Transcript Chapter Four: Abortion

Chapter Four:
Abortion
Review
Applying Ethics: A Text with Readings (10th ed.)
Julie C. Van Camp, Jeffrey Olen, Vincent Barry
Cengage Learning/Wadsworth
How should we approach the
central question in abortion,
what is a “person”?
As a biological category: homo sapiens
In terms of its ethical status: moral
agent
In terms of its political status: legal
recognition
What are the moral positions
on abortion?
Conservative
– abortion is never morally justified or, at most,
justifiable only to save the mother’s life
Liberal
– abortion is always morally justifiable, regardless of the
reasons or the time in fetal development
Intermediate or moderate
– abortion is morally acceptable up to a certain point in
fetal development and/or with some reasons, though
not all
“Why Abortion Is Immoral”
Donald Marquis
Killing a fetus is just as immoral as killing
an adult human being
Both the fetus and the adult human being
are deprived of all value of their future
Contraception is not wrong, as it does not
deny something a human future of value
“A Defense of Abortion”
Judith Jarvis Thomson
What is Thomson’s strategy for
analyzing abortion?
– Assume the anti-abortion premise: that fetus
is a person from the moment of conception
– Ask what are the consequences for abortion
rights if we assume that premise?
– Ask, even if the fetus is a person from the
moment of conception, are all abortions
necessarily wrong?
“On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion”
Mary Ann Warren
Which position does Warren defend?
– The extreme liberal position
Does she believe the fetus is a person?
– No, and therefore, abortion is not immoral
What is one of the strongest criticisms of her
position?
– It seems to permit infanticide
“Virtue Theory and Abortion”
Rosalind Hursthouse
What is her reasoning strategy for
adding abortion issues?
– She uses Aristotelian virtue theory to consider
the morality (not the legality) of abortion
How does she use virtue theory?
– She analyzes what a “virtuous woman” would
do to make the abortion decision