Currently the father has no right to the unborn child at all, even though conception could not have occurred without him. This I believe to be unfair, why shouldn’t the father have rights after all it his child too. However it is the mother’s body and it is she who must care for the unborn child until birth. So it is she who has the rights. The unborn child should have rights; after all it is their life that is being decided for them. Would you like it if your parent(s) were to decide if you were to be terminated or go on to experience life in the real world? No I didn’t think so, this can be related to Hitler and the concentration camps. He authorised the termination of thousands possibly millions of people because they did not fit with his plans. Having an abortion because of the gender of the child is simply a toned down version of this.
In some countries, like Russia and China there is an absence of family planning. Abortion is used as a form of contraception and birth control. The average woman in Russia has 4 or 5 abortions in her lifetime. China has over 10 million abortions annually. The amount of money spent on these could be better spent on forms of contraception and on awareness campaigns. This is simply the ‘easy way out’ for these countries.
When the unborn child has disabilities then both the mother and father should have rights. The father may not be present in all scenarios but when there, should have rights. If the child had Hydrocephaly was born with abnormalities that cause the child or mother to suffer during and or after pregnancy then I would agree that abortion is valid. Some may say that they should stand by the child through everything, but Hydrocephaly isn’t treatable. This condition is where there is water in the child’s brain and gives the child a life expectancy of only 3 days. Why should the parent(s) go through the pain of loosing a child after it is born when she/ they can stop the child from suffering now. The same with disabilities, the child has a disadvantage of growing up in a tough world. They may also require constant assistance yet the parent(s) cannot guarantee that they can provide it. Therefore the child would suffer even more, so would the parent(s). The child has a right to live, however they may not be able to live independently and so would have to rely on others to survive. If there is no one there to support the unborn child then they wont survive very long.
Aborting because of a minor disability would not be considered a valid reason, and can be seen as abuse of rights given to women. Something like downs syndrome or simply the child being death or blind. All of these can easily be dealt with yet more serious disabilities as mentioned above can be a strain on the parent(s). This I think would be a mutual decision yet in the end it is ultimately the woman’s choice.
The law is right in saying ‘an embryo can be aborted if there is a substantial risk that if the child was born, it would be seriously physically or mentally handicapped’.
Women believe that in order to be accepted as equals and give their children the best care and support they can give then they must be able to exert full control over their reproductive lives. This is a fair point and it isn’t always this simple. The mother may not want the child but the father may, and so we come to a standstill in who has the most right. The mother or the father. It is the woman’s body and so the woman should decide, however the child also belongs to the father so a mutual agreement should be attempted. The mother may be willing to carry the unborn child to full term and after that the father could look after the child, yet it is asking a lot of the woman.
In the UK abortion was made legal in 1967 under certain circumstances. The problem we have nowadays is where do we draw the line. Also the right for men to have a say in the future of what could be one of his children. I do agree that ultimately the woman decides but not to ignore the wishes of the father, (if he is willing to help in the upbringing of the child in question)
Those with strong moral and religious objections to abortion argue that the rights of the unborn child override the rights of the mother. This may not always work, as in some situations the abortion is vital to the mother’s survival.
