Question

Who has the more important “rights” claim (pregnant woman, fetus, father, etc.) in abortion and why?

Answer 1

More important rights claim in abortion is pregnant women and fetus.

Mature woman, as mature human beings with all respect and dignity to be awarded the right to decide whether or not they carry a specific pregnancy to term. In Roe, it was held that a woman’s right to choose not to bear a child was fundamental and could not be infringed. Right to privacy found broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.

The pro-life schools ask for the right of fetus and demand for abolition of abortion. But here occurs a violation on the right of mother for choice. Pro-choice is a school of thought and movement which demands the protection of the rights of the mother to choose her fertility. Accordingly, a woman has a right to choose whether to continue or terminate her pregnancy.

Pro-choice advocates argue whether or not to continue with a pregnancy is an inviolable personal choice, as it involves a woman's body, personal health, and future. They believe that both parents' and children's lives are better when abortions are legal, thus preventing women from going to desperate lengths to obtain illegal abortions. More broadly, pro-choice advocates frame their beliefs in terms of individual liberty, reproductive freedom, and reproductive rights.

B) Abortion Is Violation Of Fetus’s Right To Life

Medical and scientific research has proven that life begins at conception . Thus abortion is akin to murder as it is the fact of taking human life. Abortion is direct disobedience of the commonly accepted idea of the sanctity of human life.

No civilized societies in the globe permit a person to intentionally harm or take life of another person. Such an act is offence everywhere and is punishable. Abortion is not an exception or not a different to this general principle. The process of abortion is nothing but taking life of a person. So such an act of taking life of a person should not be allowed.

A mother cannot claim that “it is my body and absolutely my choice". Though fetus is a person, he/she has the right to life. According to pro-life advocates, Mother’s action should not infringe the right of fetus because right to life is the supreme right for a human being.

Viability, however, is not a useful concept in the feticide context. Viability occurs at different points in different pregnancies and requires medical expertise to diagnose. Except in the very last stages of pregnancy, no one other than a physician could be expected to know the fetus is viable [

The fetus's life interest still warrants the state's protection under these circumstances, and the unwanted termination of the pregnancy must be separately recognized and vindicated. A crime that results in the death of a fetus, regardless of the specific knowledge of the actor, is objectively more traumatic and culpable than violence committed against a non-pregnant person because two separate harms result.

The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany has addressed the issue of abortion and fetal right in 1975, two years after Roe v. Wade [16] .In the judgment [17] , the court held that respect of human dignity requires the criminalization of abortion.

The court has considered the full range of arguments for abortion , and then it specifically rejected the main points of reasoning in Roe v. Wade as well as its "term solution" as inconsistent with the constitutional guarantee of the right to life. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany [guarantees that “Everyone has the right to life" and it must be extended to the life of the unborn. In 1993, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany [20]  held that [21] “life begins, according to the established biological-physiological knowledge, on the 14th day after conception" and the constitution guarantees the right to life to a fetus and recognizes him/her as a legal person from conception itself.

Many Legislative measures have been taken in order to assign a fetus the right to life even from the time of fertilization. Such a kind of law intends to give the fetus the same status as that of every member of the Homo sapiens species.

Article 4.1 of the American Convention on Human Rights, 1978 states "Every person has the right to have his life respected. This right shall be protected by law and, in general, from the moment of conception."

In 1983, the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland, which is known as the "Pro-Life Amendment," has been added by popular referendum. The amendment has recognized "the right to life of the unborn".