Marquis, why abortion is immoral Flashcards
What is the main thesis of Don Marquis’s article?
Abortion is prima facie seriously immoral because it deprives the fetus of a “future like ours” (FLO)—i.e., a future of experiences, activities, and enjoyments.
What is the FLO account of killing?
Killing is wrong because it deprives the victim of their future goods—projects, experiences, relationships—that would otherwise constitute a meaningful life.
What makes the FLO theory unique among anti-abortion arguments?
It avoids appeals to personhood, religious doctrine, or biological status and instead relies on the universal value of the future to the being who loses it.
How does Marquis critique pro-choice personhood arguments (e.g., Warren)?
: He argues they make the right to life too narrow—excluding infants, the severely mentally ill, or the unconscious, all of whom we still believe have moral worth.
How does he critique anti-abortion appeals to “human life”?
They are too broad, implying moral value even in biologically human cells like cancer cultures.
What is the “desire account” of why killing is wrong?
Killing is wrong because it frustrates a strong desire to continue living.
How does Marquis respond to the desire account?
Even those without a desire to live (e.g., unconscious, suicidal) are wrongfully killed. Value doesn’t come from desire—it’s the value of the future that matters.
What is the “discontinuation account”?
Killing is wrong because it ends a person’s current activities, experiences, and relationships.
Why does Marquis reject the discontinuation account?
It fails to explain the wrongness of killing someone in a coma or a fetus—both lack an ongoing experiential life but still lose a valuable future.
What are the main premises in Marquis’s pro-life argument?
Abortion denies a fetus its FLO.
Denying a FLO is sufficient to make killing wrong.
Therefore, abortion is wrong.
What kind of argument is this?
A sufficient condition argument: If something has an FLO, killing it is wrong—thus abortion, which denies a FLO, is wrong.
Why does the FLO argument not depend on personhood?
Because the moral value lies in what is lost (the future), not in who the being is now.
Why is the FLO argument effective against late-term abortion?
Because fetuses have the same kind of valuable futures as infants or adults.
What is the contraception objection to the FLO argument?
If abortion is wrong because it denies an FLO, then so should contraception, which prevents a FLO from occurring.
How does Marquis respond to the contraception objection?
Prior to conception, there is no individual subject of harm—no specific sperm-egg combination with an FLO exists yet.
How does Marquis address potential counterexamples like Warren’s alien abduction case?
He holds that beings with valuable futures—alien or human—would still be wrong to kill, reinforcing that it’s the future, not species or psychology, that matters.
Does the FLO account make euthanasia wrong?
Not necessarily—if a person’s future holds only suffering, then ending that future may not be immoral.
