5. Bioethical Thoughts on Abortion

Question 1

What are the laws on Abortion in Canada?

Answer 1

• According to Canadian law (there is no law on abortion in Canada)
• it is legal to abort an unborn child at any point up to the moment it fully emerges from its mother.

Question 2

Who is George Grant

Answer 2

• Grant was a devout Christian Canadian philosopher
• He is known for his political philosophy Laterin his career he focused on religious and ethical matters such as abortion and Euthanaisa

Question 3

What is Grant’s Argument on Abortion?

Answer 3

• Grant argued that we should consider 3 main questions when examining the issue of Abortion:
  1. Is the fetus alive?
  2. Is it human?
  3. Is it a person?
• He argued that the first two questions were easy to answer, while the third was more difficult.

Question 4

Is the fetus alive?

Answer 4

• By any scientific standard of life a fetus is alive.
• It grows, takes in nutrients etc… Thus by any scientific analysis it is a living thing.

Question 5

Is it human?

Answer 5

• Yes, the fetus is a product of human sperm and a human egg.
• It Contains human DNA.

Question 6

Is it a person?

Answer 6

• This is the big question! It is the essential question that drives the abortion debate on both sides.
• Those who oppose abortion say a fetus is a person.
• Those who support legal abortion say it is not a person
• If it is a person it might be considered to have value and rights and that would make abortion immoral.

Question 7

Examples of Personhood debate?

Answer 7

These people were not condsidered people at one point:
* Women
* Black people
* Indigenous
* Jews

Question 8

What is Grant’s Answer?

Answer 8

• We should forget the personhood question altogether. We have repeatedly proven that our decisions in this regard are unreliable.
• Grant said: If its human and alive, it gets protection
• We avoid the danger of hurting people by our prejudices, changing views or misunderstandings of the term.

Question 9

What considerations are there regarding personhood?

Answer 9

• Some say “Personhood” begins when a certain level of intelligence is reached.If so we are open to the possibility of harming people based on lack of them
• If we consider abortion ethically acceptable, which reason do we consider acceptable?
• The Catholic position is that abortion is morally wrong.