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Posted by vesperae I think that accepting a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy and accepting a woman’s right to smoke while pregnant share a basis in the concept of valuing the rights of a woman to control her own body. But beyond that, I think that they are fundamentally different, since the termination of a pregnancy also means the termination of a potential mother’s responsibility to her potential child, whereas prenatal exposure to danger caused by a potential mother does not. Ethics considers the relative harm of the actions of one individual on another individual, or on a group of individuals, and considers the unique circumstances under which these actions are taken. Morals, on the other hand, are broader rules for behavior set forth by the hierarchy of a social group, and take unique circumstances much less into account, if at all. Ethics tend to be about “shades of grey”; morals tend to be more “black and white”. While casual definitions would seem to suggest that the concepts of ethics and morals are equivalent and interchangeable, I believe that it is valuable to recognize that rigorous definitions do differentiate between the two, and to also separate our use of these terms. The issue of abortion is a good example of why it is meaningful to do this. Abortion in every case is obviously morally objectionable to numerous religious groups, whereas an ethical consideration of abortion takes into account a variety of considerations. These considerations include medical determinations of fetal viability and evidence of sentience at various stages of prenatal development, as well as the health and well being of the potential mother and potential child, and how this could affect both her life and the potential child’s life following delivery. In fact, I believe that the endless debate between anti-abortion and pro-choice groups really boils down to the difference between evaluating abortion morally vs. considering it ethically. Another important aspect of ethics is the concept of personal responsibility, which leads us to the issue of smoking during pregnancy, and which is why I feel that it is inappropriate to behave judgmentally toward a pregnant smoker. Now, I do believe without question that there are many, many serious potential risks to both the short and long-term health and well being of anyone exposed to prenatal smoking, and I decided long ago that if I was ever to become pregnant, that I would do everything in my power to quit. This would be a case of my personal responsibility, based on my personal belief system and a standard of ethical behavior that I have established for myself. But I would argue that to attempt to apply this standard to someone else, especially someone that I have no significant knowledge of, is also potentially quite harmful, because it implies that I believe that I am superior to her, which is the fundamental problem with morals. Once you allow yourself to indulge in the hubris of believing that you are such an authority on something that you are entitled to start telling others how to behave, and perhaps even believing that they should be punished if they don’t, you destroy all possibility of an equal and respectful dialogue, which I believe will ultimately do more harm than good, for not only this issue, but for many others as well.
on March 14, 2007, 5:52 pm, in reply to "Re: "St. Nicotina""
Hello Nobody,
* * * * *vesperae
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