Women face the decision of whether or not abortion is ethical, they focus on the goals of the individual and how a woman must benefit from their course of actions for the advantage of themselves. According to Esteve-Volart (2004) a woman should decide what she feels will give the best self interest; thus if a woman desires to have an abortion, it is ethical thing to do so.
Through the definition of human rights and self interest, as the pursuit of personal happiness regardless of other’s well being and well being is emphasize. Hughes (2009) describes that one is solely responsible for enhancing and sustaining one’s own life. It is individually up to the person to establish what the necessary values are. Every woman has the right to pursue and uphold her well being foundation and if that requires an abortion to achieve her best interest, than it is only her responsibility to sustain that foundation (Tabrizi, 2003). As every single woman chooses what decisions or values will enhance the quality of her life, she must perform what is best to obtain those values. Choosing the decision of an abortion can be seen as personal virtue, as it determines a woman’s self determination responsibility (Vanneste, and Melotte, 2009).
For the health care practitioner, responsible ethical reasoning for this situation is rational and systematic. It should be based on ethical principles and codes rather than on emotions, intuition, fixed policies, or precedent (Tabrizi, 2003).
A good decision is one that is in the woman’s best interest and at the same time preserves the integrity of all involved. Health care professionals have ethical obligations to their clients, to the agency that employs them, and to physicians. Therefore, they must weigh competing factors when making ethical decisions (Tabrizi, 2003). Although ethical reasoning is principle based and has the client’s well being at center, being involved in ethical problems and dilemmas is stressful for them. They may feel torn between obligations to the client, family, and the employer. What is in the client’s best interest may be contrary to their personal belief system. In settings in which ethical issues arise frequently, nurses should establish support systems such as team conferences and use of counseling professionals to allow expression of their feelings (El-Toukhy and Braude , 2008).
Many health care problems are n of moral problems at all, but simply questions of good nursing practice. An important first step in ethical decision making is to determine whether a moral situation exists (Tabrizi, 2003). The criteria may be used with a difficult choice exists between actions that conflict with the needs of one or more persons. Moral principle or frameworks exist that can be used to provide some justification for the action. The choice is guided by a process of weighing reasons. The decisions must be freely and consciously chosen. The choice is affected by personal feelings and by the particular context of the situations (Bredenoord and Pennings, 2008).
Abortion is highly publicized issue about which many people feel very strongly. Debate continuous, pitting the principle of sanctity of life against the principle of autonomy and the woman’s right to control her own body. This is an especially volatile issue because no public consensus has yet been reached (El-Toukhy and Braude, 2008). In this case, autonomy has been the center of how the decision will be made. It refers to the right to make one’s own decisions. Health care professionals who follow this principle recognize that each client is unique, has the right to be what person is, and has the right to choose personal goals. People have inward autonomy if they have the ability to make choices; they have outward autonomy if their choices are not limited or imposed by others (Tabrizi, 2003)