This information was taken from the study by Torres and Forrest (1998)
Some medical, social and other factors decrease or increase the abortion rate by altering the chances of an unwanted pregnancy. Scare tactics decreases the abortion rate by pro-life groups spreading unfounded rumours that abortions are dangerous and often lead to breast cancer. Cost of abortions decrease the rate of abortions because low- income women often find it difficult to get the money. Childless families increase the rate of abortions, as some couples do not want any children so they get a termination.
Hospitals and women centres have to deal with millions of abortions every year and most of these are within the first 13 weeks of pregnancy. Over 80% of woman having abortions were over the age of 18 and 78% of the women having an abortion are unmarried.
Abortion question medical ethics for many reasons. This is a debate, which never can be concluded as too many people think different things. Some people are against abortions for many reasons such as it is killing human life, and that it is wrong because of religious reasons. Some are for abortions for reasons such as that the woman may not be able to care and look after the baby or that the woman cannot does not want the baby.
Another issue that questions medical ethics is Euthanasia. Euthanasia is the act or practice of killing hopelessly sick or injured individuals in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy. There are different types of euthanasia there is voluntary euthanasia when the person who is killed has requested to be killed. There is also non-voluntary where the person who is killed made no request and gave no consent. Involuntary euthanasia when the person who is killed made an expressed wish to the contrary. There are two types of euthanasia and these are Euthanasia by action intentionally causing a person death by performing an action such as by giving a lethal injection. Euthanasia by Omission intentionally causing death by not providing necessary and ordinary care or food and water.
Euthanasia is important and will continue to be an important subject for this generation and this is also a debate where the subject must be fully understood before action is taken.
Euthanasia is another debate like abortion, which will not be concluded as this issue carries many different points of view some many even be religious reasons, for example some people may think Euthanasia is wrong because they should let the person live as long as they can.
The last issue I have chosen to use as an example is cloning. Cloning is the process of making a genetically identical organism through nonsexual means. It has been used for many years to produce plants (even growing a plant from a cutting is a type of cloning). Animal cloning has been the subject of scientific experiments for years, but garnered little attention until the birth of the first cloned mammal in 1997, a sheep named Dolly. Since Dolly, several scientists have cloned other animals, including cows and mice. The recent success in cloning animals has sparked fierce debates among scientists, politicians and the general public about the use and morality of cloning plants, animals and possibly humans.
Cloning is another issue that may not be concluded. This may be for many reasons; for example people may be against cloning until they are 100% certain that it is safe. Another example would be that some people might think that is unnatural not the way god wanted living things created. On the other hand some people may agree for many reasons, such as shortage in animals for example.
Overall every issue to do with medicine and human beings will always question medical ethics. The issues relating to this will always have personal opinions and each individual person will either disagree or agree with the issue. Such as abortion some people think it is wrong because it is killing human life and some think it is right because they may not be able to bring the child up and may not be ready to have the responsibility of having children. Euthanasia questions medical ethics because some people think it is right because the person may be suffering and some would say that it morally wrong because it is taking someone’s life when they are not intended to die. Cloning also questions medical ethics because some people think it is unnatural and not how life should be created and some people think it is right because there may be shortage of life e.g. shortage in sheep. “Scifientic advances continue to raise ethical questions within the field of medicine, which can lead to conflict in society, this statement to some extent is true. The technology out now is moving so fast people do not know what to think so most people have mixed views so that none of the issues will be concluded. People have different opinions on each issue some may agree with abortion but not with cloning, every person has a different view on all the issues.