Ethical and Legal Aspects of Healthcare
The healthcare industry is a sector that is controlled and managed by several guidelines, laws, ethical standards, and regulations. The rules are put in place to ensure patient safety and protect the clients during the process of making critical decisions concerning their health. Besides, it provides the outline for healthcare providers that remind them of their responsibilities, including what to do and what not to do. However, while the ethical standards revolve around informed consent, patient-doctor connections, and confidentiality, the legal aspects cover medical negligence. Healthcare providers, patients and their families encounter legal and ethical decisions concerning medical practice. Therefore, the analysis conducted in this paper focusses on addressing the concept of abortion as a moral and legal issue in the United States (U.S.). The review discusses this concept using the case of Roe V. Wade as a point of reference.
In the U.S., the law permits women and caregivers to consider abortion if the life of the mother is perceived to be in danger. The Supreme Court legalized the act of abortion in 1973 following the case of Roe V. Wade. The decision allowed early termination of pregnancy for the reasons relating and extending to the mental and physical health of the respective mothers (McCurdy, 2016). According to the Supreme Court, the right of a woman to conduct an abortion falls within the right to privacy, which the Fourteenth Amendment covers exclusively. Therefore, the constitution provides women with full autonomy over the decisions concerning their bodies, including those about pregnancies in the first trimester (Morillo, 2017). In the 2nd and 3rd trimesters, the states are allowed to participate in the decision at different and well-defined levels.
However, laws that advocate for abortion face significant opposition, especially from the religious individuals whose views and beliefs are not considered at all in the formulation and implementation of these policies. For example, today, despite the believes and societal values, the African American communities endure injustices and are 3.7 fold more likely than the Whites to have an abortion (McCurdy, 2016). As a result of the negative critics surrounding the laws legalizing abortion, I firmly oppose the court’s decision on the Roe V. Wade case. I believe that early termination of pregnancies is an illegal and unethical healthcare practice since it does not incorporate or put into consideration essential human aspects.
First, the decision provided by the Supreme Court failed to answer the question of when the life of an individual begins. The majority of scientists and religious individuals elaborate that the aspect of life starts at the point of conception. It occurs when a male’s sperm fuses with a woman’s ovum to form a zygote during fertilization. The zygote symbolizes the beginning of a new life. Also, the fetus possesses several characteristics that qualify it as a living organism, including growth and development. During the first month, the baby undergoes cell division, which enables it to grow. Also, like other living organisms, the fetus has different levels of an organization. For example, by the sixth week, the babies can control and organize various organs and tissues by using their brains (Morillo, 2017). As a result, in the case of Roe V. Wade, the court ignored these uncontested biological pieces of evidence that life begins at conception. Therefore, the constitution must safeguard the physical and mental needs of unborn children and, above all, protect their rights to life.
Secondly, the court’s decision to legalize abortion in the Roe V. Wade case did not consider the Christians’ perspective. In the U.S. and most governments worldwide, the constitution acts as the sole foundation and source of laws that guide human activities. The founding fathers did not base their arguments on religious matters; instead, they focused more on human experiences. However, Christians believe that God provided the Bible to guide social behaviors. The scripture discusses the concept of life on several occasions. For example, in the book of Genesis, it clarifies that every life has a purpose, and children are blessings from God (Morillo, 2017). The same book describes God’s nature embracing equality and justice and how He expects human beings to do the same. Also, in Luke 1, the scripture illustrates the existence of life to unborn children when the baby in Elizabeth’s womb reacted to hearing Mary’s voice. Also, the Bible prohibits murder in Mathew’s book, and that includes abortion since it involves taking away a “potential life.” Everyone, including the unborn children, have specific purposes in life, and therefore, aborting a fetus at any stage destroys God’s plans for the unborn child, which unethical.
On the other end, the concept of abortion also presents various challenges to the healthcare providers, which tend to force them into violating the medical ethical principles. For instance, the principles of non-maleficence, justice, beneficence, and respect for autonomy acts as the four basic guidelines for practising nurses (Bryant et al., 2018). The concept of non-maleficence requires healthcare providers not to engage in medical practices that harm the clients or patients. However, through abortion, they tend to violate the principle by causing harm to the unborn child and also endangering the mothers by exposing them to risky procedures. Besides, the concept of beneficence dictates that healthcare and medical practices should result in more positive outcomes than negatives. That means that the benefits must outweigh the risks. However, sometimes nurses and physicians at the crisis pregnancy centers and hospitals provide inaccurate and misleading information concerning abortions (Bryant et al., 2018). The information can result in harmful consequences to the health of the mother, thereby violating the principle of beneficence. Also, abortion tends to supersede the values and needs of the unborn children.
Similarly, the provision of inaccurate, invalid, and misleading information concerning abortion indicates a lack of respect for autonomy in the healthcare industry. In doing so, the medical providers deprive patients of critical information and the appropriate tools to make informed decisions about their lives and circumstances. Finally, another essential ethical principle in medical practice relates to distributive justice, which advocates for fairness and equal distribution of resources. The legalization of abortion violates this principle since it tends to target low-income women and women of color, women of less formal education, and adolescents (Bryant et al., 2018). This is because most of the factors dictating the termination of pregnancies relate to economic hardships, educational objectives, and relationships. Failure to access abortion services and conducting successful completion presents the impression that one is less likely to achieve their career goals.
Conclusion
Wade vs. Roe case brought significant differences in united states. The legislature should amend the law on the right to privacy as stated by Roe, and formulate other laws that protect the unborn. For instance, the parliament should make that restrict mothers from undertaking abortions unless they are allowed by their spouses. In the case of underage mothers, the legislature should form laws that protect them from exploitations and early. Abortion should be banned to curb immorality and premature pregnancies that result in increased cases of abortions. The healthcare as well should be on the frontline in ensuring the protection of the expectant mothers and the fetus, by sharing the dangers of abortions. The court decisions were biased and failed to mention the adverse effects of abortion.
References
Bryant, A.G., & Swartz, J.J. (2018). Why crisis pregnancy centers are legal but unethical. AMA
Journal of Ethics, 20(3), 269-277. https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/sites/journalofethics.ama-assn.org/files/2018-04/pfor1-1803.pdf
McCurdy, S.A. (2016). Abortion and public health: Time for another look. The Linacre
Quarterly, 83(1), 20-25. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5102173/pdf/ylnq-83-20.pdf
Morillo, G. (2017). A comprehensive analysis of Roe V. Wade and its legality
concerning scientific and Christian perspectives. Selected Honors Theses, 69, 1-57. https://firescholars.seu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1069&context=honors