Transcript Ethics of Abortion File - St Joseph`s College, Banora Point

The Ethics of
Abortion 2
Application of ethical theories
Powerpoints prepared by
Julie Arliss and Peter Vardy
 Deciding when a person is formed is
the first step in considering the ethics
of abortion.
 The second is to decide which ethical
theory to apply.
 Possible ethical schemes include:
 NATURAL LAW, KANTIAN ETHICS,
UTILITARIANISM AND SITUATION
ETHICS
What is it to be a person?
 The answer to this will determine how the discussion develops
 If humans are advanced animals with no special status in the
world, then the issue is whether ALL life from the moment of
conception must be valued. This includes animal life. Within this
framework humans are no different to animals and to treat them
as ethically different is to be speciesist.
 No-one is prepared to argue that a hen who tramples on her newly
fertilized egg is culpable and so the argument about the value of
human life from the moment of conception arguably does not get
off the ground.
 Unless one is clear on this issue, one cannot really discuss the
abortion issue philosophically. THE KEY ASSUMPTION IN
MOST DEBATES IS THAT HUMANS ARE DIFFERENT TO
ANIMALS. IF THEY ARE NOT, WHY HAVE SPECIAL LAWS
TO PROTECT HUMAN LIFE AND NOT ANIMAL LIFE?
 Within societies which value human persons above animals and
plants the key issue is when the embryo becomes a person.
Some definitions
 SPERM containing the male seed – 200
million in each ejaculation and they are
produced throughout a man’s life.
 EGGS. A woman has 500 000 OOCYTES
from the time that she is a 15 week fetus.
Each month, one Oocyte ‘ripens’, in
response to hormones, to form an OVA.
Sperm and Ova contain half the DNA of all
other cells in the body.
 ZYGOTE – Fertilised egg.
 PRE-EMBRYO – state after two days.
 EMBRYO – after fourteen days when
advanced differentiation of cells begins.
 FOETUS or FETUS – After eight weeks
when the embryo begins to look like a
person.
NATURAL LAW
Natural Law
 The natural law tradition maintains that a thing is
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good if it is fulfilling its purpose.
The Roman Catholic church’s ethical position is
based on Natural law – based on the philosophy
of Aristotle and interpreted in a Christian context
by St. Thomas Aquinas.
If the purpose of human life is to procreate and
abortion frustrates this purpose it is therefore
wrong.
From the moment of conception the conceptus
has the ‘purpose’ of becoming a person. Abortion
frustrates the purpose of the embryo and is
therefore always wrong.
But how do we define the moment of conception?
When the sperm enters egg? (see the first set of Powerpoint
slides for discussion of this issue)
Fertilization itself is not a single moment. It
takes about 30 hours.
If fertilizations succeeds, the zygote or preembryo develops rapidly - after 14 days,
the cells have differentiated and it is
clear which cells will form the embryo
and which will form the placenta and the
membrane.
If a woman conceives 14 days or less
before her period, it is highly likely that
the fertilized egg will not implant – it is
believed that between a third and a half
of fertilized embryos are 'lost' during the
next period without the woman even
knowing that she conceived. These
foetuses are sometimes described as
'naturally aborted‘.
St. Augustine
 Augustine recognised that a fertilized egg did not
have the same status as an embryo. He put it like
this:
 'If what it brought forth is unformed but
at this stage some sort of living, shapeless
thing, then the law of homicide would not
apply, for it could not be said that there
was a living soul in that body, for it lacks
all sense, if it be such that is not yet
formed, and therefore not yet endowed
with its senses.'
 For Augustine the 'living soul' did not exist at
conception. A foetus became a person when it
acquired an immortal soul - this was 'added'
directly by God. Augustine was influenced by
Aristotle who maintained that souls were formed
at 42 days for boys and 90 days for girls.
History of the debate…
 1) Theodore decreed in the 7th Century that a woman
having an abortion after the 40th day of conception should
do penance as if she had committed murder.
 2) Aquinas in the C13th followed Aristotle and maintained
the 40/90 day male/female distinction. Abortion before
these dates was sinful as, like birth control, it frustrated
the purpose of conception, BUT it was not to be treated in
the same way as murder as a soul was not present.
 3) In 1588, Pope Sixtus V effectively said that from the
point of view of Church (Canon) Law and Secular Law ANY
abortion should be considered as murder.
 4) This decree met strong opposition, so Pope Gregory X1V
returned to earlier laws and the abortion of a foetus which
had not received a soul and which was not, therefore,
considered to be 'animated' was no longer considered to
be an act of murder.
History of the debate contd.
5) In 1869, Pope Pius 1X decreed that all those who
procured abortion should be excommunicated whatever the age of the foetus. The Catholic Church
still, today, remains committed to the rejection of
(almost) all forms of abortion.
6) The Church of England, in a 1965 report prepared for
Synod which was welcomed by Synod although without
being officially endorsed, rejected the absolute view
that from the moment of conception onward a fertilized
egg had the rights of a human person. In 1988, the
Archbishop of York, John Habgood, maintained that
only when the cells differentiate rather than multiply
can the embryo be firmly considered to be a person.
7) A 1966 Church of Scotland report claimed that whilst
abortion was a serious matter, in the Reformed
Christian tradition the paramount concern was with the
mother.
The Moment of conception
 The claim that a fertilised egg is a person is highly
questionable as the following extract makes clear:
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‘Very frequently the early embryo is referred to
as ‘just a ball of cells’. One reason for this is that
until the fourteenth day, when the primitive
streak appears, the zygote has the potential to
divide in such a way that twins are formed.
Suppose the result of fertilisation is eventually
the formation of twins; can it be said that each
was an individual before the critical division
occurred? ‘
 This was the basis of the British Warnock report
adopted by the House of Commons in 1973
allowing experimentation of embryos up to 14
days.
McCormick’s
argument
 The Catholic moral theologian Richard McCormick
argues that:
 The scientific data suggests convincingly that the
pre-embryo is NOT yet a person. In other words,
the Catholic Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith is wrong.
 Nevertheless, although the pre-embryo is only a
potential person it should be treated as a person
because of its potential,
 However exceptions to (2) should be laid down at
national level to permit research under agreed
guidelines. He specifically defines 'research’ as
applying to procedures that would make
subsequent implantation impossible.
Natural Law and Abortion
 According to Natural Law everything consists of
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actuality and potentiality apart from God who has
no potential.
If a thing is being fully whatever it is to be that
thing it is good.
Natural Law stands on the claim that there is one
single human nature, which may be discovered by
reason.
Whatever furthers this human nature is good,
whatever frustrates it is bad.
It can be argued that an embryo is only part
formed in actuality, but has all the potential of
being a full human person. It should be respected
and valued for its POTENTIAL and accorded the
same moral status and protection as a every
other person.
Natural Law and Abortion
 BUT we do not
normally value a
person’s potential
as we do their
actuality.
 John Harris: we all
have potential to be
corpses but this
does not justify
treating or valuing
each other as if we
already are corpses.
THE MOMENT OF
CONCEPTION
 No-one thinks that an egg or a sperm
has rights. Why should egg and
sperm together be a person which
has rights?
 Certainly when sperm enters egg, all
the genetic material to make a
person is present – but whether this
POTENTIAL PERSON must be
respected as, or is already, an
ACTUAL PERSON is a key issue in the
debate.
Feeling Pain
 Whether a foetus is a person is a different issue
from whether it can feel pain. Professor Anne
McLaren of the Royal College of Obstetricians and
Gynaecologists in London said in a report issues
in October 1997 that the working group which
she chairs:
 ‘... had looked at the scientific evidence and
found that before 26 weeks there was no
awareness of pain. This should reassure the
overwhelming minority of women who have a
termination at this late stage that there is no
possibility of the foetus feeling pain.... What we
are saying to doctors is that after 24 weeks they
should consider giving some sort of analgesia. We
don’t know what the effect of an analgesia would
be on the child and it is difficult to find out….’
When is a person formed?
 If one is a dualist one needs to
decide when a soul originates or is
implanted.
 If one is a monist one needs to
decide when human tissue changes
to a human person which has rights.
There is no clear agreement on this.
 Some hold that it is when the foetus
is viable outside the womb, some
when it can feel pain, some when the
main organs are formed…..
Morning after Pill
WHAT IS THE ETHICAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
TAKING THIS IN THE FIRST AND SECOND HALF
OF A WOMAN’S CYCLE?
1) In the first half, the pill prevents
ovulation – hence it is a barrier to
conception.
2) In the second half it prevents
implantation – hence it is killing the
fertilised egg.
The IUD contraceptive device also
causes an abortion by preventing
fertilised eggs from implanting.
KANTIAN ETHICS
Kant’s Ethical Theory
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1.
Kant’s ethical theory is deontological:
proper behaviour is not dependent on
consequences.
There are absolutes and through
REASON we can work out what these
absolute moral laws are. Humans alone
have access to the moral law because
only humans have the capacity to
reason. The defining characteristic of
what it is to be human for Kant is
REASON.
Kant gives notably few examples of absolutes
himself!
But he introduces a number of tests that can be
applied in ethical decision making to see if the
decision is ethical.
Is the person acting according to good
will? Good will demands a response
according to reason not personal desire.
THE CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE
2) The Categorical Imperative has various
formulations. The most important, is the rule of
Universalization. ‘Act so that the maxim of your
action can be a universal law’
Are you willing to carry out the rule yourself?
 Can you wish all people would obey the principle you act
on?
 Would all rational people of good-will agree?
 Is it self contradictory? ‘Always accept and never give’
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3. The second formulation of the Categorical
Imperative: ‘Act in such a way that you always
treat humanity, whether in your own person or
in the person of any other, never simply as a
means, but always at the same time as an end.’
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People are rational and therefore have intrinsic worth. The
value of a person is not determined by their usefulness.
Does the action you propose result in USING someone?
KANT and Abortion
 Applying Kant’s ethical theory will depend upon a prior
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decision regarding the status of the embryo.
IT CAN BE ARGUED THAT THE EMBRYO IS NOT TO BE
REGARDED AS A PERSON OF MORAL STATUS
As a person the pregnant woman is RATIONAL and has a
capacity for autonomous thinking. This does not develop
until some months after birth in the case of the unborn. It
might be argued that there is no reason to respect the fetus
until sometime after birth when it develops this specifically
human capacity. Infanticide might then be regarded as
acceptable.
If what defines a person is their capacity to reason, why
not respect the autonomy of a woman who decides that she
wishes to stop being pregnant?
Forcing a woman to have a baby that she does not want by
refusing her an abortion is to treat her as a means to an
end…the means to the production of a baby against her
will.
 ‘ a man is not a thing , that is to say, something
which can be used merely as a means, but must
in all his actions be always considered as an end
in himself.’
Kant and Abortion (2)
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It is not clear that Kant defined what it is to be
human solely in terms of reason.
If a fetus has the capacity to develop the
specifically human art of reason, might that not
mean that it has interests as well as the
woman? If the fetus has moral status Kant can
be used to challenge abortion:
If so then a good-will might argue that it is a
duty to have the child, however inconvenient.
What motivates the woman to have an abortion? Does
she fulfil the ‘good-will’ criteria? Is the decision based on
reason or desire? Or fear? Who is she considering?
Herself or the embryo?
Can abortion become a ‘universal law of nature?’ Can we
will that all fetuses are aborted?
Alternatively can the duty to care for the weak and
vulnerable – those with no voice in society - be
universalised?
 Kant is not very helpful when there is
a conflict of interests between
different possible Categorical
Imperatives…
 HOW DOES ONE DECIDE?
 Kant’s ethical theory does not help
one to decide the essential question
about the personhood of the fetus or
about the competing interests of the
fetus and the mother.
UTILITARIANISM
Jeremy Bentham 1748 1832 and Utilitarianism
 Ethics are subjective – they are
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something we do for ourselves. WE
make ethics and we make laws. This is
a secular theory of ethics.
There is no God by which to measure human
behaviour.
The only measure is the amount of pleasure or
pain created by our actions.
It is a CONSEQUENTALIST theory – it is the
consequences, measured in terms of the AMOUNT
of pleasure or pain that makes an action good or
bad, right or wrong.
The resultant pleasure does not have to be evenly
distributed. It could be the intense pleasure of
one person set over the mild discomfort of many
others.
BENTHAM’S HEDONISTIC CALCULUS
 INTENSITY - How intense is the pleasure? e.g. intense but
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short, sex
DURATION - For how long does it last? e.g. less intense
but longer – for instance a party
CERTAINTY - How certain is it that the pleasure will be
attained - what are the risks? The cost of a good dinner
versus a bet
NEARNESS AND REMOTENESS - How close is the pleasure
to being realised? Long and short term pleasure
FRUITFULNESS - How much does the immediate pleasure
generate longer term pleasure and other pleasures?
PURITY - How pure is the pleasure and how little pain is
mixed in?
EXTENT - How many people are affected by the pleasure?
The more affected the better
CONSIDERING ALL OF THE ABOVE BOTH FOR A
DECISION TO ABORT OR NOT. CONSIDER THE
RELEVANCE OF: WOMAN, FETUS, DOCTORS,
NURSES, SOCIETY, FATHER.
John Stuart
Mill
Mill followed Bentham
and supported
Utilitarianism but made
two major adjustments:
1. Not all pleasures are
of equal worth.
2. Laws on the whole
should be made to
secure the greatest
good for the greatest
number and so laws
should be followed and
these should be based
on utilitarian principles.
 PIG PLEASURES V
HIGHER PLEASURES
Bentham, Mill and
Abortion
 All Utilitarians would place an obligation on the
medical profession to provide anaesthetic or
other means of preventing fetal pain in the
procedure of late abortion, after the capacity to
feel pain has been developed in the embryo.
 If the prevention of suffering are the goals of
society then the pain and suffering associated
with a pregnancy are best avoided –and an
unwanted pregnancy best terminated.
 For Mill one would have to ask if pregnancy and
child birth are higher or lower pleasures –
arguably it is an activity humans share with PIGS
and if a woman wanted an abortion to pursue a
career in writing poetry this would be a higher
level of pleasure than having a child…
 But some women will have to have children for
the greater good of society…
SITUATION ETHICS
SITUATION ETHICS
 For situation ethics, any ethical dilemma is
relative to the absolute command of Jesus
to love. The problem is to decide what is
the most loving thing to do in the
particular circumstances.
 This means taking the mother, the father,
the family and the potential child’s
interests into account. Effectively
Situation Ethics is similar to Utilitarianism
but with LOVE rather than pleasure as the
greatest good to be maximised.