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PHIL 120 > Abortion > Flashcards

Abortion Flashcards

1
Q

Moral Issue?

A
  1. is abortion ever morally permissible?
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2
Q

is it morally wrong????

A
  1. do embryos, fetuses and zygotes have direct moral standing?
  2. DMS: if something has DMS that means it deserves moral consideration when deliberating about what to do.
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3
Q

if Fetuses have DMS then what?

A
  1. in virtue of what do they have it?

2. plausible candidates?

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4
Q

zygote?

A
  • A fertilized ovum; unicellular; present at conception
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5
Q

Medical pregnancy begins?

A
  • after 9 days of fertilization
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6
Q

Embryonic period:

A
  • 8 weeks after fertilization
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7
Q

Fetus?

A
  • An unborn vertebrate animal, having the basic characteristic structure of its kind (8 weeks until 28 weeks for human beings).
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8
Q

stage of viability?

A
  • when it is possible for the fetus to survive outside the uterus with medical assistance. around 21 well
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9
Q

what is abortion?

A
  • abortion is morally wrong.
    -Intentional termination of a pregnancy, which amounts to the killing, or causes the death,
    of the fetus
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10
Q

Abortion laws in Canada?

A

-criminalized in Canada in the 19th century (1869)
- Justice Minister of Canada presented a bill to liberalize became law in 1969
1988, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled the abortion law unconstitutional
- no criminal law restricting abortion

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11
Q

REASONS FOR SEEKING ABORTION?

A
  1. therapeutic reason
  2. eugenic reason
  3. humanitarian reasons
  4. socioeconomic reasons
  5. personal reasons
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12
Q

POPE JOHN PAUL II

A

-Abortion is the deliberate and direct killing, by whatever means it is carried out, of a human being
in the initial phase of his or her existence, extending from conception to birth( traditional argument against abortion)
-

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13
Q

traditional argument against abortion?

A
  • Fetuses (embryos, zygotes) are human individuals. Since human individuals are persons, it follows that fetuses are persons. But persons have the right to life. So, fetuses have the right to life. It’s morally wrong to violate a person’s right to life. Therefore, abortion is morally wrong.
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14
Q

JUDITH JARVIS THOMSON?

A
  • her aim is to defend abortion against the traditional argument
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15
Q

Thomson’s definition?

A

-Thomson’s definition: Abortion is the intentional termination of a pregnancy
Thomson grants that a fetus is a person from the moment of conception

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16
Q

Thomson’s argument against the traditional argument:

A

-This argument is invalid. It’s missing the premise that abortion violates the fetus’s right to life.

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17
Q

Violinist example:

A
  • shows that it makes too strong of an assumption about the content of the right to life.
  • not willing to accept the conclusion
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17
Q

Violinist example:

A
  • shows that it makes too strong of an assumption about the content of the right to life.
  • not willing to accept the conclusion
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18
Q

Right to Life:

A

-So the fact that X is necessary for continued life does not establish that one has the right to X.

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18
Q

Right to Life:

A

-So the fact that X is necessary for continued life does not establish that one has the right to X.

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19
Q

Unjust killing:

A
  • not in cases when the mother’s life is at risk

- not in cases of pregnancy due to rape

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19
Q

Unjust killing:

A
  • not in cases when the mother’s life is at risk

- not in cases of pregnancy due to rape

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20
Q

Giving rights?

A
  • the mother grants the right to the fetus to use her body

- having unprotected consensual intercourse

21
Q

Thomson’s opinion about right and rightness:

A

For Thomson, what one has the right to do is one thing, what one ought to do is another

22
Q

Samaritanism:

A
  • It’s telling that there is no law (in the US) requiring people to be minimally decent Samaritans.
  • women should be good Samaritan
  • This reveals a gross injustice in those states where abortion is illegal
23
Q

What if a homeless person stumbles into your home and their continued existence required that they stay in your house for nine months?

A
  • It wouldn’t be unjust to expel this person from your home; it wouldn’t violate their right to life.
  • It doesn’t follow from this that it is morally permissible to expel this person.
  • Doing so may exhibit some other kind of vice on your part, and because of it, it may be wrong. But it wouldn’t be unjust.
24
Q

MARY ANNE Warren:

A
  • rejects the traditional argument
25
Q

Warren on Thomson’s argument:

A
  • abortion is morally permissible in clear cases when the woman has not assumed responsibility for the pregnancy
  • Unlike Thomson, Warren thinks that whether a woman is (partly) responsible for the pregnancy plays no role in determining the moral status of abortion.
25
Q

Warren on Thomson’s argument:

A
  • abortion is morally permissible in clear cases when the woman has not assumed responsibility for the pregnancy
  • Unlike Thomson, Warren thinks that whether a woman is (partly) responsible for the pregnancy plays no role in determining the moral status of abortion.
26
Q

Warren on the traditional argument?

A
  • Warren rejects the conclusion of the traditional argument.
  • Warren argues that the traditional argument is invalid; she argues that it commits the fallacy of equivocation (begging the question)
27
Q

what makes an individual a person?

A
  1. consciousness (i.e. awareness, capacity to feel pain)
  2. reasoning (the developed capacity to solve new and relatively complex problems)
  3. self-motivated activity (independent of genetic or direct external control)
  4. the capacity to communicate
  5. self-awareness
28
Q

IS A FETUS A PERSON?

A
  • An entity need not satisfy ALL criteria in order to be considered a person: perhaps 1 and 2 are sufficient, perhaps 1 – 3 are sufficient.
    -We also need not think that any of these criteria are necessary on their own.
  • Showing that a fetus (or any individual) does not satisfy any of these central criteria is
    sufficient to show that it is not a person.
  • Warren argues that a fetus does not satisfy any of 1 – 5.
28
Q

IS A FETUS A PERSON?

A
  • An entity need not satisfy ALL criteria in order to be considered a person: perhaps 1 and 2 are sufficient, perhaps 1 – 3 are sufficient.
    -We also need not think that any of these criteria are necessary on their own.
  • Showing that a fetus (or any individual) does not satisfy any of these central criteria is
    sufficient to show that it is not a person.
  • Warren argues that a fetus does not satisfy any of 1 – 5.
29
Q

IS A FETUS A POTENTIAL PERSON?

A
  • Warren argues that a potential person’s right to life cannot outweigh an actual person’s right to bodily autonomy
29
Q

IS A FETUS A POTENTIAL PERSON?

A
  • Warren argues that a potential person’s right to life cannot outweigh an actual person’s right to bodily autonomy
30
Q

Marquis:

A
  • Many cases of abortions are seriously morally wrong.
31
Q

Marquis:

A
  • Many cases of abortions are seriously morally wrong.
32
Q

MARQUIS “WHY ABORTION IS IMMORAL”:

A

“A necessary condition of resolving the abortion controversy is a more theoretical account of the wrongness of wrongful killing”.

32
Q

MARQUIS “WHY ABORTION IS IMMORAL”:

A

“A necessary condition of resolving the abortion controversy is a more theoretical account of the wrongness of wrongful killing”.

33
Q

What is prima facie wrong with the killing an adult human being?

A
  • what makes killing wrong is the effect on the victim

- The loss is not merely a loss of one’s life, but the loss of what makes one’s actual and future life valuable.

33
Q

What is prima facie wrong with the killing an adult human being?

A
  • what makes killing wrong is the effect on the victim

- The loss is not merely a loss of one’s life, but the loss of what makes one’s actual and future life valuable.

34
Q

THE LOSS OF A VALUABLE FUTURE:

A
  • wrongfully killing an innocent human being to be the worst crime
  • people know that they are dying the think it is a bad think deprived of a future of value.
35
Q

The Argument that Marquis makes:

A
  • Pro tanto, it is morally wrong to deprive an entity of a future of value. Prima facie, an abortion deprives the fetus of a future of value. So, abortion is prima facie, pro tanto morally wrong
36
Q

Exception for marquis Argument:

A
  • if the fetus lacks a future of value
    • Even if the fetus has a future of value, abortion may be morally permissible, but one would have to have very weighty reasons to justify depriving an entity of a future of value
  • the wrongness of abortion could be overridden if not aborting results in a greater loss of a future of value
37
Q

ROSALIND HURSTHOUSE:

A
  • Virtue ethics
38
Q

Virtue ethics:

A

An action A done in C is right if and only if, and because, A is what a virtuous agent, acting in
character, would do in C

39
Q

virtuous agent

A

is one who acts virtuously—i.e., one who has and exercises the virtues.

40
Q

virtue is character trait

A
  • human being needs to flourish or live well
  • dispositions to act, feel, and think in specific ways
  • requires thinking, feeling, and acting in the right way.
  • a skill, requiring much practice and practical wisdom.
  • Every virtue (and vice) generates a v-rule.
41
Q

“VIRTUE THEORY AND ABORTION”

A
  • his aim not to solve the problem of abortion
  • illustrate how virtue theory directs us to think about it
  • Determining the moral status of fetuses, or considering women’s rights, is irrelevant in determining the deontic status of abortion.
42
Q

NOT RELEVANT IN DETERMINING THE DEONTIC STATUS OF FETUSES:

A
  1. women’s right

2. status of fetus

43
Q

KNOWLEDGE AND VIRTUE:

A
  • regular and run-of-the-mill knowledge
  • natural facts
    appropriate responses
  • intrinsically good or valuable (parents, family relations)
44
Q

what does virtue theory asks us to think about:

A

-how these facts figure in the practical reasoning, actions and passions, thoughts and reactions, of the virtuous and nonvirtuous”

45
Q

EXPRESSING VIRTUE, EXPRESSING VICE:

A
  • deontic status of abortion is whether the woman who is seeking an abortion is expressive a vice or a virtue.
  • focus on the mother’s reasons for aborting.
  • whether the woman has the right attitude about the right things at the right time.
  • abortion: the cutting off a new human life
  • Thoughtsaboutabortionareconnectedtoourthoughtsabouthumanlifeanddeath, parenthood, and family relationships; it is a serious matter.
46
Q

what does having a virtue require?

A
  • the correct attitudes with regards to certain facts.

- The youth often lack the correct attitudes, and thus lack virtue:

47
Q

what does having a virtue require?

A
  • the correct attitudes with regards to certain facts.

- The youth often lack the correct attitudes, and thus lack virtue:

48
Q

WHERE DOES HURSTHOUSE end up?

A

-Some abortions would be callous, or light-minded. These should not be done.
- some abortion would be brave, generous, or modest. These
are morally permissible.

PHIL 120 (6 decks)

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