Legally, if a teenager is mature enough to make a decision, she does not need parental consent. If one parent (being the mother) agrees that her daughter should have an abortion and the father disagrees, the father cannot tell his daughter to have an abortion. He has no legal right to do so. The fact that a father has no legal right to help his daughter decide whether or not she should have an abortion has caused a great deal of controversy concerning the males rights in deciding whether or not his wife / girlfriend should be allowed to abort his child without his consent. This led to a review of the legal system and a decision that a man has no legal rights over the fetus. He cannot prevent his partner from seeking an abortion.
The question of a man’s influence in the decision of abortion was dealt with in the case of Barbara Dodd, a twenty-two year old woman who had to go to court to win the right to have an abortion. Dodd had her abortion after the Ontario Supreme Court threw out an injunction against it obtained by her lover, Gregory Murphy. A man can neither stop an abortion from occurring nor can he induce a woman to have an abortion if she does not wish to. The Constitution ensures that the man is not given the power to decide to have the woman destroy the fetus or carry it to term. It is believed that “any man’s right to control the destiny of his sperm genetic material necessarily ends when his sperm fertilizes an ovum.” (Tribe 224) The majority of society, both male and female, disagrees with such a statement and men are continuing to fight for their legal rights in the decision of abortion. Today, abortion is known as a ten minute procedure to rid one of the burdens of an unwanted child.
The Term Paper on Should Abortions Be Legal Or Illegal?
The debate of abortion has been an issue worldwide, but did not gain momentum in the United States until around the 1970’s. The debate question has centered on, “Should abortions be legal or illegal?” The abortion debate is a very complicated issue because not only does it affect a woman’s life in the U.S. but also the future child’s. Much of the debate rests upon who has the right to make ...
Many have failed to realize that the child is an innocent being, with human-like sensations. Rather, abortion has become recognized as a birth control pill. Although many women choose to have an abortion because of circumstances they cannot control, many women have an abortion because they are not ready to accept the responsibility of raising a child. Deciding who has the legal right to make a decision pertaining to the child will take many years of conflict to resolve.
Bibliography:
1) Churlish, Anne.
Let’s Discuss Abortion. England: Wayland, 1989. 2) Tribe, H. Laurence. Abortion: The Clash of Absolutes. New York: W.
W. Norton & Company, 1990.
