Autonomy
Posted: Thursday, September 29, 2011
by Rose-Marie Chaperon
Chaperon Consulting, LLC
The Meaning of Autonomy
The English word autonomy is a compound of the Greek word autos meaning “self” or ”own,” and nomos, meaning “law.” Thus, in the original Greek, autonomy has the sense of (to give to) oneself one's laws, or perhaps, to make one's laws knowing that one is doing so. Contemporary usage of the word autonomy emerged in the eighteenth century, retaining a relation to the original Greek meaning but diverging in significant ways. Autonomy in concurrent usage was used synonymously with concepts such as freedom, liberty, and independence and contrasted with concepts such as un-freedom, dependence, and heteronomy (Benhabib, 2007).
The Autonomy of Abortion
Under the 14th Amendment's "personal liberty," women were given, the right to obtain abortions. Almost 50 percent of all pregnancies in this country are unintended. Also, more than half of all unplanned pregnancies end in abortion(Zolna, 2010). Improved access to contraception would address the source causes of unintended pregnancy and would diminish the need for abortion, but not abolish the choice. As only women can get pregnant, and, therefore, only women have abortions, a male legislator should have no right to vote on an abortion related statutes. Abortion is about autonomy, and every woman has the right to decide over her own body. To deny a woman the rights to have an abortion is undeniably telling her that she does not own her body. The concept of autonomy, however, has been the target of various feminist, post-structuralism, and feminist poststructuralist critiques. Notably, feminists have challenged autonomy for its seeming reliance on the idea of an independent and atomistic self, which feminists argue masks and derogate inevitable relations of dependence. Post-structural thought has more deeply challenged autonomy because of the idea that selves are produced or socially constructed. On this view, the self brought into being by social forces and apparatus of power and autonomy is problematic because it bounds up with the idea that the self who governs must be in some sense authentic or pre-social.
The history of abortion
The criminalization of abortion is a violation of the principle of dignity, autonomy, and freedom of women. In the past, two decades have opened a strong debate on the inexhaustible subject of abortion, whether it should be routed to or not penalized, and if so in which cases may be legal and that no cases. This makes use of ethics to examine whether this act is morally right, where mainly the right to confront life and the right to freedom of women. Throughout history, abortion has been practiced in diverse cultures, but only since the nineteenth century it has been penalized. In some ancient cultures such as China, Persia and India, abortion is not considered a crime, just as the Hebrews and the Egyptians allowed abortion. In the Republic of Rome, volunteer abortion of pregnant women was not considered illegal, and that their laws and philosophy, mainly stoic was not considered that the fetus had its own life and the woman who aborted only was acting under the autonomy and control over her own body.
Why do women have abortions?
“Perhaps no one has ever concretely and theoretically explained strategically, why abortion, and abortion providers, and women who have abortions must be stood beside and actively supported it”(Sabina). Women choose to have abortions for all kinds of reasons: poverty, bad health, and too many other children, other reasons may be because of rape or incest or simply because they do not want to have a child at that point in their lives. Many believe that all these reasons are valid. Women should not have to answer to the church, the state or even to doctors for their decisions.
A woman of childbearing age essentially; what that means, for those who do not understand it, is that unless- and sometimes even if, women take drastic measures during intercourse there's a pretty high likelihood of becoming pregnant at least once at some point during those fertile years. Without effort, and sometimes even with efforts to prevent pregnancy women find themselves pregnant, often against their consent. When this mishap happens, a woman can become hostage in their own bodies, to a process for the most part, they cannot terminate without assistance.
There are other women who will find themselves in an unintended pregnancy at some point during those 'childbearing years'. And further, some of those women, who find themselves unintentionally pregnant, are going to have an abortion regardless of legality. Therefore, these women view ending that pregnancy as the only solution available to them. The 2003 bill that banned partial birth abortion was a bill that shocked most pro-choice individuals. This bill banned physicians from performing abortions on women past the second trimester is essentially taking rights away from women; it is a way for government to tell women that they do not have the right to make their own decision as to when to end a pregnancy.
Reproducing Autonomy
The reproduction of autonomy has important implications for political and legal debates over reproduction. Concerned, as it concerned with women's reproductive decisions, and viewed autonomy as an important counter to the paternalism that has regularly attended the regulation of women's reproductive decisions. People are concerned about the consequences of disavowing autonomy in the realm of reproductive regulation and politics. The foremost concern was that dispensing with autonomy in the realm of women's reproductive decisions particularly regarding abortion and sterilization in the United States would not counter and might even serve to strengthen forces and arguments that would substitute others' judgments for women's own judgments about their bodies and their situations. Conceiving of individuals as autonomous, then, has long seemed to be an important way to counter certain forms of oppression. While the report takes up the specific areas of abortion and sterilization, everything from “the pill” to the ultrasound serves as background, to and the conditions under which procreation now is approached. Technology is the condition of the possibility of discourse such as that of “responsible” procreation taken up in Chapter Four's discussion of abortion and Chapter Five's discussion of sterilization. Technology has rendered procreation a choice in a way that has profound implications for how reproductive outcomes are evaluated. If babies no longer just happen, but are brought into existence only by definite intentions, much changes.
Concept of Competence
Competence is an important concept in determining the role that a patient has when making medical decisions. This is of enormous importance when the patient is competent and, can take an active decision-making role. If the patient is deemed incompetent, than others must make these decisions for the patient. The word competition has many meanings, but the meaning that interests us here is "the ability to perform well a certain work or activity." Thus, in a commonplace, professional medical activity is one that knows diagnostic and therapeutic decisions in accordance with the set of knowledge and skills that lead the physician to make good decisions that are correct and deemed medically necessary for the patient. The latter defined by norms issued by a community of clinicians, which specify an exacting standard, which are continuously updated based on new medical knowledge. In the legal context, competence and incompetence refer to the ability of a person to exercise the rights of himself and his legal property. This trial is based on the opinion of psychologists, psychiatrists, neurologists or experts.
Abortion is a Woman’s Right
The abortion issue sparked a debate about what values are at stake, when it comes to life and human dignity. It is not an easy subject; the personal, social, religious, and opposed intermingle at once, arranged in two opposing positions well: choice or life. Those who defend the pro choice (abortion) argue that if abortion was legal, women could think more calmly, clearly, and objectively, reaching a conclusion, which would be responsible. Clearly, based on the idea that every man / woman should have dominion over their actions and their own bodies therefore, the pregnant woman's body is not a good ownerless appropriate by ordinary occupation. Abortion is a decision that most women performed as planned, analyzed, judged, and felt, is not a decision taken lightly, and when taken, it is because they know of personal difficulties related to having a child. Each case is unique and the needs and living conditions and one can be sure no one gets pregnant by choice or design so long as an abortion is an option.
Opponents of Abortion
The actions of those who are against such authority are guilty in the sense of introducing a "rapist" outside the community, moral and lawful by revenge, or the force applied by any community punitive moral minority. In turn, the mutual consent can only be because each person is an independent center of decision that cannot be broken without destroying the basics of tolerant coexistence. Hence, they respect the right of consenting participants in the community of communicative action as a necessary condition for the existence of a moral community. The author who we have been quoting the maxim formulated this principle as: "Do unto others as they would not themselves, and do for them what you've gotten them to agree to do." The principle formulated above derived from a social obligation: to guarantee all individuals the right to consent before taking any action regarding them, especially protecting the weak that cannot do so for themselves and need a surrogate consent. Today the term autonomy has acquired different meanings, in that it is understood to mean a right of liberty, privacy, free will, choose one's own behaviour and own one’s self. A person freely acts autonomy according to the plan chosen, however, the person without it is controlled by others or is unable to think and act according to their own desires or plans (Castoriadis, 2009).
What is Physician Assisted Suicide?
Physician assisted suicide is the term used to refer to assisted suicide from providing the environment and resources necessary for a person to commit suicide, regardless of their motivations. Contrary to euthanasia, therefore, the “patient” causes his own death, not a third party. Assisted suicide requires a clear manifestation of the will and freedom to die, what distinguishes the incitement to suicide. With the assistance of suicide or euthanasia is the supposed right to relieve pain and suffering, as well as the right to die. For many, it is seen as an extrapolation of the principle of autonomy: it is possible to choose the time and means to someone's death. The fight takes place in the plane of the question the appropriateness of the limits of autonomy: the limits of application of this principle, so that many factors may hinder the decision making process, especially in the unbalanced state of patients with advanced-stage disease.
What is Newborn Genetics Testing?
A genetic test or genetic testing is a procedure biochemical analytical and experimental that provides information of interest to the medical clinic. It allows, among other things, to determine the predisposition of a subject to develop a variety of diseases. A genetic test is "the analysis of DNA, RNA, chromosomes, proteins and certain metabolites to detect human genotypes, mutations, phenotypes or karyotypes associated with inherited diseases with clinical endpoints" (Schneewind, 2008). The results of a genetic test can confirm or rule out a suspected genetic condition or help determine a person's chances of developing a genetic disorder.
The Autonomy of Newborn Genetics Testing
It is also important to consider that this change in moral evaluation of women's reproduction due to the existence of legalized abortion, along with inadequate public assistance policies, may exert some pressure on women to determine the outcome of their pregnancy in a supposedly responsible manner. Furthermore, these pressures may coexist with opposing pressures and policies such as those resulting from the line of cases that decline to impose any positive obligation on states to fund or otherwise provide support for indigent women to obtain abortions.
Counter Argument
Every year, approximately 4 million children undergo genetic testing as part of newborn screening. This is the most common form of genetic testing in the entire population. Other children undergo genetic testing as part of a diagnostic workup for clinical problems (from progressive muscle weakness to developmental delays) or as part of research protocols or family linkage analyses. With the completion of the human genome project, there are hopes that genetic medicine will evolve into personalized medicine and become an integral part of medical practice. The expansion of genetic testing and screening in pediatrics raises ethical issues about the limits of parental autonomy, whose consent is needed, and what rights to privacy, if any, do children have with respect to their parents. Every genetic test brings its own ethical dilemmas. Genetic testing for cystic fibrosis, a recessive disease, can identify asymptomatic carriers who do not have the disease and will not develop it in the future but may transmit the mutation to their children who can develop the condition if they inherit a second copy of the mutation from the other parent. It is debatable whether individuals should learn about their carrier status early, during childhood or adolescence, or only once they reach adulthood, when this piece of information becomes relevant as part of their reproductive choices. Another medical condition, Huntington's disease, is dominantly transmitted meaning that one copy of the mutated gene is sufficient to cause disease. This genetic test has diagnostic value in symptomatic people, but it can also reveal the existence of a mutation in clinically healthy individuals’ decades before the onset of neurological manifestations.
Disagreement with the Counter Argument
One who disagrees with the utilitarian approach argument would profoundly disagree although this person would agree that test results protected under Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and health care facilities have a legal and professional duty to keep information about their patients confidential. However, under certain circumstances, health care facilities are required by law to report particular events or conditions to the appropriate government or regulatory agencies. These are mandatory reports. Failure to make a mandatory report may result in the imposition of penalties ranging from a fine to allegations of professional misconduct. When these genetics data are reported on these children, the data are entered into a national health data repository where the information is available to insurance companies. Insurance companies can use this information, to discriminate against patients. Although there is no empirical evidence of widespread discrimination, the public fear created by publicized accounts of genetic discrimination exist (Benhabib, 2007).
Conclusion
Finally, autonomy is considered a fundamental value, to be protected and cultivated by society. Autonomy is also a central concept within contemporary political philosophy and sometimes used more or less interchangeably with the concept of freedom. As such, autonomy is a critical value, sometimes an intrinsic value, to be considered when organizing society. The various traditions within contemporary political theory can be understood, in part, as having different understandings of what autonomy is and how society might best be organized to protect and promote autonomy. Although autonomy is a central concept in both contemporary moral philosophy and political philosophy, the concept is the focus of ongoing debate and generates persistent criticism.
References
S. BENHABIB.SITUATING THE SELF: GENDER, COMMUNITY, AND POSTMODERNISM IN CONTEMPORARY ETHICS. (2007).
C. CASTORIADIS,. PHILOSOPHY, POLITICS, AUTONOMY: ESSAYS IN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY (2009).
J. SCHNEEWIND.THE INVENTION OF AUTONOMY: A HISTORY OF MODERN MORAL PHILOSOPHY (2008).
ZOLNA FINER.. Facts on Induced Abortion in the United States. ADVENCING SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS IN THE US 3-5 (2001)..
LAUREN, SABINA. Abortion is about autonomy - it is a core value. DAILY KLOS (2010): at 2-7.
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