Waves, 2019

May, 2023 | VALERI VARELA

Waves is a very impactful movie which was basically two movies in one. The first 60 minutes of Waves was about the life of Tyler Williams, a popular senior in high school. At first, he seems like he has such a normal life. He dates the most popular and prettiest girl in his school named Alexis, has a very bright future in wrestling since he was the star of his high school wrestling team and came from an upper-class African American family. At that moment everything was perfect in his life till he suffered a very bad shoulder injury that could jeopardize his chance of being able to have a wrestling scholarship and the college of his choice. He was also faced with incredible pressure his father would put him under and it was very strenuous and overwhelming for him which is one of the reasons why when he was warned about his injury he did not stop, and he did not seek medical or therapeutic attention when needed due to that stress. Unfortunately, during a big match, he ended up messing up his shoulder by being pinned down applying all of his body weight on his shoulder. His wrestling career was over.

What tipped Tyler over the edge is when Alexis tells him that she is pregnant and doesn't know what to do. Tyler then convinces Alexis to get an abortion. In a way, he basically tries to decide for her and what she wants to do with her own body, which is something that just isn't correct. When Alexis gets to the abortion clinic, she is greeted by protestors in the parking lot telling her that she is going to hell and that she is a murderer because of what she is about to decide. That is when Alexis really starts to think if that is what she wants to truly do with her unborn child. As she is inside the room, Tyler is outside waiting for her. The buildings security guard comes in and talks to all of the women in the waiting room and tells them not to listen to what the protestors tell them, that they will offer them money to buy or adopt their children after they have them or that they will do whatever they can to give you and your child a better life and etc. The security guard told them to not listen because they will lie to you, and you will be stuck with a baby you didn't want in the first place. I think that is something that influenced Tyler’s point of view throughout the whole first part of the movie. He did not want a child simply because he was not fit to have a child and thought about the life ahead of him, how he was still going to college and was still going to have a bright future, but he didn’t see himself achieving anything if a baby was on the way. In other words, he didn't want the responsibility of raising a child of his own. 

Alexis then storms out of the clinic and tells Tyler that she wants to leave and to take her home. On the way home, Alexis tells Tyler she wants to keep the baby and did not get the abortion. Tyler then yells and screams at her and tells her that she's crazy and living a fantasy if she thinks that they are keeping the baby. She responds by saying it is her body and is her choice as to what she can and cannot do with her body. She then exits the vehicle and then the argument ends there. A few days later she texts Tyler explaining that she told her parents and that her parents are supporting her decision in keeping her baby and that she is also raising it on her own without him because she knows that he was not on board with it in the first place and does not want a crazy person in her child's life.

I don't want to spoil too much of the movie so with that key part of the movie in mind we can discuss abortion. There are many different arguments on abortion. When it comes to Katian ethics if we apply the categorical imperative would it be logically consistent if everyone did performed an abortion when they wish to do so? Can abortion be universalized? Just like any other termination of life, abortion cannot be consistently universalized so it would not pass the categorical imperative test. For Kant, it's basically prohibited to kill any living being no matter what the circumstances. In Alexis' case, according to Kantian ethics, her decision was the right decision because she doesn't want the abortion because she didn't want to kill the living thing inside her. If anything, she did the right thing but let's say for example if a doctor would tell her that her baby would affect her health and such or it’s a high-risk pregnancy it would still be considered wrong in Kantian ethics to abort the fetus because it is viewed as killing the fetus. Another philosophical argument against abortion was stated by Don Marquis who claimed that “murder is illegal because it deprives the murdered person of their potential future.” He used this to then make the argument that abortion deprives the fetus of their potential future and therefore is morally wrong.

According to the National Institute of Health, “Abortion is morally permissible and should be legally permitted as long as woman make the decisions while being aware of the consequences of her decision to herself and the fetus.” This is what my personal opinion on abortion is as well when it comes to abortion. Even though technically abortion is something that is morally wrong in Kantian Ethics, I think it is moraly neutral. As long as the mother knows the consequences of the decision, she is going to make then it is okay. In a way, abortion is more of a personal decision. For example, when it comes to Alexis, she had two options either abort the fetus and end up wondering “what if?” or sometimes when people go through abortions they go through serious depression. Her other option is to have the baby and suffer the societal judgment of being a teen mom and basically put her life on hold to take responsibility for another, and she would also go through the difficulties of being a single mother. The choice is up to her.