Philosophy of Sexuality by Don Marietta Jr

Author:Don Marietta, Jr. [Don Marietta, Jr.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781315284590
Google: VYMYDQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-09-16T12:10:32+00:00

Who Has the Right to Decide?

An important issue for supporters of choice is who should make the decision regarding an abortion. Should it be the pregnant woman, the husband or lover, or the medical personnel? Should all three be involved? In an ideal situation, all those who are involved will agree on the best course of action. When this agreement is lacking, who is entitled to choose? Is it always the woman?

Allison Jaggar holds that the issue of who should decide depends on the social situation. The responsibility that society takes toward infants would affect the issue. In our society, the responsibility for getting prenatal care and for caring for the offspring falls most heavily on the pregnant woman. This would indicate that the woman, as the person most involved, should decide. In some extended families, and with some very rich women, the matter might be different.20

Jaggar’s position rests on two key principles: (1) the right to life means a right to a full human life, and (2) decisions should be made by those most importantly affected by them. The first principle suggests that no person or group is a protector of the fetus’s right to life if it does not attempt to provide the sufficient conditions for life. The second principle must take account of the social context and the economic situation. Jaggar says that in our society the right of the woman to decide rests on inadequate provision by the state for pre- and postnatal care (placing child-raising responsibility on the mother) and the small proportion of resources devoted to welfare.21

The father, says Jaggar, has less right to choose because he is affected less by the birth. He has more options regarding the effect of the birth on his life.22 Jaggar is right about the possibility of fathers’ avoiding responsibility. Even though some states are trying to make fathers assume at least a financial role in caring for the child, these efforts have not been very successful so far. The sad case is the father who deeply wants a child or is too honorable and responsible to avoid meeting his obligations to the child, but the laws that are to govern abortions cannot rest on judgments about each individual father, so the woman’s claim must be given most weight.

Jaggar says that claims of medical personnel to control abortion decisions are even weaker than claims of fathers, since medical personnel are even less affected. Claims of the state would be based on the effect on community members of birth and an alleged duty to protect the right to life. Jaggar considers these claims weak in this society because the effect of a birth on society is minimal, and the state does not accept much responsibility for providing the sufficient conditions for life. Jaggar sees important limitations in giving the woman only a legal right to decide to have an abortion. She thinks a meaningful right to decide should include a right to have a child, with a full life for the child guaranteed by society.

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