Reproductive rights
editReproductive rights are rights relating to reproduction and reproductive health.[1] The World Health Organisation defines reproductive rights as granting indivuals sole decision making power over the "number, spacing, and timing" of their children and a right to the highest standards of related health care. [2]
Reproductive rights were first established as a subset of human rights at the United Nation's 1968 International Conference on Human Rights. [3] The sixteenth article of the resulting Proclamation of Teheran states, "Parents have a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and the spacing of their children."[4] [3]
Reproductive rights may include some or all of the following rights: the right to legal or safe abortion, the right to control one's reproductive functions, the right to quality reproductive healthcare, and the right to education and access in order to make reproductive choices free from coercion, discrimination, and violence.[5] Reproductive rights may also be understood to include education about contraception and sexually transmitted infections, and freedom from coerced sterilization and contraception, protection from gender-based practices such as female genital cutting (FGC) and male genital mutilation (MGM).[1][3][5][6]
Reproductive rights typically carries strong support for "legal and safe abortion." Because of this, reproductive rights, as they are promoted are an extremely controversial concept. In the United Nations, reproductive rights is competing with fetal rights (below). The Center for Reproductive Rights is lobbying the United Nations to include reproductive rights within its "peer review" of nations.[7] They are being challenged by a coalition of pro-life groups, who promote the opposing concept of fetal rights (below) as a human right.[8][9]
Fetal rights
editProposed rights of the fetus have been a controversial subject. The point at which a fetus has rights is disputed by pro-life and pro-choice groups in particular.[10] Those who are pro-life typically believe that an individual's life begins at the moment of conception, or at the time of implantation, and therefore may believe that the fetus has equal rights to any other person.[11] Others, including many pro-choice groups, argue that until the point at which the fetus is viable (or could survive alone), typically marked somewhere within the third trimester, the rights of the fetus are secondary to and dependent upon those of the mother.[12] [13]
Proposed rights of the fetus
editProposed rights of the fetus have been a controversial subject, due to the abortion debate. Currently, human rights only apply to beings recognized as individuals, and thus legal concepts have been at conceptual odds with religious or moral doctrines which support fetal rights.[citation needed] It is this issue of the fetus' recognition as a human being, and therefore deserving of human rights recognition, that is a the crux of the abortion debate.[citation needed] Fetal rights thus poses a certain opposition to the proposed concept of reproductive rights (above), which typically promote the concept that women have a human right to "safe abortion."[citation needed]
References
edit- ^ a b Cook, Rebecca J. (1996). "Advancing Reproductive Rights Beyond Cairo and Beijing". International Family Planning Perspectives. 22 (3): 115–121. doi:10.2307/2950752. Retrieved 2007-12-08.
{{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|unused_data=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|journal=(help); Text "quote" ignored (help) - ^ "Reproductive rights rest on the recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health. They also include the right of all to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence."World Health Organisation Gender and reproductive rights home page
- ^ a b c Freedman, Lynn P. (1993). "Human Rights and Reproductive Choice"". Studies in Family Planning. 24 (1): 18–30. Retrieved 2007-12-08.
{{cite journal}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|journal=(help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ "Proclamation of Teheran". International Conference on Human Rights. 1968. Retrieved 2007-11-08.
- ^ a b Amnesty International USA (2007). "Stop Violence Against Women: Reproductive rights" (HTML). SVAW. Amnesty International USA. Retrieved 2007-12-08.
Reproductive rights - access to sexual and reproductive healthcare and autonomy in sexual and reproductive decision-making - are human rights; they are universal, indivisible, and undeniable. These rights are founded upon principles of human dignity and equality, and have been enshrined in international human rights documents. Reproductive rights embrace core human rights, including the right to health, the right to be free from discrimination, the right to privacy, the right not to be subjected to torture or ill-treatment, the right to determine the number and spacing of one's children, and the right to be free from sexual violence. Reproductive rights include the recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children, and the right to have the information and means to implement those decisions free from discrimination, coercion, and violence. Reproductive rights also include the right to the highest standards of sexual and reproductive healthcare.
- ^ Template
- ^ http://www.reproductiverights.org/pr_08_0417PeerReview.html
- ^ http://www.lifenews.com/int953.html
- ^ http://www.c-fam.org/
- ^ "A Question of Fetal Rights, or Politics?". LA Times.
- ^ "Did you just call me a zygote?". Salon.com.
- ^ Kristin Luker. "Abortion and the politics of motherhood". University of California Press.
- ^ "The Fetus Focus Fallacy". Pro-Choice Press.