasn’t a person, only an animal” (Atwood 170).
Topic: abortion

That is the point where she realizes that people are too animals and that both of them need protection. Another point is that the heron ‘looked at her’, the same situation happened when finding her father under the water: “It was below me, drifting towards me from the furthest level where was no life, a dark oval trailing limbs. It was blurred but it had eyes, they were open, it was something, I knew about, a dead thing, it was dead” (Atwood 136). And so as having her abortion: “It was in a bottle curled up, staring out at me like a cat pickled, it had huge jelly eyes […] it had drowned in air” (Atwood 137).
Topic: abortion

She is chased by her unborn baby but “the truth does not flash upon her in one instant. She recognizes only gradually, working her way down through a series of memories in which the truth is half veiled and half visible, until she finally arrives at a recollection of the abortion” (Niederhoff 65). At the end the narrator is redeemed by facing the truth and accepting the pain and the guilt. “It wasn’t a child but it could have been one, I didn’t allow it” (Atwood 168). “She no longer believes killing can be justified as ‘sport’. She rejects her brother’s distinction between ‘good’ leeches which deserve to live and ‘bad’ leeches which deserve to die.
Topic: abortion

And she rejects her lover’s distinction between ‘good’ (legitimate) foetuses which grow up to have a birthday parties, and ‘bad’ (illegitimate) foetuses which must be killed” (Christ 322). Now she is able to act upon her own feelings about what is good or what is bad. She no longer wants to vindicate her deeds by silly reasons. What is more, to reach the redemption she needs to give another life or maybe resurrect the dead one. When confessing that her brother did not drowned in the end (Atwood 68) she shows what she would like to do with the foetus, so the conceiving a new baby with Joe was expected. “He trembles and then I can feel my lost child surfacing within me, forgiving me, rising from the lake where it had been prisoned for so long” (Atwood 155-156).
Topic: abortion

Now she is so mature that she understands what she carries in her abdomen. “I ferry it secure between death and life” (Atwood 162). Only after the narrator acknowledged the death of the foetus and her responsibility for it, is she able to resurrect it. She also finds her human characteristics: “feeling was beginning to seep back into me, I tingled like a foot that’s been asleep” (Atwood 140). She also weeps (Atwood 166), dreams (Atwood 182) and love (Atwood 186). In conclusion, Atwood’s Surfacing is a psychological novel which shows the reader how people might change when something dreadful happens to them. It shows the transformation of the narrator, who in the end admits to herself what really happened and become sufficiently strong to redress it in another way.
Topic: abortion

She also becomes resolute in her deeds and seizes control of her life; she now knows what is needed and how to do it. She becomes a real person with health mind and determination to do everything to safeguard her foetus conceived with Joe. Without the abortion of her first foetus she would not be able to change in such a great way. She needed to live through the woeful dead of animals in her home village, to realize that people have no rights to kill anything just for their fun and most importantly to let all of these thoughts to change her thinking and her personality. All of these would not happen if she had not had the abortion, what means that the abortion is a starter of her mental transformation.
Topic: abortion

Atwood, Margaret. Surfacing. General Paperbacks, 1989. Print. Christ, Carol P. “Margaret Atwood: The Surfacing of Women’s Spiritual Quest and Vision.” Signs. Chicago UP, 1976. 316-330. JSTOR. Web. 31 March 2012. Hinz , Evelyn J., Teunissen John J. “Surfacing: Margaret Atwood’s Nymph Complaining”. Contemporary Literature. Wisconsin UP, 1979. 221-236. JSTOR. Web. 31 March 2012. Niederhoff, Burkhard. “The Return of the Dead in Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing and
Topic: abortion

There are numerous issues that divide the population. Abortion, a long-standing issue, is one of these. Even in ancient and medieval times, people have engaged in such act. In ancient China and Egypt, different methods have been developed to induce abortion such as the use of herbs. The medieval period saw developments in techniques such as the use of forceps and anaesthesia. As expected, with the development of the methods of abortion also comes strong opposition, primarily from religious bodies.
Topic: abortion

This puts the mother in a dangerous and life-threatening situation, with 8 out of 10 of these women develop complications. With these findings, pro-choice groups believe that if abortion would be legalized, abortion will now take place in medical settings, ensuring the safety of the mother. They also emphasize that victims of rape, incest, and sexual trafficking who become pregnant because of the abuse should be given the right for abortion since they did not plan on having a baby in the first place.
Topic: abortion

I feel conflicted about this issue since I am both a Catholic and a woman. It is easy to say no to abortion because it is wrong according to my religion. As a woman, I, too, believe that I should be given the right to my own body. Nonetheless, taking these all side, regardless of me being a Catholic and a woman, I am a firm believer of the sanctity of life. Life, in all its forms, must be respected and protected. Everyone must be given an opportunity to experience life.
Topic: abortion

In an emotional sense, every pregnancy is different from each other. Some women have planned it for years while others get pregnant by “accident”. In sad cases though, pregnancy can occur from rape, incest, and sexual trafficking. Since the perpetrator is the father of the fetus, it is hard for the mother to develop love and affection towards it. For many, they believe that getting an abortion can solve this problem. Maybe I am not to judge their actions since I have not experienced the pain and suffering that these women must have undergone.
Topic: abortion

However, I can say that if there is someone that must be punished because of the abuse, it must be the perpetrators. The unborn child must not be harmed since it did not choose to be made. It never inflicted pain towards its mother. It is just a product of an unfortunate event. If the mother does not want to keep the baby, she should just give it up for adoption where the child is given a chance to live and experience life.
Topic: abortion

I think that abortion should not be legalized in the Philippines. In Article 11, Section 12 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, the state must protect the life of the mother and the unborn. Abortion, therefore, is unconstitutional. If ever, but unlikely, a new constitution will be drafted and will legalize abortion in the country, this will pave the way for new ethical issues to arise. People then will argue that if abortion is legal, then why not legalize this or that. In the years to come, the Philippines will be a country that only values the wants and comforts of its citizenry, and not the sanctity of life.
Topic: abortion

“Jane Doe, you have been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of your embryo.” Is this what we want to hear? According to the recent gallup poll, 44% of us apparently do. Does it matter that she is a happily married forty three year old employed mother of three who was impregnated by a man who raped her at gun point? The answer to this question continues to be a controversial debate long after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 7-2 landmark decision on Roe vs.
Topic: abortion

Because they feel life begins at conception, they insist terminating a pregnancy is murdering a living human being. Pro-life advocates argue that these innocent human beings have the fundamental right to life that must be protected. A common example of this perception is the fact that no one would suggest that a mother kill her three year old child because it’s not big enough to have rights yet; Therefor, an infant in the womb should not be deprived of it’s right to be born simply because it’s too small.
Topic: abortion

Pro-choice advocates argue that rape is one of the most traumatic events a woman can experience and that in these occurrences aborting the pregnancy is her fundamental right to choose not to be a mother. This could be a young girl who has no concept of life as she has yet to experience it or live it or an older woman whose health may be at risk. The additional torment of being pregnant with the product of the violation against her can be physically and emotionally traumatizing. According to pro-choice believers , carrying an unwanted pregnancy is something no one should be forced to bare.
Topic: abortion

While a fetus is a potential human life, it does not need to be afforded the same rights as the woman who it resides in. The pro-choice community believes in a woman’s right to decide whether having the baby fits in with her life circumstances and health, being that she didn’t ask to be raped and impregnated. Modern abortion procedures are believed to be safer than childbirth and result in less than one death in 100,000. Whereas, childbirth is responsible for 13 deaths in 100,000.
Topic: abortion

By way of contrast, pro-choice supporters argue that where human life cannot be proven in pregnancy prior to the point of viability, the government does not have the right to impede a woman’s right to decide whether or not to continue a pregnancy no matter what the circumstance. Honestly, can’t a person, as well as, the government take a pro-life and pro-choice position on this uncommon horrible predicament? Meaning, although one wouldn’t seek an abortion or advocate for one, An individual would not want to take that right away from someone else, or criminalize the procedure in the event a woman was raped and impregnated against her will. Are there not exceptions for every rule?
Topic: abortion

“Jane Doe, you have been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of your embryo.” Is this what we want to hear? According to the recent gallup poll, 44% of us apparently do. Does it matter that she is a happily married forty three year old employed mother of three who was impregnated by a man who raped her at gun point? The answer to this question continues to be a controversial debate long after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 7-2 landmark decision on Roe vs. Wade declaring abortion a “fundamental right” in 1973. In the instance of rape based pregnancies, the question of whether abortion
Topic: abortion

While the majority of pregnancies are the result of consensual sex, woman periodically become impregnated as a result of rape. Should a woman who involuntary engaged in sex be forced to carry a child to term as a result? Pro-life advocates say absolutely! They believe that a woman must never terminate her pregnancy, no matter what the circumstance. Whereas pro-choice individuals support a woman’s choice to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, especially when a child is conceived against her will.
Topic: abortion

The sanctity of life can compel some people to feel justified in coercing a woman to produce a living constant reminder of an act unfair to both mother and child. According to pro-life supporters aborting a child conceived through rape extends the pattern of violence and victim-hood. Although these people believe rape is a horrific act of violence, they perceive abortion as an equal act of violence that the mother should be morally and legally punished for as well. Because they feel life begins at conception, they insist terminating a pregnancy is murdering a living human being. Pro-life advocates argue that these innocent human beings have the fundamental right to life that must be protected.
Topic: abortion

A common example of this perception is the fact that no one would suggest that a mother kill her three year old child because it’s not big enough to have rights yet; Therefor, an infant in the womb should not be deprived of it’s right to be born simply because it’s too small. On the other hand, pro-choice supporters believe it’s a woman’s choice to keep or abort her pregnancy when conception results from being raped. These supporters believe an abortion is terminating a pregnancy, not a human being since personhood at conception is a religious belief, not a provable biological fact.
Topic: abortion

Pro-choice advocates argue that rape is one of the most traumatic events a woman can experience and that in these occurrences aborting the pregnancy is her fundamental right to choose not to be a mother. This could be a young girl who has no concept of life as she has yet to experience it or live it or an older woman whose health may be at risk. The additional torment of being pregnant with the product of the violation against her can be physically and emotionally traumatizing. According to pro-choice believers , carrying an unwanted pregnancy is something no one should be forced to bare.
Topic: abortion

While a fetus is a potential human life, it does not need to be afforded the same rights as the woman who it resides in. The pro-choice community believes in a woman’s right to decide whether having the baby fits in with her life circumstances and health, being that she didn’t ask to be raped and impregnated. Modern abortion procedures are believed to be safer than childbirth and result in less than one death in 100,000. Whereas, childbirth is responsible for 13 deaths in 100,000.