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Notes on Abortion InsMat#5-090129

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Human Reproduction
: ovum (female reproductive cell) + spermatozoon (male sex cell) = zygote, a single-celled being
containing 46 chromosomes

First week zygote begins to grow thru fallopian tube into uterus.
Ectopic pregnancy = if zygote fails to descend into uterus and develop in f.tube. Zygote becomes
conceptus as it is gradually implanted in uterine wall. 2nd thru 8thweeks of growth -> fetus.
it is said to be viable if it is capable of surviving outside the womb (about 7months).

Abortion is the premature expulsion of the product of conception.


1. Spontaneous abortion = natural or accidental expulsion.
2. Non-spontaneous = Elective/induced or intentional.

MORAL ISSUES: Two basic issues:


1. Moral status of fetus: stage of fetal development
2. Women reason for abortion.

1. Later abortion is more problematic than earlier ones.


Conservatives: fetuses have full moral rights. So abortion is wrong. Liberal: fetuses lack moral status; no
rights as adult human beings. They are piece of tissue in the woman's body like an appendix. its ok to
remove them. Moderates: early stages of development; they do not posses moral rights; later stages yes.

2. Woman reasons: 1. Therapeutic: perform for medical reasons; to save mother's life or preserve her
physical /mental health.
2. Eugenic: "fetal euthanasia": for severely deformed fetus, ex. anencephaly, hemophilia. 3. humanitarian:
involuntary pregnancy resulting from incest/rape. 4. socioeconomic: can't afford to care for more babies.

LEGAL ISSUES: January 1973: US S.Court declared Texas/Georgia restrictive abortion laws
unconstitutional. Texas case: Roe v. Wade -> permitted abortion only when it was necessary to save the
woman's life.
Georgia case: Doe v. Bolton -> allowed therapeutic, eugenic, due to rape. each of these laws limited the
rights of women to have abortions. The courts declaration of unconstitutionality invoked three notions:
the right to privacy, woman’s health, and fetus potential life.

The right to privacy included the women's right to terminate a pregnancy which is based on the
assumption that the fetus (liberal view) is not a person, but only part of the woman's body. The court
assumption is based on two comments: on the question of when a being becomes a person, experts do not
agree; So there is no common /universal consensus; the judiciary cannot be expected to settle the
matter.
2nd, no precedent for cases where fetus are considered persons [as of 1973, defined as having property
rights]. Though women are persons with rights, no such consensus exists for fetuses. The court did not
rule, however, that abortion must be granted on demand (not at anytime). A first trimester would be ok,
but later abortion procedure that protects maternal health may be regulated, since abortion is dangerous
at later stages of pregnancy.

In addition to rights to privacy and maternal health, state has interest also in the "potentiality of human
life." This is based on the idea of viability. Since fetal life must be protected at his stage, abortion is
forbidden.

Moral issues
: Human being = any being with a human genetic code.
So any one conceived by human parents is, at the moment of conception, a human being.
: Person = being with full complement of moral rights, the rights all normal adult human being possess. It
does not follow that all human beings are persons. This is one question in the abortion issue. Questions
about when fetuses become human or when life begins are biological, while what right they have or when
they acquire those rights are moral [Legal] ones.
Question: is the mother an adult human being. Yes
Then she has moral rights by definition of a person.
She is then a human being and a person.

Conservative v. Liberal
The moral status of the fetus is most impt. question.
C. Position: a being conceived by parents who are persons (i.e. With full complement of moral right) is a
person from the moment of conception. So human fetuses are persons. If this is established, then abortion
is wrong at any stage of fetal development.
L. Position: defining the moral community (i.e. set of beings with full and equal moral rights) is crucial issue
in abortion. C. holds all human beings as members of moral community.

The term human is problematic and can be used in two senses: in moral sense means full-fledged
member of moral community (in this sense a person); in genetic sense designates a member of the
species, homo sapiens.

Mary Anne Warren L. position on characteristic of a person: 1. consciousness, i.e. capacity to feel pains. 2.
capacity to reason 3. self-motivated activity /independent of genetic/external control 4. capacity to
communicate complex messages 5. self-awareness /presence of self concept.
If this is taken, then genetic humanity is not a person with full moral rights (including comatose and
anencephalic infants).

Potentiality Principle (PP)


Any organism that will acquire the characteristics that give a being the right to life in the course of its
development has the right to life now in virtue of that potentiality. For C, human zygote is potential
persons, and so has the right to life.

Reasons for endorsing PP: 1. all agree that adult human beings have right to life. The properties that give
them the right to life will be possessed potentially by fetuses. 2. This principle gives the conservative a
secular basis (ie. without invoking religious ideas). 3. potentiality is morally relevant in cases that
compare human and animal fetuses. Example: pig fetuses can be used in biology experiment. The moral
difference is not in what they are NOW but in what they can become. 4. rationality is part of adult human
beings. It may seem odd not to value beings that are potentially rational.
L.Position: 1. Warren: even if the potential person has the right to life "such right could nor possibly
outweigh the right of a woman to obtain an abortion, because the right of any actual person invariably
outweigh those of any potential person." 2. Michael Tooley: Moral symmetry principle (MSP):If the
motivation is the same, there is no moral difference between refraining from preventing something to
happen and actively participating in it.
Ex. suppose A knows B will be killed unless he warns him, but A does not do anything since he wants B
killed. Now suppose A wants B killed and actually killed him. Is A's behavior better in the 1st case than the
2nd? Tooley thinks it is the same.

To support this, the ff. hypothetical situation is given: Suppose a chemical when injected to a kitten's brain
causes the K to develop like h.beings and so able to think rationally like them. How should such cats be
treated? Tooley makes 4 points:
1. If adult humans have the right to life, so are the cats who are now like humans. 2. it would not
be wrong to refrain from injecting chemical to kittens and kill it instead. We are not
obligated to give the kittens the right to life, though it is within our power to do it. If a kitten
does not possess right to life, we have no duty to change it into a being with right to not wrong
to refrain from injecting a kitten and kill it instead, then it is not wrong to inject a kitten and kill it
before it develop into a being like humans. 4. If it is not wrong to kill an injected kitten before it
develops into a being with the right to life, neither is it wrong to kill a fetus
that does not yet possess the properties that give it the right to life if allowed to develop. Fetus and kittens
have same moral status: neither recently has the properties necessary for the right to life, but will have
them if allowed to develop. If potentiality gives the being the right to life, then it is wrong to kill human
fetuses and kittens. the criticisms of the potentiality principle could be accepted only if one agrees with
the moral symmetry principle.

Moderates: 1. Even if the fetus is a person with the right to life, it does not follows that abortion is always
wrong 2. even if the fetus is not a person and does not have the right to life, it does not follow that
abortion is always permissible.

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