The Aristotilean Moral Theory on Abortion & Foster Care
The Aristotelian moral theory has a general end goal in mind. That end goal is that of happiness, and we strive to achieve happiness through all our activities and effort. Those activities that we perform daily also go into the into that Aristotle defines as the “supreme good”. The supreme good can be defined as the rational soul working in accordance with virtue. The definition of these terms is necessary for the understanding of Aristotle’s moral theory as our contemporary understanding of these terms is different from his day. Virtue is equal to that of excellence. Being good at something is a virtue. For example, a virtue could be applied to someone who is quite good at stealing from other people. Yet, this isn’t something we would generally to consider to be a good thing to do, stealing is socially considered to be wrong – this is why the idea of virtue is paired with the concept of the rational soul, which is defined as a distinctive activity that separates us from plants and animals, it is the equivalent of the idea that since humans are capable of formal thought we are able to make decisions that can be considered good or bad, so our best measure of moral judgment is our ability to make choices as they are a voluntary action that we all as human beings are capable of making. So even though an individual has quite the skill for stealing from people it would still be considered to be a morally wrong idea due to the pairing of this concept with the rational soul. We are capable of making decisions that are good or bad based on societal norms that surround the individual, and all of our choices are made to achieve the end goal of achieving happiness, which Aristotle defines as gaining health, wealth, knowledge, and friends. Aristotle claims that this will result in making difficult decisions for yourself in order to gain happiness, for example choosing not to steal from someone and working hard so that you will never have to consider or need to steal.
People have never been able to agree upon what should make for a happy or good life. It is pretty easy to guess that would be the conclusion that philosophers would come to, since every individual experiences life in different ways and has different concepts of what should be considered right and wrong based on societal norms and their own personal moral code that they choose to follow, but something that should be agreed upon within our own culture that even though people generally don’t follow the idea of Aristotelian moral code, we have the ability to understand right and wrong on a basic level – that being that allowing others to be happy as long as they are not hurting each other.
A hot topic within American culture today is the idea of abortion. Abortion is a highly debated topic throughout the United States on whether it should be legal or illegal, or whether a newly conceived embryo should be considered a human being or something more akin to that or just a parasite. Specifically, since this is a broad topic that has multiple different arguing points that exist within it specifically, I’m going to focus on the legality of the situation and whether it should be legal or illegal based on Aristotle’s moral theory.
Since the end goal of a human being is to achieve happiness, and we are able to do so through the actions or decisions that we make, it should be a clear-cut answer. Happiness is something that is more individualistic, and each human being has their own personal concept of what happiness is, as Aristotle states “Happiness then, is found to be something perfect and self-sufficient, being the end to which our actions are directed”. We will do what we can to achieve our own form of happiness, and if someone is making the choice to have an abortion for the sake of their own happiness it should be allowed. As stated before life is a series of difficult choices that we must be willing to make to better ourselves and achieve our goals, and individuals must be allowed the freedom to make said decisions. What must be considered in this moral theory though is the concept of the rational soul, it is due to this concept that counterarguments must be considered, as it must define what is right or wrong in this situation through the lens of Aristotelian theory.
The most popular counterargument to abortion being legal is the idea that getting an abortion is murder. The reasoning behind this is that at conception a fetus is a human being and the murder of a human being is wrong. This is something that we collectively agree on as human beings that murder is wrong. It is important to understand the definition of murder at the legal level, murder is defined as, “the killing of a human being by a sane person, with intent, malice aforethought (prior intention to kill the particular victim or anyone who gets in the way) and with no legal excuse or authority”. Legally speaking this argument has o validity due to the Roe v. Wade case, so the law sides with Aristotelian moral theory, since it is allowing people to make a choice in regard to their own happiness even though it is a difficult decision. Yet here is where the rational soul concept comes into play. Is it right or wrong to be aborting an embryo or fetus, and could this be seen as a virtuous act?
Aristotle’s main reason for writing about the ethics was to show that to live a happy and good life we must be virtuous and find balance in all things that we do in order to be a good human beings, that being we must find control between excess and depravity, that is what being virtuous is. There are things that people will generally agree upon. Don’t eat too much, don’t eat too little, and work out at least three to five days a week. These are things that we consider to be norms and balanced. Yet situations exist where the norm isn’t enough, what if you’re training to be in the Olympics? That societal norm isn’t going to cut it, you’ll actually be in a state of depravity compared to what would be the norm of Olympic athletes and how much they’re working out or eating to make that their ability to compete at top form, the importance of this concept is that an individual's needs or what actions they are going to take are to make sure they’re within the norm for their own personal situation, and it isn’t considered what they’re doing is wrong because it is necessary for them to work their bodies to that level. At its core, this concept is to show that an individual's happiness and their needs are different for each person, but the freedom of choice is necessary for people to reach happiness, and laws shouldn’t exist to prevent that as long as they aren’t hurting anyone mentally or physically.
This concept can and should be applied to our current issue of abortion, the needs of every pregnant individual are always going to a different in some way from the other, there will of course be similarities between each pregnant individual, but the differences are what define a pregnancy. Those needs can vary from wanting pickles and orange juice to wanting an abortion, there is an importance in that which is allowing women to have the right to choose between keeping a baby or not. It is these difficult choices that we make to become fulfilled human beings and achieve happiness, as long as those choices being made are virtuous.
Through Aristotle’s theory, the concept of an individual getting an abortion can be considered a virtuous act, as it’s something that can be done in excess such as getting a lot of abortions all the time or it can be done in deficiency, where someone chooses to not get an abortion even though they really want to. Even if there were cases that existed where someone was getting an abortion every other month was doing it in excess to the point where it could now be considered a vice, that shouldn’t mean the right to abortion should be taken away from other women just because some people were taking advantage of the situation, there are many people that drink alcohol in excess and yet we don’t ban it because it’s quite evident what happens when something is banned that everyone likes, they will fight to get it back. The right of choice shouldn’t be taken away, “Some voluntary things we do because we have chosen them, others we do though we have not chosen them: we choose all those that we deliberated about beforehand, and those not chosen are those not deliberated about beforehand”. The important thing is having the choice, and when the choice is taken away so is freedom. The choice must be allowed to give people the chance to gain their own personal happiness.
All situations must be considered for all people, “For it is impossible or not easy for someone without equipment to do what is noble: many things are done through instruments, as it were—through friends, wealth, and political power. Those who are bereft of some of these...disfigure their blessedness, for a person who is altogether ugly in appearance, or of poor birth, or solitary and childless cannot really be characterized as happy...”. The quote states that is difficult for people to be virtuous when they weren’t even given the tools they needed so they could focus on being virtuous, and as a result are not able to be as happy as they can possibly be. This can be applicable in many forms towards the situation of abortion in our contemporary society that can even be compared to situations that occurred in antiquity which is quite simply not having the resources necessary to care for oneself as well as a child, for some abortion is their only option. Which in turn brings up another argument.
This counterargument to abortion states that because people are more apt towards choosing abortion now over a child they cannot care for or do not want, it states that there won’t be enough children for families who are looking to adopt, and stating that there won’t be enough children in orphanages or the foster care system for families or individuals who are looking to adopt. Specifically, the pro-con organization states that there are 2.6 million American families looking to adopt children, and since children being put up for adoption is decreasing then the number of viable children for adoption is decreasing and there are families in the United States that could go without ever getting the chance to adopt a child.
Viewing this argument through the lens of Aristotle’s moral theory it is important to find a balance between excess and depravity, in regard to the concept of putting children up for adoption though, morally would we not want depravity in this aspect? It is better that there aren’t as many children going into foster care but there is an excess of children that are going into foster care around the world. There are 18 million children in foster care throughout the world, that’s more than enough for the families that are looking to adopt. Adopting from these areas around the world would help to make them a more virtuous people as well as helping those countries by helping them with their excess in parentless children, it is a win-win situation for the adopter and the country they are helping.
Aristotle would agree with me on my argumentative points about Abortion, “The soul of a good person is characterized by harmony among its parts. In the good person reason and the appetitive part 'speak with the same voice'. There are good and bad people that will make decisions for themselves to try and make themselves happy, yet there is an importance of understanding the need for harmony between our desires and needs, Aristotle would want the opportunity for choice in regard to this matter and to allow them the chance to do what is best for themselves as long as it was to help maintain their balance to reach happiness
Aristotle’s moral theory confirms a more liberal ideology toward the concept of abortion currently, there is large importance in choice and making rational and difficult decisions for ourselves and for others. The rational soul wants us to do what is best for ourselves and for the public so it should fall onto our elected officials to not let personal interests affect what is an important choice for individuals that have to make that difficult decision for themselves. All people are making choices and doing what they will believe will help them be happy, rationally we should not limit options for those that also want to be happy.
