Marquis Argument Against Abortion

Abortion is the ending of a pregnancy by removing a fetus or embryo before it can survive outside of the uterus. Once a women finds out that she is pregnant she does have a constitutional protected right to have an abortion in the early stages of pregnancy. Abortions are conducted by women from all forms of life. The typical woman who terminates her pregnancy may either be young, poor, or

Abortion is known as ending pregnancy by removing the fetus before it survives outside the uterus. Also known as a miscarriage. Abortion is currently legal in the united states of America. However, individual states can limit the use of abortions which would make the abortions illegal.

Marquis argument is superior to others as he avoids casuistry terms such as “human life,” or “human being” and rests on the ethics of killing, which also apply to the fetus (Gedge & Waluchow, 2012, p224). Killing a fetus denies it the right to a valuable life just as adult human beings have. This deems abortion morally wrong.

Judith Jarvis Thomson and Don Marquis both have different views on abortion. Thomson believes that in some cases, abortion is morally permissible, due to the life of the mother. Marquis believes that abortion is almost always morally impermissible, except in extreme circumstances, because the fetus has a future life. I will simply evaluate each of the authors reasoning’s that defend their belief, and give my argument for why I believe Judith Thomson’s essay is more convincing.

In “Why Abortion is Immoral”, Don Marquis offers his anti-abortion argument known as a “future like ours" (Marquis, 558). Marquis takes a step back from focusing on the complicated moral status of the fetus, and instead asks seemingly less controversial questions: what makes killing an innocent adult wrong, and what right we adult humans possess not to be killed? His answer serves as the first premise for his argument: killing is prima facie morally wrong because it deprives an individual of their future of value. His second premise is that killing a fetus, i.e. abortion, also deprives it a future of value, which he refers to as a “future like ours” (559). Marquis concludes that because fetuses possess the innate property that is sufficient to make killing adult human beings wrong, that killing fetuses is also wrong. Simply stated, abortions are prima facie immoral, for the same reason that killing an innocent adult is prima facie immoral (559)

In his essay "Why Abortion is Immoral," Don Marquis argues against the morality of abortion on the premise that the value of a fetus' future is so great that it is immoral to take that potential future away from it. Essentially, he contends, abortion is tantamount to murder: killing an individual is prima facie wrong because the loss of the goods of one's future is the worst loss a human can suffer. He calls this potential future a "future-like-ours," which is the basis for his contentions. In the next few pages I will delineate the general progression of his argument, and later, will evaluate the plausibility of said argument. Though Marquis makes both logical and compelling claims, there are

Using a new and intriguing approach, Don Marquis refutes many of pro-choice claims, including the likes of Thomson and Warren, by not arguing whether a fetus is a person or if it has moral rights, but rather justifying the fact that the unborn child has a future and it would be immoral of us to deprive the child of it. Marquis makes it very clear to the readers that he in no way shape or form is for abortion, and is only okay with it under certain circumstances. Subsequent to distinctly stating his position, he explains beliefs that both pro-lifers and pro-choicers differ on which are whether a fetus is a person from the moment it is conceived and whether it obtaining more human characteristics has an effect on the decision. After carefully dissecting both sides argument logically he concludes that one side is way too broad with their statements and the other is just way too vague to make a final decision, so he looks into another aspect overall, whether the action of aborting is considered murder if at all.

Lastly, Marquis offers an analogy, the analogy with animals. He goes to show that humans are not the only living things that can suffer. That the suffering of non-human animals is wrong, and thus inflicting pain, whether it is towards a person or non-person is wrong. To deprive someone of a future value is a misfortune no matter whom the deprivation in inflicted on. This analogous argument goes to show that abortion is wrong by taking the same form of this argument for that causing pain and suffering to non-human animals is wrong.

In the article, “Why Abortion Is Immoral”, Don Marquis begins his discussion by arguing that standard arguments or standard explanations for and against abortion are rather similar and fairly unsophisticated. He states that the debate has become “intractable.” In the sense that the two sides of the issue have become a dug-in and no one is willing to listen to the other side at this point meaning that it is an entrenched opinion. He argues that we need a fresh start to the issue a better way to think about wrongful killing, in the philosophical literature is something debated that whether wrongful killing such as murder is bad because of the effect on the murderer or the effect on the society or the effect on the victim.

Marquis begins his article by exploiting the fallacies of both the pro-choice and anti-abortion standard arguments. He states that anti-abortionist claims are often too broad while the pro-choice claims are often too narrow. The issue of ambiguity also arises on both sides of the argument. The anti-abortionist position becomes ambiguous if the wrongness of killing is based on a biological trait. Marquis explains that the color of ones skin, in the anti-abortionist view, is not a reason to not kill, whereas the trait of being a human being which consists of having 23 pair of chromosomes, would make it immoral to kill. Furthermore, pro-choice arguments are also ambiguous in that it is not clear what is considered a ‘person’ using psychological criteria. According to Joel Feinberg, a person is a conscious being with a sense of self and the ability to make rational decisions, set goals, and is in control of their own

What is abortion? An abortion is a medical or surgical procedure used to terminate a pregnancy. A medical abortion is an abortion that is brought about by taking medications that will end a pregnancy. (1) A Surgical abortion is an abortion which ends a pregnancy by emptying the uterus (or womb) with special instruments. (1) Some of the reasons for a woman to get an abortion may be that they can't afford a/another child, health reason of the child's or her own safety, social reasons such as unwanted child or not ready for having a child, and rape or incest. Abortions performed in the seven to nine weeks of the first trimester are medical abortions. (2) All abortions after nine weeks are surgical abortions. Surgical abortions are

Don Marquis believes that abortion is impermissible. Don Marquis states that “All humans, whatever their race, gender, religion or age, have the right to life.” (Marquis) Marquis also believes that killing a fetus is morally wrong. The fetus that is being killed has the right to have a future like ours. He would say that since a fetus is human they do have a right to life just like every human. Marquis thinks that people such as Judith Jarvis Thompson who believe abortion is permissible will find any way to make it sound to them that killing a fetus is moral and not a moral wrong. I agree with this because the fetus does have the right to life. But something I also believe is if that precautions are taken or a rape occurs and the women does not want that child, abortion

What is abortion? Abortion is the ending of HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pregnancy" o "Pregnancy" pregnancy by removing a HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetus" o "Fetus" fetus or HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embryo" o "Embryo" embryo before it can HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetal_viability" o "Fetal viability" survive outside the uterus. An abortion which occurs spontaneously is also known as a HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miscarriage" o "Miscarriage" miscarriage. An abortion may be caused purposely and is then called an HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion" l "Induced" induced abortion, or less frequently, "induced miscarriage". The word abortion is often used to mean only induced abortions. A similar procedure after the fetus could potentially survive outside the womb is known as a " HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_termination_of_pregnancy" o "Late termination of pregnancy" late termination of pregnancy". This is just a simple definition of what abortion is. Many individuals in today’s society view abortion in many different ways. One way is that it is seen as a negative thing to do. They feel that when you have the abortion procedure done, you are murdering the child. Which is against every moral that human beings live by today. On the other hand, some people feel that having the option to have an abortion is great. Reason being, individuals feel that there are special

An area in philosophy that draws large controversy is the argument of abortions. The classic argument against abortions states that it was morally impermissible to kill a human. At the same time, an unborn fetus would be characterized as a human. Therefore, killing an unborn fetus would be considered morally impermissible due to the idea that they fall in the same category as humans. However, the main objection in the morality behind allowing an abortion come from the central idea that an unborn fetus does not fall under the category of a human; an idea that Mary Anne Warren suggested.

Marquis brings a new way of approaching this argument to the table. Before understanding if killing a fetus is wrong we must first understand what it is about killing in general that makes it