Running Head: UTILITARIAN APPROACH ON ABORTION 1

Utilitarian Approach on Abortion

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Looking at the topic of abortion through the view of Utilitarian ethics, abortion can or

cannot be wrong if looked upon by the Greatest Happiness Principle. The Greatest Happiness

Principle states that an action is right as it promotes happiness, and is wrong as it promotes the

opposite. For example, take into account a woman were to have fertility issues and had difficulty

conceiving (Kahn, 2019). She and her husband have been trying to bear a child for some time,

and both the husband and wives’ family wish that they could be able to bring a child into the

world. If the wife were to get raped, and in turn become pregnant, would it be morally acceptable

to abort the child? On one account, based on the Greatest Happiness Principle, abortion would be

wrong because the pregnancy is something that the husband, wife, and both of their families

have been hoping for some time (Allan, 2015). However, abortion is also wrong according to the

Greatest Happiness Principle because the wife is unhappy because of the circumstances in which

she has become with child. The husband and both of the families will be happy only if the wife is

happy, which justifies abortion based on how the pregnancy makes the wife feel.

Therefore, from this thought, abortion can be viewed as moral because it may provide an

end to the pain that the woman may have felt as a result of being under attack by an intruder. As

previously stated, we as humans have a right to our bodies, and therefore one may do what is

thought necessary to be done in order to free ourselves from a pain that is bestowed upon us.

In conclusion, abortion is and always will be a topic of moral significance because we as

people belong to numerous schools of thought. The utilitarianism and deontological ethical

perception shape our conceptions of morality, and as a result, a cohesive and common stance on

the topic is likely never to be achieved.

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Reference:

Allan, L. (2015). Contraception and Abortion: A Utilitarian View. URL=< http://www.

RationalRealm. com/philosophy/ethics/contraception-abortion-utilitari an-view. html.

Kahn, L. (2019). Is There an Obligation to Abort? Act Utilitarianism and the Ethics of

Procreation. Essays in Philosophy, 20(1), 3.