i.GM1: Norby L.
Menes
ii.GM2: John Rey Manrique
iii.GM3: Cris John Mallorca
iv.GM4: Jeffrey Marzol
v.GM5: Maylyn Madriñan
vi.GM6: Alliah Leigh Mapagdalita
LEARNING OUTPUT#5 (QUESTION #3)
CASE
Gretchen is a preacher in their church. She teaches children the bible and there include
the Ten Commandments. It is said that killing a person is absolutely wrong. One day
she found out that she has an ectopic pregnancy. Ectopic pregnancy is a type of
pregnancy that occurs outside the uterus, most commonly in the fallopian tubes, which
is not normal for a fetus to develop. If this happens, the development of the fetus will
definitely endanger the mother. Thus, if Gretchen continues with her pregnancy, then
there is a big possibility that she will die. According to experts, the best way to save
Gretchen’s life is to abort the fetus, which necessarily implies killing the fetus. If she will
not abort the fetus, then Gretchen as well as the fetus will die. Using the deontological
framework, evaluate the given moral issues below and provide the best and plausible
moral decision.
ANSWER:
In the moral issue that has been stated the choices revolve in the path of either
Gretchen choosing between alternatives that must be evaluated as wrong (unethical) or
accepting her death. The decision that we can provide is to choose to save the life of
Gretchen. Choosing the abortion is morally wrong action for Gretchen because it was a
clear rule given by the Ten Commandments that do not kill an innocent people and this
is a perfect duty of deontology but this kind of set of rules cannot be used in an
emergency situation like on Gretchen status. With the ten commandments essentially
being a clear set of rules imposed in a society therefore valid to be put in the discussion,
we believe that the rule to not kill a person naturally applies to the mother as well.
Dividing into the essence of the commandment we could perceive that the whole point
of the role prohibiting the killing of an individual is clearly geared towards valuing life.
Clearly the motive behind aborting the fetus is nowhere near ill or inhumane it is pure
logic and all about saving the life of the person. This only further strengthens the
plausibility of aborting the fetus because she would be doing it not from a personal
inclination to simply get rid of a baby but ultimately because it would harm her health,
her right to survive and her right to live her life more.
Taking this point into the evaluation, the decision to abort the fetus could be
backed up by the logic that as humans we have natural inclination towards self
preservation. Survival is what well all strive for and so trying to protect the life we
possesses is ultimately a natural tendency for human beings therefore making it a rule
or obligation embraced by society . The fetus eventually dying is a given fact whatever
the decision of mother leans towards making the wellbeing of the mother in the thing to
be given priority in the given case .
From a Deontology point of view, morals are related universally and it states that
an act that is not good morally can lead to something good. Deontology is a theory that
suggests an action could be determined as moral basing on its states of being
obligatory due to a clear set of rules without consideration of possible consequences.
So eliminating the fetus in the womb Gretchen can be considered an act of duty to save
another life. At some point, if Gretchen agrees to do abortion then it would be okay for
her to have an abortion but if she chooses not to do abortion and continue the
pregnancy but you still decided to do abortion then the action would be immoral to her.
We can always obey the rules unless it is an emergency situations this reasoning
can be justified by a threshold deontology, We can still justified that the abortion is
morally right.
After careful and in depth evaluation of the given case using the frame work of
the deontological theory of morality we have come to the conclusion that the best and
and plausible more decision to make is to proceed with aborting the fetus. Taking the
first medical and scientific facts into considerations , one could immediately determine
the best decision to make its not continue the pregnancy. In an ectopic pregnancy there
is little to no chance of the fetus for surviving the first essential stages of development
let alone the whole pregnancy. It is normal for a fetus to grow in a fallopian tube as it
isn't biologically built to. Sustain a growing fetus . To kill the fetus is not a wrong
decision because the reason is reasonable. The life of the fetus is not clear if it will
continue to grow if saved because of ectopic pregnancy. Carrying on an ectopic
pregnancy would only result to death of both the mother and child as already stated in
the case .Give this the decision to make from rational point of view is to abort the
pregnancy.
Aborting the ectopic pregnancy isn't deliberately killing an innocent child it is about
saving life of an already living and breathing human being ( mother). The abortion is not
driven by emotions rather it is guided by facts and rational thinking. It means that
survivability must be prioritized and the experts themselves said that the best way to
save Gretchen’s life is to abort the fetus. Our duty as human beings is to survive
respect, care for and restore the earth and its natural resources. As human beings, we
have unlimited potential for self-fulfillment.
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