Morality and Social Policy

There are many factors that are taken into consideration when determining if abortion is morally permissible, or wrong including; sentience of the fetus, the fetuses right to life, the difference between adult human beings and fetuses, the autonomy of the pregnant woman, and the legality of abortion. Don Marquis argues that abortion is always morally wrong, excluding cases in which the woman is threatened by pregnancy, or abortion after rape, because fetuses have a valuable future. Mary Anne Warren contends that late term abortions are morally permissible because birth is the most significant event for a fetus, and a woman’s autonomy should never be suspended.

Human beings are becoming more and more immoral by determining the destiny of unborn “children” nowadays. These children cannot breathe, and cannot live without the support from their mothers to stay alive. It may be really hard to identify them as a person, either. However, no power in this world should be cruel enough to terminate the life of an unborn, innocent child, who is unable to protect itself. Even under extreme circumstances where the child is seen as an unwanted object, nobody has the right to determine the destiny of another individual unless that baby becomes a criminal (!). Even rape should not be an excuse for the abortion of a child because that child does not have to pay the consequences of his father’s crime with its own

John Noonan begins his essay by rejecting several answers to the questions of when does life begin, he uses a word that the courts specifically did not use which is viability. Another is ensoulment. He uses what he called Catholic theology to answer that question plainly stating that if you are conceived by human parents then you are human. He reviewed the weakness of arguments about abortion to leave his position as the only one that made sense.

According to Don Marquis in his essay, “Why Abortion is Immoral,” killing is wrong because it is morally impermissible to cause the victim to be “deprived of all of the value of [his] future” (Marquis, 55). Marquis states that “abortion is prima facie wrong” (Marquis, 57) because killing a fetus deprives it of a valuable future like ours. Marquis’ assessment of killing and his claim that abortion is morally impermissible are not plausible under his argument.

In this article, Noonan discusses the controversial topic of abortion. He examines questions such as how do you determine the humanity of a being? His thesis is that abortion is always morally wrong with the exception of extreme circumstances such as a cancerous uterus or ectopic pregnancy. He uses the assumption that a fetus is always a person, from conception on as opposed to believing the fetus is not a person at any point. In this paper, I will show that Noonan proves his thesis that abortion is always morally wrong, based on proving opposing arguments to be unsound.

Judith Jarvis Thomson argued that the “the impermissibility of abortion does not follow from the premises that every fetus is a person and that every person has a right to life” (Thomson) Thomson distinguishes between what we ought to do versus what we are morally required to. This essay will show how abortions are permissible and not permissible according to Thomson.

“There is a very good argument why abortions should be prohibited, based on the continuous nature of the development of the fetus in the mother’s womb. It is generally agreed that killing an innocent person would be wrong. For example, killing a newborn baby would be infanticide, which is wrong. So, abortion would be permissible only if the fetus is not yet a person. The difference between a person and a nonperson is an all-or-none difference, rather than a difference of degree. So, starting from the newborn baby, and looking back earlier in time, in order for abortion to be permissible, there would need to be a point in the development of the fetus when it goes through a major all-or-none change from not being a person, to being a person, and the abortion would

To say that a person has moral standing is to give consideration to his or her wellbeing. According to Robert M. Veatch’s The Basic of Bioethics, moral standing is believed to be “that humans (at least normal humans) have moral standing [as well as] other animals” (27). Moral standing is determined by the physical or mental capacities of self-awareness or rationality. However, controversy arises when determining when one actually has full moral standing. Abortion is a controversial topic that directly relates to determining the full moral standing of an embryo or fetus. We are unable to achieve a consensus on the moral standing of an embryo or

When it comes to the debate on abortion, many people look at the different morally relevant issues at hand. Some philosophers can argue about the personhood of a fetus and whether or not the fetus is granted the right to life. Others may agree that a fetus is a person, but disagree on how moral an abortion is. In this paper, I will argue that the fetus is a person, but not all abortions are unjust killings; in my view, it is morally permissible to terminate a fetus if the woman has taken the proper precautions against pregnancy, if the woman became pregnant as a result of non-consensual sex/rape, or if the woman’s life is at risk. I will present the reasons for my view, support my view with the normative ethical theories learned in this

The pro-choice argument that women have the right to do what they please with their body is valid, however, this right is less important in comparison to the right to life. An unborn baby’s right to life outweighs women’s personal rights in every situation; humanity is the most important factor in deciding this. To claim that an unborn baby is a human should prove that abortion is immoral. Humans deserve the right to life in every circumstance. To say that a human baby has less right to life than any other person is to say that every killing of a person could be justifiable.

Morality is often used to argue against the use of abortion and the termination of the fetus. The basic argument made against abortion is that the unborn fetus has rights and becomes a human (inherently born with rights) the moment of conception. The morality of abortion, however, can become a bit murky with issues such as rape or incest. Because of this, other important aspects of morality must be examined, such as whether the life of the mother is worth more than that of the fetus as well as the inherent value that should be placed on the health and wellbeing of the woman. Additionally, child abandonment contributes to the arguments surrounding abortion. Strict regulation of abortion can be detrimental to poor, less developed nations and

Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal of the fetus from the mother’s womb. It is estimated that there are 30-40 million abortions conducted a year (Trupin). Abortions have been legal in the United States since the Supreme Court’s decision in the 1973 Roe v. Wade case, however there is still a major controversy surrounding abortion as to whether or not abortions are morally acceptable. While some argue that abortion is morally impermissible, as it involves the killing of a fetus, others will contend that abortions are morally acceptable because the fetus is not a rationale human being. When discussing the controversy of abortions, common questions revolve around the moral status of the fetus, and the rights of the woman. Prominent philosophers such as Judy Jarvis Thomson and Don Marquis have opposing stances on the issues. Thomson comes to the conclusion that abortion is morally permissible based on a series of analogies and thought experiments focusing on women’s rights. Unlike Thomson, Marquis argues that abortion is morally wrong except in extreme cases, based off of his reasoning of why killing is wrong. This paper will first reconstruct Marquis’ argument, and then argue that his argument is weak because it contains flaws that makes his conclusion invalid.

The distinctive connection between moral and immoral permissibility of abortion can be understood by understanding what is legally at stake for the women if she continue with the gestation of the fetus and her moral violation of human right if she is forced to continue gestation. According to (Rothman.1989) the decision to abort isn’t with the intension of destroying but rather of refusal to create, therefore the reason to abort lies with the mother or the parents of the fetus, the creators of

In the case of abortion, both the moral and physical statuses of the fetus serve as pivotal points to the ongoing debate regarding the moral justifiability on the termination of a pregnancy. Through this, popular arguments often involve an attempt to confirm or deny the humanity of the fetus human as being comparable to ourselves, and thus, if so, would call for the classification of abortion into a morally unjustifiable area. Whereas if the fetus can be proven to not satisfy the requirements of a human being, will allow for the justification of an abortion in most if not all cases. However, it would seem logical to conclude that the fetus during pregnancy should not be classified as a legitimate human and therefore, not entitled to the basic

The key features of the argument on the nature of abortion developed by Judith Thomson first focuses on the extreme anti-abortion view, second the right to life, third the right to live and use the mother’s body, fourth having rights and their being certain limits, and fifth the good Samaritan and the responsibilities of the parents. The extreme anti-abortion view develops a thinking that when a mother’s life is threatened if she should carry her baby to full term what is the decision she must make. Opponents of abortion believe that the fetus’s life is more important than the mother’s life and that the mother should not abort the child. Even though, opponents may believe that the fetus being a person has every right to life so does the mother. A mother aborting her child cannot be considered an act of murder, because she is only doing it to save her own life. For example as stated in the text: