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Essay Instructions: Essay information from the instructor.

"The practice of abortion remains a contentious moral issue for the American public. Much of the discussion assumes that elective, "pro-choice" abortions are the only kind. But sometimes abortions are performed for "therapeutic" reasons, such as when the pregnancy poses a serious threat to the life or mental stability of the pregnant woman. Write an essay in which you consider some morally complex situation, such as rape or incest. Is the life of the unborn fetus an absolute and overriding value? Consider at least one article from Chapter 2 and at least one opposing position from a reputable source on an academic database."

An article from the noted chapter and information on the book the chapter is in will be sent as a resource and bibliography source.
There are faxes for this order.

Essay Instructions: Imagine that you are a policy analyst. You have been assigned as lead of the team to propose a policy to solve a public problem; consider which steps you might take to implement in order to solve the problem you selected. Think about the process activities you, as the policy analyst, and policy actors would need to take.

Topic:The relationship between poor women and abortions is becoming increasingly high due to the restrictions and disproportionate affects of abortions in this population.

Write a 7 page policy analysis and evaluation report using the following criteria:

(1) Define and analyze the problem (What is the problem? Where does it exist? Who or what is affected? How did it develop? What are the major causes? How might the causes be affected by policy action).

(2) Construct policy alternatives that might be considered to deal with the problem (What policy options might be considered for dealing with the problem?)

(3) Develop evaluation criteria most suitable for the problems and alternatives (What criteria are most suitable for the problem and alternatives? What are the costs of action? What will the costs be if no action is taken?)

(4) Assess the alternatives (Which alternatives are better than others? What kind of analysis might help to distinguish better and worse policy alternatives? Is the evidence available? If not, how can it be produced?)

(5) Draw conclusions (Which policy option is most desirable given the circumstances and the evaluative criteria? What other factors should be considered?)

(6) Research and cite atleast three (3) new peer reviewed academic sources.

Essay Instructions: Write a 4 page (750-1000 word) essay which addresses the following topic:

We've seen two distinct views on the question of the permissibility of abortion. (1) Judith Jarvis Thomson argued that even on the assumption that fetuses were persons, it was sometimes permissible to terminate a pregnancy. (2) Don Marquis argued that since fetuses are usually going to have a future like ours, to terminate a pregnancy deprives the fetus of such a future. Given that Marquis thinks that the impermissibility of killing stems from exactly the same deprivation, he believes that abortion is morally impermissible since killing is.

I'm curious to see what your view is in the light of these readings. So, in writing this essay, I'd like you to take a position of the permissibility of abortion. Pick one of the positions below and write on that. Two possible positions are1:

(1) Abortion is sometimes permissible.
a. Taking this position requires that you address
Marquis's concerns and attempt to show that he can
either accomodate some abortions (hopefully exactly
those which you believe are permissible)or that he
is, in some way, mistaken about the ethical status of
abortions.

(2) Abortion is never permissible (or only in the most desperate cases2).
a. Taking this position requires that you attempt to
expose some mistake in J.J. Thomson's reasoning
concerning abortion. You need to show that her cases
(like the violinist case) are either not analogous to
the case of abortion or that her claim (in her
analysis of her cases) that we're not morally obliged
to preserve the life at issue is in some way
mistaken.3

1 These are not exhaustive.
2 These, of course, might include cases where carrying the pregnancy to term would claim the life of both the mother and the child
3 Do not simply claim that she's mistaken. You need to make your claim plausible!

Source 1 The reading for Judith Jarvis Thomson, which can be found online is: "A Defense of Abortion"

Source 2 The reading for Don Marquis, which can also be found online is: "Why Abortion is Immoral"

There is no minimum requirement for number of quotations, parenthetical citations, footnotes, etc. Use any of these that you feel are necessary.

Essay Instructions: Week 5 Homework
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Keep in Question format
Post your Homework to the Dropbox before midnight, Sunday. This assignment is worth 16 points.

1. Late-Term Abortions
Late-term abortion (what some opponents of abortion call "partial-birth abortion") is a controversial procedure known technically as dilation and extraction. It is a rare operation usually performed after the first trimester because the pregnancy endangers the mother's life, the fetus is seriously deformed or defective, or the mother is mentally impaired, homeless, addicted to drugs, or otherwise unprepared or unwilling to care for an infant.

Late-term abortion has been hotly debated in society and frequently in the courts. Some late-term abortions are performed after the fetus becomes viable. Do such procedures then involve, as some have alleged, the killing of babies? Should all late-term abortions be outlawed? Why or why not? Are they different from earlier abortions in morally relevant respects? Why or why not?

2. European Court Of Human Rights Considers Appeal Of Polish Woman Allegedly Denied Abortion
16 Feb 2006
The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday began considering the appeal of a Polish woman who says that in 2000 she was denied an abortion despite warnings from physicians that she could become blind if she continued the pregnancy, the Scotsman reports (Neighbour, Scotsman, 2/8).

Alicja Tysiac -- who has three children -- alleges that Poland's abortion law violated her rights under Article 8 and Article 14 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which guarantee "respect for privacy and family life" and "prohibition of discrimination," respectively. Polish law allows abortion only if a woman has been raped, if there is danger to the life of the woman or if the fetus will have birth defects, according to the Jurist (Onikepe, Jurist, 2/8). The European Court could rule that Tysiac's rights were violated but cannot mandate that Poland change its abortion laws (Reuters, 2/7).

Background, Next Steps

According to noticias.info, three ophthalmologists in February 2000 told Tysiac she would go blind if she were to give birth to a third child. None of the doctors would refer her for an abortion procedure. In April 2000, Tysiac had an appointment at a public hospital in Warsaw, Poland, where a gynecologist said there was no medical reason to have the procedure.

Tysiac gave birth via caesarean section in November 2000 (noticias.info, 2/8). According to BBC News, after her c-section, Tysiac experienced a retinal hemorrhage (Repa, BBC News, 2/7). Since then, "a panel of doctors concluded that her condition required treatment and daily assistance and declared her to be significantly disabled," court documents said (Bowley, International Herald Tribune, 2/8).

According to Reuters, Tysiac filed a criminal complaint against the gynecologist at the public hospital but dropped it when a district prosecutor said there was no causal association between the gynecologist's decision and her blindness (Reuters, 2/7). She filed a complaint with the European Court in January 2003 (noticias.info, 2/8). Tysiac's lawyer, Anna Wilkowska-Landowska, said, "Poland did not protect Alicja Tysiac's health when she was at her most vulnerable" (Scotsman, 2/8).

A Polish government official on Tuesday said it was too soon to comment on the case. It likely will be three to four months before the court makes a final judgment in the case, a court spokesperson said. Both sides could appeal the court's ruling, the Herald Tribune reports (International Herald Tribune, 2/8).

Jenny Martin. (2006, February 16). "European Court Of Human Rights Considers Appeal Of Polish Woman Allegedly Denied Abortion." Medical News Today. Retrieved from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/37619.php.

Did the situation actually meet the legal requirements for the abortion? Why or why not?

3. When Life Begins (or personhood)
Because discussions about abortion are strongly connected to the question of when life begins (or personhood). Evaluate two different views on when this occurs comparing pros and cons