WHY ABORTION IS IMMORALDon Marquis

CORE PRO-LIFE ARGUMENT

➤Marquis assumes (2) for sake of argument.

➤He will argue for (1).

1. Fetuses have the same right to life as adults.

2. If fetuses have the same right to life as adults, then typical abortions are morally wrong.

3. Therefore, typical abortions are morally wrong.

1. CONSCIOUSNESS 2. REASONING 3. SELF-MOTIVATED

ACTIVITY 4. CAPACITY TO

COMMUNICATE 5.SELF-AWARENESS

Warren’s conditions for personhood

PROPOSED PRINCIPLES AND ALLEGED COUNTEREXAMPLES

➤ Pro-choice proposal: “Only persons have a right to life.”

➤ Counterexamples(?): infants, severely mentally impaired

➤ Reply: Killing them wrong for other reasons.

➤ Problem: Others reasons sufficient to explain wrongness?

➤ Pro-life proposal: “Any human life has a right to life.”

➤ Counterexample(?): human cancer-cell culture

➤ Refinement: “Human beings have a right to life.”

➤ Problem: Is fetus a “human being”?

PROPOSED PRINCIPLES AND EXPLANATORY QUESTIONS

➤ Pro-life proposal: “It is wrong to kill a human being.”

➤ Explanatory question: Why does biological category make moral difference?

➤ Pro-choice proposal: “It is only wrong to kill a person.”

➤ Explanatory question: Why does psychological category make moral difference?

➤ Marquis’ aim: Break the stalemate by explaining why killing is wrong.

WHY IS KILLING WRONG?

➤ Because of effect on killer?

➤ Because of effect on friends/family of victim?

➤ Marquis: Because of effect on victim.

➤ Victim deprived of a “future like ours” (FLO)

➤ Benefits of FLO account:

➤ fits with why people fear death

➤ plausible implications for euthanasia, infanticide, etc.

ARGUMENT FOR FETAL RIGHT TO LIFE

➤Premise (4) supported by FLO account ➤ ‘right to life’ = what

makes it wrong to kill us ➤FLO account says it’s

wrong to kill us b/c it deprives us of our future

➤So, anything with FLO will be wrong to kill for same reason

➤What is support for (5)?

4. Everything with a future like ours has the same right to life as us.

5. Fetuses have futures like ours.

6. Therefore, fetuses have the same right to life as us (adults). (Premise 1)

RIVAL: DESIRE ACCOUNT➤ Desire account: Wrong to kill us

because it takes away something we desire

➤ Michael Tooley’s version:

➤ like Warren, distinguishes homo sapien from person w/ right to life

➤ right to X = wrong to deprive you of X if you want X

➤ Self-consciousness necessary for personhood/right to life

➤ desiring continued existence requires conception of oneself over time

➤ Fetuses lack self-consciousness, are not persons

OBJECTIONS TO DESIRE ACCOUNT

➤ Counterexamples(?):

➤ infants

➤ suicidal teenager

➤ sleeping person

➤ Explanatory problem:

➤ We desire life because it’s valuable, not vice versa

FLO ACCOUNT AND CONTRACEPTION

➤ Is contraception morally wrong?

➤ Marquis: No, nothing is deprived of FLO

➤ sperm alone lacks FLO

➤ egg alone lacks FLO

➤ sperm and egg can’t both have FLO

➤ Rough idea: sperm and egg are two things, but resulting person is one thing

➤ fetus can have FLO because it’s one thing

➤ Objection: Why think fetus does have FLO?

➤ Were you and I once fetuses?

Counterexample to FLO account(?): Warren’s alien abduction case (pp. 59-60)