Reflections Ethical Issues On Abortion Philosophy Essay

Reflections Ethical Issues On Abortion Philosophy Essay Society has been up in arms over the issue of abortion for years, and will continue to be for years to come. There are those who defend the laws against abortion and those who believe that abortion is perfectly within a womans right to have the procedure performed. What then is hubbub about? It all boils down to what is morally and ethically right. There are those who argue that abortion is morally reprehensible and should be prohibited; and those who try to abstain or avoid casting any judgment on the morality of this practice. There are those who say the laws are just because they prohibit actions that are morally permissible; others oppose these laws without thought of the moral issue at all and argue that the individual have a right to choose for themselves whether or not to indulge in the practice. Abortion, as we all know, is the unnatural termination or an end to a pregnancy before birth that results in the death of a fetus. The question then becomes how is it determined how abortion can be morally right or wrong if it cannot be determined when the essence of personhood begins, and is abortion in fact murder (Warren)? Some abortions occur spontaneously or naturally because the fetus does not develop normally. Others occur because of a trauma or injury to the mother which prevents the pregnancy from developing full term. Also, there are those that are clinically induced because either the pregnancy presents a risk to the woman or is unwanted. An induced abortion is one of the most ethical and philosophical issues of the century. In the United States, the debate over abortion has brought about many legal court and state legislative battles. These battles have also been the source of violent confrontations at clinics and anti-abortion rallies. There are also several other methods used in the abortion process: the morning after pill that is taken within seventy-two hours of unprotected sexual intercourse and another pill taken twelve hours later. The purpose of this pill is to prohibit the fetus from further development at the early stages of conception, or at the point where the sperm fertilizes the egg (Schmidt). So, when does the fertilized egg become a fetus? Is it when the fetus can react to pain? Is it at conception, or, is it when the actual birth occurs? Evidence conflicts, with several physicians holding that the fetus is capable of feeling pain sometime in the first trimester (Schmidt, 1984), and medical researchers, notably from the American Medical Association, maintaining that the neuroanatomical requirements for such experience do not exist until the 29th week of gestation. Pain receptors begin to appear in the seventh week of gestation (Schmidt, 1984). The thalamus, the part of the brain which receives signals from the nervous system and then relays them to the cerebral cortex, starts to form in the fifth week. However, other anatomical structures involved in the nociceptive process are not present until much later in gestation. Links between the thalamus and cerebral cortex form around the 23rd week. There has been suggestion that a fetus cannot feel pain at all, under the premi se that it requires mental development that only occurs outside the uterus Some of the most common arguments abortion supporters use when confronting abortion opponents is when does a life begin? When does a fertilized egg become a fetus? When does a fetus become a baby? Since there is no scientifically provable answer, it boils down to religious beliefs and not scientific proof. Don Marquis argues that abortion is wrong and immoral. That the killing of a fetus is equivalent to the killing of any human being is morally wrong (Marquis). Marquis argues, is that abortion destroys ones possible future. It is for this very reason that it is morally wrong to take our lives. All our activities, enjoyments, etc., are suddenly non-realizable because someone has taken our lives. This is, he says, the natural property that explains why it is wrong to kill humans Singer states that arguments for or against abortion should be based on utilitarian calculation which weighs the preferences of a mother against the preferences of the fetus. In his view a preference is anything sought to be obtained or avoided; all forms of benefit or harm caused to a being correspond directly with the satisfaction or frustration of one or more of its preferences. Since a capacity to experience the sensations of suffering or satisfaction is a prerequisite to having any preferences at all, and a fetus, at least up to around eighteen weeks, says Singer, has no capacity to suffer or feel satisfaction, it is not possible for such a fetus to hold any preferences at all. In a utilitarian calculation, there is nothing to weigh against a mothers preferences to have an abortion. Therefore, abortion is morally permissible (Singer, 1993). An individuals position on the complex ethical, moral, philosophical, biological, and legal is-sues is often related to his or her value system. Opinions of abortion may be best described as being a combination of beliefs on its morality, and beliefs on the responsibility, ethical scope, and proper extent of governmental authorities in public policy. Religious ethics also has an influence upon both personal opinion and the greater debate over abortion. Let us, as an example of an ethical dilemma, consider Shauntay. Shauntay is a soon to be graduated senior at the New York School of the Arts. All of her young life has been struggle. Hungry, and sometimes near homeless, shes lived for eighteen years from one project to another. Shauntay knew the only way out of this situation was through hard work and dedication. Fortunately for her, there were those who believed in her as much as she in herself. Dance became her escape. Her hard work and determination finally paid off. Upon graduation, Shauntay was to receive a full ride scholarship to Julliard in the fall. All her life, it has been her dream to become a professional dancer and get away from the life of poverty to which she had been born. She has long had the desire to travel and see the world, an opportunity that her parents had never been able to give. However, just after her senior prom, and before graduation Shauntay received what to her was the most devastating news imaginable. You see, for several mornings she had experienced bouts of nausea and weakness. At first, not thinking much of it, she thought it was the flu or a stomach virus. Also, in reflecting she remembered she had not had a menstrual cycle this month. Concern that the virus would not go away, Shauntay went to the doctor. After her examination, the doctor returned and told her that she was going to be a mother. In the blink of an eye, all of her hopes and dreams seemed to fly out the window. What was she to do? How could she tell her parents? How would she tell those parents, whose dreams of her having a chance to grow were just as vivid as her own that, she was pregnant? How could she give up what she had worked so hard to achieve? How could she keep, love and care for this child that would have taken so much from her, and possibly condemned her to a life of further impoverishment? How would she take care of a baby? Where would she live? What could she do? What should she do? She had been taught that abortion was morally wrong. She had been taught that abortion was in the eyes of God, the same as murder. This was her dilemma. The idea of liberalizing abortion laws became culturally salient during the late 1960s, and several state legislatures passed relatively permissive abortion laws during this period. The trend toward gradual liberalization was interrupted by the Supreme Courts landmark 1973 decision Roe v. Wade, which held virtually all state abortion laws to be unconstitutional. Although public opinion generally moved in a more prochoice direction following Roe, the decision mobilized opposition from several, often religious, sources. Many cultural and religious conservatives opposed legal abortion because legal abortion was thought to encourage sexual promiscuity by reducing the risks of sexual activity outside of marriage. Another early source of opposition to legal abortion came from the African-American community. Several African-American leaders denounced legal abortion as genocide and suggested that easy access to abortion would ultimately be used by whites to limit societal responsibility to care for children born into poverty. When engaging in culturally and ethically controversial topics like abortion, it has been found that most people latch onto a specific idea and use it to counter every argument offered against their view. For example, one in favor of abortion might be unwilling to question the fact that a woman has a right to her own body, (which means that a fetus has no such rights). On the other hand, one who is against abortion might be unwilling to go beyond the claim that abortion is simply murder (Warren; 1973). It may well be that abortion is murder, but the debate will not be won by simply asserting that such is the case. The reason for so much of the confusion on the issue is our human tendency to accept or reject basic moral principles without adequate examination all boils down to agreeing to disagree. Failure to conduct such an examination means that we improperly accept or reject principles that ultimately determine the direction of life. One need only look at the radically different presentations regarding human nature found in Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Hobbes, Locke, Freud, Marx, Hegel, Hume, Sartre, Kierkegaard, and a host of others to see the importance of this issue. In the final analysis, who stands to judge what is morally right or ethically wrong? Is not killing by any other name still killing?

Robert Louis Stevensons Dr. Jekyll and Mary Shelleys Frankenstein Ess

Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Both Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein tell cautionary tales of scientists abusing their creative powers to exist in another sphere where they cannot be directly blamed for their actions. Though Frankenstein's creation is a "Creature" distinct from his creator while Dr. Jekyll metamorphoses into Mr. Hyde, the "double" of each protagonist progressively grows more violent throughout his story. By doing so he symbolizes his creator's repressed desires in a stifling society. The stories have parallel structures in the three main ways. First, both Dr. Jekyll and Frankenstein are scientists who, though welcomed by society, find it constraining and often alienate themselves. Each creates an alter ego for himself to live out his liberated passions, Hyde for Jekyll and the Creature for Frankenstein. Jekyll creates his with intention for evil and Frankenstein with the idea of building a supreme being. However, it could be argued that Frankenstein unconsciously wishes his creation to commit acts of sin. Hyde's and Frankenstein's first victims are children. They each evolve over time and develop their violent tendencies, culminating in the murder of a well-esteemed man for Hyde and Frankenstein's family and friends. The first mention of Dr. Jekyll comes in a discussion between his longtime friends, Lanyon and Utterson, men whose names imply a traditional, hampered society. "Utterson" combines both "utter," connoting a squelched speech, with "son," defining the society's patriarchal structure, and "Lanyon" casts images of sprawling canyons that are noticeably absent in the gray, foggy London Stevenson depicts. La... ...sire for a new society. Hyde and the Creature's plights follow similar paths, but their motives seem somewhat different. Jekyll invented Hyde for a dive in which he could transport himself and put on display his evil psyche. Frankenstein assembled the Creature as an à ¼ber-man of sorts, a prototype of a better society. Frankenstein was published in 1818, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in 1886. Perhaps Stevenson's book marks the end of Romanticism as a viable literary style in modern times. Though Frankenstein's evil hides is veiled by guilt and a seemingly upstanding society position, Jekyll's is visibly apparent. Frankenstein is a shaded man with no clear dividing line, whereas Jekyll is a black-and-white character with a subset of colors inside his dichotomies. Stevenson, drawing on Shelley's story, reflected both a new literary movement and a new psychological study.

Energy transference at hypersonic velocities

I'm pretty sure we have had this discussion before so I've got one of my old copycats from a previous thread. Force travels through solid objects at roughly the speed of sound in that object, if you force a piece of an object to move at greater than the speed of sound through that medium it will simply tear whatever is holding it together without transmitting force to the surrounding structure. His gives a kind of hole punch effect If the projectile Is moving faster than the speed of sound In the target. The maximum known speed of mound is about 1 km/s in diamond, given that a dreaded shot moves at about Kim/s it is safe to assume that armor anti going to do sit. Given the momentum behind the small slug it should remain above the speed of sound in diamond until (keg*Kim/s/km/s) the total mass of matter it has punched through reaches 5. 3 tones.Second, things heat up when they are compressed as given by the perfect gas law (at these energy densities it is close enough for our purposes despite everything being solid) so when the projectile gets compressed it heats up, if it heats up to the correct bevel it melts, vaporizes and turns into plasma, that depends on the energy densities present (FUSION). So when a solid slug hits the armor the first thing which will happen Is that the slug punches a hole clean through the armor, no if's, no buts.Then the pressure wave begins to propagate through both the armor chunk which has been torn out and the projectile, the amount of pressure in this wave is so immensely fugue that the matter instantly becomes plasma shortly followed by becoming a angular fireball. The only question left is how far does the projectile reach inside the ship until you can top modeling It as a projectile and have to start modeling It as a nuke. He Irony here Is that armor essentially contains the fireball Inside the vessel Instead of keeping it on the outside. This is also why whippier shields are effective, the small layer of matter makes a hyper velocity impact under go the pressure induced explosion and become a far less damaging gas which Is then repelled by the actual armor of the vessel. Than weapons are a whole different ballgame. Nationally what comes out of a Than weapon can be considered a mass driver slug (the fact that it is molten doesn't tater, the impact velocity is so far beyond the speed of sound in the target and projectile that it's irrelevant) but in this case instead of being a CACM long cylinder or even a Javelin It is a long thin wire which probably only has a cross section measured In tenths of millimeters and a length In the hundreds of meters. ND punches a hole, the pressure wave propagates back through the projectile, as the pressure wave passes it explodes with the force of a nuclear weapon. So far normal. BUT Because the projectile is so long and traveling orders of magnitude faster than it's peed of sound, once the front end explodes it leaves relatively clear (exploded) space for the next sectio n of the projectile to pass through anus strike deeper into the target, Just like a pulsed laser or a multiple impact kinetic weapon like metal storm. His happens over and over and over again, the end effect is that a Than weapon will punch clean through a ship and out the other side which leaves a nice neat little hole.

Scholars Being Justified in Using the Term Golden Age to...

Scholars Being Justified in Using the Term Golden Age to Describe the Economic History of Western Europe During 1950-1973 ‘Nothing in the history of Western Europe resembles its experience between 1945 and 1968.’ Milward, European rescue, pg. 21 In the quarter of a century that followed the Second World War, the achievements of the European economy were so impressive that the period was often referred to as the ‘Golden Age’. Since 1913 Europe had experienced two world wars plus the great depression and trade wars of the 1930’s, the economy had been stunted and growth was well below trend. In the early post-war years between 1945 and 1947 recovery was frustrated by shortages of food, labour, raw†¦show more content†¦The rising level of employment and productivty, by generating income and demand, was constantly renewing the need for more capacity and higher investment, and so in turn maintaining the pressure on resources. But was this process one that could go on indefinitely? Was it not to be expected that economic growth would slow down once needs of post war reconstruction where over? Many economists undoubtedly did expect growth to slow down up until the middle of the 1960s, but changed thei r mind when rapid growth continued or even accelerated. The end of the ‘Golden Age’ never the less came suddenly in 1974-1975 after the first oil shock. In this sense the breaking point was brought about in 1973, not just by the quadrupling of the price in oil but also by the world economic boom which preceded it and drove prices up in all industrial countries across the world. The question economists wanted to know was no more, how long? But rather, why? Ever since it became clear the forecasting of the post war economy, based on previous trends, did not reflect the reality presented by the ‘Golden Age’, economists started their search for reasons why? Work by such writers as Maddison gave an explanation of the ‘Golden Age’ through an approach known as â€Å"growth accounting†. Observing a huge increase in the ratio of investment to GDP and incorporating technical progress,Show MoreRelatedOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 PagesBrier, and Roy Rosenzweig Also in this series: Paula Hamilton and Linda Shopes, eds., Oral History and Public Memories Tiffany Ruby Patterson, Zora Neale Hurston and a History of Southern Life Lisa M. Fine, The Story of Reo Joe: Work, Kin, and Community in Autotown, U.S.A. Van Gosse and Richard Moser, eds., The World the Sixties Made: Politics and Culture in Recent America Joanne Meyerowitz, ed., History and September 11th John McMillian and Paul Buhle, eds., The New Left Revisited David MRead MoreRastafarian79520 Words   |  319 Pagesrights reserved. 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