The ethics of abortion: utilitarianism, buddhism & kant. assignment

It teaches how we can attain Nirvana by recognizing the heavenly realms instead of entering into the lower realms where the cycle of birth and rebirth continue. A main principle in the Buddhist religion is Karma – they believe that etween lives you meet Lord Yama, who holds up a mirror in which you see all of your past deeds which are then measured on a balance to determine where you go in your next life. Each negative deed adds a black stone to the balance, and every positive deed, a white.

Your karma acts as a magnet drawing you to future rebirth and you are reincarnated in a certain realm, according to how the balance is tipped, if there are more white than black stones you will enter a high realm and vice versa. By having an abortion you are disregarding the sacred value of life and so are likely o be reborn in a low, hell realm. Buddhist belief is that abortion is intrinsically wrong as it contradicts all of their key teachings. Kant, like the Buddhists, has an absolutist view on ethics and again, as in Buddhism, believes that abortion is always wrong.

Disobeying a moral law is equivalent to disobeying a physical law: you can’t, no matter how you feel about gravity it still acts, and in Kant’s view, moral law is no different. Kant’s theory is worthy for consideration as it is Just, it has a positive view of human life and as humans we intuitively agree with much of what he says. On the other hand however, his theories are perhaps too rigid and unemotional, and it is possible for moral laws to contradict each other, for example one moral law is that ou cannot lie, and another states that you cannot hurt people, but sometimes the truth hurts.

Unlike Buddhism and Kant, Utilitarianism is a relativist theory and states that nothing is intrinsically right or wrong. Basically, it is a consequentialist theory which Judges the consequences of our actions rather than the actions themselves, meaning that unlike the others it does not say that abortion is always morally wrong. Utiliatrianism considers each individual circumstance separately, coming to reasonable conclusions which suit the particular circumstance.

In this respect, Buddhism is arguably a better theory when it comes to abortion as there is no uncertainty. There are two main branches of utilitarianism – act and rule. When contemplating abortion, most would argue that Rule Utilitarianism is a more useful guide as, unlike Act, it does not base the verdict on every single individual case, instead it forms a set f rules which aim to please the greatest number of people.

For example the rules for abortion would be something along the lines that abortion is wrong except in cases of rape, incest, disability etc. he final form of utilitarianism is known as Preference Utilitarianism, aptly named it is based upon the preference of those involved. In terms of abortion especially, this is a very weak way to consider it, as often people do not know what they would prefer and even when they do, they may wish to have the abortion out of ease or a similar reason, which would be unfair on the baby and enerally frowned upon.