jewishfeminist02: While there are some that permit this, there are many more that don’t. It may seem like we are doing the baby a favor, by ending it’s suffering before birth but in reality we are depriving the neshomah a tikun in this world. It’s one thing for a couple to be tested for Tay-Sachs before they start dating, but it’s another thing to end an object that has the potential for life. So while the life of an unborn is not equal to that of the living, it’s not so simple to terminate it just because we feel bad for it.
As for the rights of the woman to end her pregnacy. Well I would like to see in Halacha where any person would have the right to do so. (Don’t go off on a tangent and bring up cases of life-threatening situatuions since there will be a different p’sak for that) Unborn doesn’t mean unliving. Any woman who has gone through pregnacy can tell you that the baby is living and quite capable of feeling stimulus. Besides hearing, tasting and seeing, science has shown that babies in utero are capable of dreaming. Animals, on the other hand, have a different level of existance. We are not allowed to tortue and harm animals needlessly and of course to minimize their suffering when you must kill an animal. You have to make sure they are fed and well treated (what that means is well debated, and I follow the P’sak of the mojority of Gedolim today that animals are treated within the constrictions of halacha) However you are not allowed to be mechalil shabbos for the life of an animal but for a human and unborn baby you would.