Practical Ethics, By Peter Singer, The Modern Bioethical Philosopher

The argument for animal rights is an ever growing debate in modern society, with increasing amounts of people taking measures to protect the rights of all animals. This push for animal rights is a relatively new development, with Peter Singer acting as one of the lead advocates for this movement. Singer was one of the first philosophers to argue strongly for the equality amongst all creatures. His highly important article, “All Animals are Equal,” was published in 1974 sparking conversation over this issue. Singer is a believer in Utilitarianism, a moral code which was greatly influenced by the nineteenth century philosopher, John Stuart Mill. While Singer’s viewpoint follows much of Mill’s brand of utilitarianism, I will identify an important difference in each philosopher’s beliefs regarding “happiness” and how this leads to different application of the Greatest Happiness Principle.

The life of a person may be measured in years, moments, and the number of laughs or cries but what if one were to measure a life on good deeds or on that person’s virtues? The theory and idea of ethics and virtue as conceptualized by the Greek philosopher Aristotle in Nicomachean Ethics and as it is expressed in the pages of The Fundamentals of Ethics by Russ Shafer-Landau is a complex and dubious notion. It is one that is easily related to characters in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner.

Abortion is an issue that can go both ways and a topic that is very controversial. Is a fetus a human? Does its life matter? Or it wasn’t supposed to happen to me or I was raped. Many people can think of abortion as a good and bad thing, it just depends on what the person’s intuition about abortion is. I decided to go with the topic over abortion because I feel it is a broad topic and can go two ways as in being defensive or immortal. During this topic over abortion I will be including two articles, “A Defense of Abortion” and “Why Abortion Is Immoral”. These articles will explain the difference in how they think abortion can be taken. For instance, the first article will talk about why Judith argues why abortion is not too bad to be allowed

Ethical relativism is not just simply one concept. It can be divided into two categories cultural relativism and ethical subjectivism. Cultural relativism states that what a culture finds correct is what is correct, within its own realm. Ethical subjectivism are what people as individuals find correct, or the values a person stands for and what they support whereas culture relativism is has a certain standard of morality held within a culture or society. These both view people as being in charge of their own morality. However, there are some problems with the view ethical relativism itself. For instance marital rape, machismo in Hispanics culture and premarital sex. In this dissertation I will be discussing problems with ethical relativism, while using the examples above.

In On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion, Mary Anne Warren discusses a few arguments against abortion, namely bringing into play whether the fetus is actually a person, or “not a member of the moral community”. She

Abortion raises subtle problems for private conscience, public policy, and constitutional law. Most of these problems are essentially philosophical, requiring a degree of clarity about basic concepts that is seldom achieved in legislative debates and letters to newspapers (Feinberg 1984: 1).

Bauer writes about some of those in our society who have an indifferent attitude about the relation between abortion and those with

In chapter 19 of the philosopher, Russ Shafer-Landau’s book, The Fundamentals of Ethics, he presents an overview of the moral theory of ethical relativism. Ethical relativism is the view that there is some moral truth and that truth is relative to each person or culture. The overarching moral principle can be broken down into ethical subjectivism and cultural relativism. The difference being ethical subjectivism says an act is morally acceptable or forbidden if an individual approves or disapproves of the action. And cultural relativism relies on the judgment of morally acceptable or forbidden if a culture or society approves or disapproves of the action (Shafer-Landau, p. 295).

The morality of induced abortion is one of the most controversial moral issues of our time. Abortion has grown to be one, if no the most, debated argument of modern times. In the following web-page, we will be discussing abortion in three of its major aspects: Public Opinion, Congress and Courts, and Interest groups.

In “Practical Ethics” Peter Singer talks about abortion and euthanasia. He asserts that a potential person does not have the same rights as an actual person. He uses examples of other life that humans destroy before they mature, for example he says “to pull out a sprouting acorn is not the same as cutting down a venerable oak. To drop a fertile egg into a pot of boiling water is very different from doing the same to live chicken.” (p.138)

My code of ethics would probably be similar to Peter Singer, where everyone have an obligation to help relieve poverty. There are lot of factors that causes poverty to expand such as wars, natural disasters, government corruption, economic declines, lack of education and opportunities. I understand that everyone have the right to do whatever they please especially with their money. On the other hand, I do believe that everyone can help other that are unfortunate in life by providing money, food, and shelter. I think some people need a reality check of how some people living in poverty by putting themselves their shoe to know how arduous life is for them.

However, there is no clear scientific evidence that determines the emergence of these characteristics, and therefore he suggests that abortion becomes morally wrong after the earliest point at which it can feel, which is at 18 weeks (Singer, Taking Life: Humans, 137) . Therefore, from weeks 0-18, it is considered morally permissible to have an abortion, whereas it isn’t from weeks 18-40. Although utilitarian notions can provide a clear criterion for the permissibility of abortion, this argument involves ambiguous notions that are not fully understood, and it would therefore be unwise to accept it.

In our society, there are many ethical dilemmas that we are faced with that are virtually impossible to solve. One of the most difficult and controversial issues that we are faced with is abortion. There are many strong arguments both for and against the right to have an abortion which are so complicated that it becomes impossible to resolve. The complexity of this issue lies in the different aspects of the argument. The essence of a person, rights, and who is entitled to these rights, are a few of the many aspects which are very difficult to define. There are also issues of what circumstances would justify abortion. Because the issue of abortion is virtually impossible to solve, all one can hope

The following essay will examine the morality of abortion with specific reference to the writings of Don Marquis, Judith Jarvis Thompson, Peter Singer and Mary Anne Warren. I will begin by assessing the strength of the argument provided by Marquis which claims that abortion is impermissible because it deprives a being of a potential “future like ours,” and then go on to consider the writings of Singer, Thomson and Warren to both refute Marquis claims and support my assertion that abortion is morally permissible primarily because of the threat to the freedom and bodily autonomy of women extending the right to life to a foetus in utero would pose.

For my final paper I have decided to do a on the ethical and controversial issue of abortion. In this report I will cover both sides of the abortion issue. I will summarize the stands of both Pro-Life advocates and Pro-Choice, by presenting arguments from organizations, authors, and journal articles from each side. As well as give a brief history on abortion and a look at the laws that govern this issue not only here at home but around the world. In conclusion of my report I will give my views on the issue and on which side of the fence my beliefs put me on. So lets begin.