The Value of A Life : Essay

Module name: Study and Research Skills.
Project tittle/topic: Should the value of life be decided
by individual or law?

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.......................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION...................................................................................................8
REFERENCE LIST:........................................................................................10

SHOULD THE VALUE OF LIFE BE DECIDED BY INDIVIDUAL OR LAW?
INTRODUCTION
The Value of life was and still is a highly discussed issue. It has numerous dimensions
and the opinions on them are quite controversial. It has a moral and a personal side, though.
Nowadays, there are different views on abortion, assisted dying, etc. First of all, what should
be taken into consideration is the human nature (Eekelaar, 2017). People shall act as morally
as they could.
Having in mind that, over the year’s different laws has been created. There are some
laws about the value of life connected with abortion, death penalty and assisted dying that
vary across the world depending to the country of residence or religious status, personal
issues, or social ones.
There are some people who believe that should be decided by individual
because everybody should have the right to decide about their own lives and how they would
like to live, they should feel free about the value of their lives and also they should take their
own decisions without any restriction (Paterson, 2017). Two women’s stories of abortion on
Youtube share their experience after abortion. The first of them-Bernadeth, tells that the
biggest regret of [her] life was making abortion (Two women's stories of abortion - BBC
Newsnight 2018, 00:00:33). The other one-Caryl, never had a moment of regret about
abortion Two women's stories of abortion - BBC Newsnight 2018, 00:00:35). So, there are
very different stories around the world and people feel and experience different things in this
process. However the value of life and the decision to be decided by law or individual varies
depending on what a person does or believes.
MAIN BODY
It is different either the abortion, assisted dying like euthanasia or if someone
commits a crime or tries to kill itself (suicide). So should be decided by law or individual
depending on the circumstances but in the case of death penalty always should not be decided
with the death, someone who commits a crime, like murder should be punished, but with the
imprisonment of life so in that case should be decided by law.
In the case of the abortion, one example is in Matters of Life and Death: Anna, she had an
abortion at the age of 17, and she believes everyone should have the right to choose if they
want to be a parent.

Anna don’t feel bad about it, it was just what she needed to do The decision to have
the abortion completely changed my life, she was able to go to the University and she could
learn everything that wanted to be learning (BBC TWO What are the rights and wrongs of
death penalty. 2014).
In the other hand there is another example of a woman called Marie, she is a mother
of a young daughter with Down’s syndrome and she believes that every unborn child has the
right to live (BBC TWO What are the rights and wrongs of abortion? 2014).
She said that 9 out of 10 women decided to have an abortion if they find out they are
having a child with Down’s Syndrome for her that would be a wrong thing to do, as come
from a Christian background and to me an abortion would be playing God (BBC TWO What
are the rights and wrongs of abortion? 2014).
She believes the life it is sacred and that everybody has the right to be here no matter
who they are. It is humane to take care of life (Bowen, 2018).
In UK according to the Act 1967 the abortion it’s legal from up to 28 weeks of
gestation, if the women suffer a violence attack, or for any physiological or healthy reasons.
However the Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Algeria, Morocco etc. they
believes that Allah have given all human life what is sacred to Muslims and Allah
determinates how long each people will live.
In Matters of Life and Death, according to Hasan an Islamic Law Consultant the
Islamic scriptures tell us that the soul is breathed into the fetus 6 weeks after conception and
then it becomes a living creature, it is a servant of God and to abort it is to murder it (BBC
TWO Matters of life and death. 2014).
Unwanted pregnancy is not actually accepted in Islam, because in this culture a
relationship is forbidden before marriage (Rothman, 2017).
Nowadays many countries contemplate abortion in their legislation under certain
circumstances, according to data from the United Nations Organization, there are five states
that do not endorse it in any context, and three of them are in Latin America.
El Salvador is one of the most stringent countries on the issue of abortion, with long
prison terms for women who submit to one. That was the recent case of Evelyn Hernández,