Essay on The Value of Life

The value of life is, above all, the moral value of life, the cost of life and him preservation (Clergyman, 2014). To date, the value of life is greatly is lost, as a result of the legalization of the death penalty, euthanasia, and abortion. The most pressing issue today is precisely abortion. The phenomenon of abortion is known for thousands of years in all cultures of the world, but today it is especially frequent and widespread.
Abortion is the separation of a fetus from a woman for the purpose of his murder (Abortion in Ireland & The UK, 2014). In ancient times abortions were illegal, this was adultery or violation of marital fidelity. Contrary to this, some governments today support abortion. In this way, you can control the birth rate in countries where the population is growing very rapidly. In the protest of abortion in Slovakia in 2011, a monument was opened to “unborn children”, whose author is Martin Gudachek.
In a memorial composition, a woman is face to church, symbolizing her repentance. The image of an unborn baby from a translucent material expresses a gesture of forgiveness (ActionLife-S, 2012). This is an impressive monument, seeing which, will leave a trace in every heart. It should be remembered that human life begins with the moment of fertilization, and not from the moment of its birth, therefore, abortion is a murder. Consequently, abortion should be legal only for medical reasons or as a result of rape, because the murder is a violation of human rights (Reardon, 2019).

Unfortunately, there are cases where abortion is a necessary procedure. One of them is the fact that a child may be born with physical or psychological disabilities. According to Chaloner (2007), in the UK, children still in the womb can be destroyed if the diagnosis confirms that they can be born with a developmental defect.
In a difficult demographic situation, the problem of preserving human life is becoming more acute, especially when it comes to the life of a new-born child. The birth of a sick child is always associated with severe moral and material damage to the family and society. Since human life begins at the time of fertilization, the foetus is perceived as a human, so he may also be ill. At present, with the help of modern methods it is possible to diagnose the condition of the foetus.
Structural abnormalities that occur before the birth of a child and are detected immediately and cause a violation of the functions of organs – are congenital malformations. It is they who play a prominent role in the structure of the causes of disability and mortality in young children.
In accordance with the Fertilization and Human Embryology Act, abortion is allowed during any period of pregnancy if there is a high risk that a new born child will suffer from physical and psychological illness (Chaloner, 2007). This is not ethical, but completely legal, since in this way it is possible to relieve the suffering of both sides.
There also many cases when a woman’s life can be under great threat during pregnancy. Ectopic pregnancy is one of these cases, which means that the embryo is located outside the uterus. The human tissue in other places cannot stretch out like in the uterus, so bleeding ca begin.
This is can end simply by hospitalization, and possibly by the death of a women (The Ectopic Pregnancy Trust, 2019). Ectopic pregnancy is a widespread problem, the average frequency in a population is 1-2%; with the use of auxiliary reproductive technologies (ART), this figure increases to 2-5%.
In 1970, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began to collect statistics on ectopic pregnancy. According to the first of his reports, their number was 17,800, and by 1992 the figure has increased to 108,800. At the same time, the mortality rate due to ectopic pregnancy declined from 35.5 per 10,000 cases in 1970 to 2.6 per 10,000 in 1992 (Danielsson, 2019).
Although global trends tell us about a decrease in total maternal mortality in general, in 6%of cases, the very rupture of an ectopic pregnancy leads to a fatal outcome. In the UK, this pathology remains the leading cause of death in the first trimester related to pregnancy 1/90 of ectopic pregnancies (NHS, 2016).
According to Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (2017), unwanted pregnancy is also a serious threat to women’s health. The number of abortions committed over the past year in England and Wales, was a record in the last 5 years – the increase is due to an increase in the number of “unwanted pregnancies” in women 30-40 years old (The Guardian, 2019). Doctors conducted a study that revealed psychological deviations in 48% women out of 100%, most of them had severe depression. Therefore, in the UK under the law of Abortion, abortion is allowed based on “unwillingness”.
Unwanted pregnancy at an early age, in the same way as during other stage of life, is accompanied by strong emotional experiences, psychological problems and difficulties of moral choice. This pregnancy can be both unplanned and as a result of rape. In Argentina last year a 11-year-old girl became a victim of rape a 65-year-old husband her grandmother’s.
Since the government in this country prohibits abortion, the girl tried to commit suicide. After this incident the girl was made a c-section. Her case caused a wave of protests (ABC, 2019). This is one example on the fact that abortions are necessary in some situations, since pregnancy can cause great harm to the victim both psychologically and physically.
However, many women believe that only they can decide what to do with their body. A woman is a person and she have the right to own body, to her own life, to happy motherhood, to a happy childhood, to desired children. Conforming to Law Teacher (2018) absolutely all women have the right to decide on abortion on their own, because the right to abortion is important for equality between men and women.
Also, prohibition on legal abortion deprives a woman of the right to their own body and the right to dispose of their fate. Consequences of the prohibition of abortion can be extremely negative: from the birth of unwanted children to disability and even the death of women as a result of “underground” operations for deprivation of pregnancy. In Ireland, there are many cases of “self-dependent abortion” since legal abortion is prohibited. As a result, women’s mortality increased.
The research showed that women were ordering pills on the internet which later proved deadly (Kindelan, 2018). Other cases “self-dependent abortion” were registered in Brazil, about 25% women wanted to kill a foetus with a hot bath, which led to bleeding as a result of which the women died (Human Rights Watch, 2017). According to Furedi (2016) access to abortion is part of women’s reproductive health. The right to reproductive choice, family planning, protection of reproductive and sexual health relates to basic human rights.
Reproductive rights include inalienable human rights and freedoms that are already recognized in national legislation, in international human rights instruments and other generally accepted documents. For the first time officially about reproductive rights was declared at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), held in 1994 in Cairo (Linkages, 1994).
The Convention on the Elimination of all forms of discrimination against Women explicitly requires that the participating states provide women with access to health service, including family planning services and decision-making about how many children they can have., as well as access to the information necessary for the exercise of these rights. Therefore, in the United States, every year, occur 20 million dangerous abortions, resulting in the death of more than 80,000 women, so this cannot be just a woman’s choice, as it can lead to her death.
There is also another hypothesis that the embryo is only a conflux of cells and it cannot be considered person. According to Anderson (2014), the person is considered personality then when the foetus is viable, when it can feel, breathe and move. Science from the British Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists have conducted a study in which they found that the embryo cannot feel pain until the of 24 weeks, that is, an abortion carried out before that date, cannot be considered a killing.
The embryo in the early stages of pregnancy does not feel pain, as the nerve endings in the brain are in the formation stage and cannot perceive pain signals. The study showed that the nerve endings in the cerebral cortex are in the stage of formation until the term of pregnancy at 24 weeks. It is this part of the brain responsible for feeling pain, as well as higher mental functions (Royal College of Obstetricians ; Gynaecologists, 2018).
Opponents of abortion believe that the fact of incomplete formation of nerve endings does not give certainty that the foetus is completely to feel pain. Women who go for abortion probably do not think that in that “conflux of cells “, already on the 18th day a tiny heart begins to beat, at the 6th week the child begins to move, and on the 8th week all organs are already formed and they only need time and nutrients for development, the baby has fingers on his arms and legs, can squeeze his hand into a fist and even mumble.
It can be a simple “conflux of cells”? (BabyCenter, 2017). Another study showed that even after the end of the term for 24 weeks, the foetus is naturally “sleeping” and remains caused by anomalies of fatal development or a serious risk to the mother’s health, do not cause pain in the baby in the womb (Royal College of Obstetricians ; Gynaecologist, 2018).
However, there are countries that do not support an abortion. Conforming to the Criminal Code of Malta, a person who in any way causes death of a pregnant woman’s foetus, regardless of whether she agrees, will be liable in the form of imprisonment for two to three years. The same punishment waits for a woman who has decide to kill own’s foetus (Malta Independent, 2013). There is also a religious side of abortion. For God, any life, and especially human, is holy (Genesis 9: 6; Psalm 36: 9).
This also applies to the life of an unborn child. In the name of God, the maternal womb should be a safe place for the development of the foetus. The Law, which the Israelites received from God, said that a person who struck a pregnant woman and, as a result, the child would die, would be punished by death, that is, he would be forced to give up his own life during the life of an unborn child (Ex. 21:22, 23) (Turner, 2017).
It should be noted that, according to Islamic Law and the Koran, the preservation of life is one of the most important human right. Human life begins with the merger of two gametes, and hence the right to life of the embryo must be preserved from the moment of its conception (Islamic-Laws.com, 2019).
The essay states that the greatest value of life is human life. But due to various reason and rights, people are devalued life on earth, since there are now different types of legal murders such as death penalty, euthanasia and abortion. Any kind of assassination infringes on the highest social value – human life. In this essay, attention is focused on the issue of abortion. Abortion is infanticide and is compared to the murder of an adult.
Unfortunately, in some cases, abortions are necessary for the life and health of women, as well as to deprive children of physical or psychological pain in the future with different defects. Therefore, abortions should be legal only for medical reasons or as a result of sexual abuse. It is necessary to respect and fully protect human life from the moment of its conception.
References

ABC (2019) News. Argentine 11-year-old rape victim given C-section instead of abortion, sparking outcry. online. Available from: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-01/argentina-11-year-old-given-c-section-instead-of-abortion/10860382 Accessed: 28/02/2019.
Abortion in Ireland & The UK (2014) French abortion law faces adjustments. online}. Available from: abortionadvice.ie/French-abortion-law-updates/ Accessed: 21/01/2014.
ActionLife-S (2012) All About Life. online. Available from: actionlife.org/blog/2012/09/25/sculpture-the-child-who-was-never-born/ Accessed: 25/08/2018.
Anderson, D. (2014) Top 10 Reasons Abortion Should Be Legal. ListLand. online. Available from: https://www.listland.com/top-10-arguments-in-support-of-abortion/ Accessed: 16/10/2014.
BabyCenter (2017) foetal development week by week. online. Available from: https://www.babycenter.com/fetal-development-week-by-week Accessed: 08/06/2017.
Chaloner C, Jones K (2007) Semantic Scholar. Ethics of abortion: the arguments for and against. Nursing Standard. Pp. 21, 37, 45 – 48. online. Available from: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Ethics-of-abortion%3A-the-arguments-for-and-against.-Jones
Chaloner/967b0736a3717dca27902c1a168b4252eae95580?fbclid=IwAR29Rv5aek5G32MnwIAWiypjuD2xXL06KeG9aItV7pyCdCl3rkfiYVIt-GY Accessed: 04/04/2007.
Clergyman (2014) Myles Munroe Quotes. Brainy Quote. online. Available from:
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/myles_munroe_700001 Accessed: 09/11/2014.
Danielsson, K. (2019) Ectopic Pregnancy Statistics. Very Well Family. online. Available from:
https://www.verywellfamily.com/what-do-statistics-look-like-for-ectopic-pregnancy-2371730 Accessed: 18/03/2019.
Furedi, A. (2016) The Moral Case for Abortion. Palgrave Macmillan. online. Available from: https://www.palgrave.com/gb/media-centre/press/the-moral-case-for-abortion/10263984 Accessed: 11/08/2016.
Human Rights Watch (2017) Abortion: Brazil. online. Available from: https://www.hrw.org/legacy/women/abortion/brazil.html Accessed: 15/03/2017.
Islamic-Laws.com (2019) Abortion rules. Islamic law on abortion. online. Available from: www.islamic-laws.com/abortion.htm Accessed: 04/03/2019.
Kindelan, K. (2018) “Self-induced abortion” searches on Google reflect a dark reality for many women. GMA. online. Available from: https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/news/story/induced-abortion-searches-google-reflect-dark-reality-women-56232222 Accessed: 09/07/2018.
Law Teacher (2018) Human Rights – Abortion, a woman’s right. online. Available from:
https://www.lawteacher.net/free-law-essays/medical-law/human-rights-abortion-a-womans-right-law-essays.php Accessed: 02/02/2018.
Linkages (1994) United Nations International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). online. Available from: enb.iisd.org/cairo.html Accessed: 05/08/1994.
Malta Independent (2013) Malta only EU country without life-saving abortion law. Independent. online. Available from: www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-07-14/news/malta-now-only-eu-country-without-life-saving-abortion-law-2068054030/ Accessed: 14/07/2013.
NHS (2016) Ectopic pregnancy. online. Available from: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Ectopic-pregnancy/ Accessed: 18/07/2016.
Reardon, D. (2019) The After Effects of Abortion. AbortionsFacts.com. online. Available from: https://www.abortionfacts.com/reardon/the-after-effects-of-abortion Accessed: 18/02/2019.
Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists (2018) Abortion. online. Available from: https://www.rcog.org.uk/en/search-results/?q=abortion Accessed: 19/09/2018.
Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (2017) UK Abortion Law. online. Available from: https://www.spuc.org.uk/abortion/uk/law Accessed: 25/04/2017.
The Ectopic Pregnancy Trust (2018) What is an ectopic pregnancy? online. Available from: https://www.ectopic.org.uk/patients/what-is-an-ectopic-pregnancy/ Accessed: 03/09/2018.
Turner, R. (2017) What does the Bible say about abortion? CARM. online. Available from: https://carm.org/what-does-the-bible-say-about-abortion Accessed: 06/05/2017.