Transcript Abortion
Abortion and persons Michael Lacewing [email protected] © Michael Lacewing Arguing about abortion • Most of the argument focuses on the moral status of the foetus: does it have a right to life? • This question is usually connected to asking whether the foetus is a person. Questions • • • • What is a person? Why think persons have a right to life? Is the foetus a person? Does it make a difference to whether abortion is right or wrong that the foetus is/is not a person? – The metaphysical question may not be relevant to the ethical question, and viceversa. Persons as possessing souls • Persons have souls. This both distinguishes them from everything that isn’t a person, and is the basis of the right to life. • If persons have souls, when do the soul and body come together? Traditional Catholic doctrine: at conception - so the embryo is sacred, as all human life is, straight away Objections • Many philosophical problems with the concept of a soul as a separate ‘thing’. • Am I a soul? Is a soul a person before it has any of the characteristics of a person? • Locke: persons aren’t souls – If you swapped all the memories between two souls, which soul would be which person? Characteristics of personhood • Implication: a person must have psychological attributes – But not all creatures with a psychology are persons • What determines whether something is a person, if not having a soul? – – – – – – Self-awareness, having a ‘point of view’ Language Reason Autonomy Morality Being human Dividing people up • Apart from souls and ‘being human’, all other criteria are possessed by some human beings and not others, e.g. severe mental disability, senile dementia, permanent vegetative state – Not all human beings are persons – Yet we don’t think it is permissible to kill them for the benefit of others – Is this because they still have a right to life? Sentience • Sentience: primitive consciousness of perception, pleasure, pain – Doesn’t distinguish persons from non-persons – But perhaps it is the ground for a right to life? – Many animals are sentient - do they have a right to life? • Sentience begins around 18 weeks, so younger foetuses don’t have right to life. The argument from potential • Foetuses are have a right to life because they will become a person with a right to life if allowed to develop • But: – Sperm and egg prior to conception have this potential, if allowed to conjoin – Does potential matter? A student, who has the potential to become a teacher, is not put in charge of lessons until trained as a teacher; you can’t spend money you don’t have yet Persons and abortion: recap • Unless persons = embodied souls or persons = human beings, foetuses aren’t persons • But they may still have a right to life – Potential persons – Sentience • Both of these options are difficult to defend • But even if the foetus doesn’t have a right to life, it might be wrong to kill it. – Not all morality is about rights. The right to choose • But suppose foetuses are persons, with a right to life. Is that enough to make abortion (always) wrong? – The case of the violinist • Even a person with a right to life does not have a right to use another person’s body. Until it can survive outside her body, the foetus is part of the woman’s body. • Even if the foetus is a person, even if it does have a right to life, the right to choose may take precedence. Act utilitarianism • The right thing to do is what will cause the greatest balance of happiness over pain. • Importance of pleasure and pain - suggests sentience is right criterion for moral importance • Since the feotus can’t feel pleasure or pain, does it not count at all? • Or because, if it developed into a child, it would, should we count its future experiences (consequences)? Though we can’t tell exactly what these are, we normally prefer being alive to not being alive. Virtue theory • The discussion seems to treat women as containers for a foetus, rather than creators of life. The meaning of pregnancy in human life, and of abortion, haven’t been discussed. • To think the foetus doesn’t matter is callous: – Even if the answer is that abortion is morally permissible, it would be wrong to do so lightly and without due consideration • The life the woman is leading and her reasons for choosing abortion are central. Each case must be judged individually.