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Welfare, Abortion, and Organ Donation: A Reply to the Restrictivist

A Response to William Simkulet, “Restrictivism, Abortion, and Organ Donation” (CQ 31(3))

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2023

Emily Carroll  and
Parker Crutchfield
Emily Carroll
Affiliation:
Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine, Kalamazoo, MI, USA
Parker Crutchfield*
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Ethics, Humanities, and Law, Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine, Kalamazoo, MI, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: parker.crutchfield@med.wmich.edu
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Extract

We argued in a recent issue of this journal that if abortion is restricted,1 then there are parallel obligations for parents to donate body parts to their children. The strength of this obligation to donate is proportional to the strength of the abortion restrictions. If abortion is never permissible, then a parent must always donate any organ if they are a match. If abortion is sometimes permissible and sometimes not, then organ donation is sometimes obligatory and sometimes not. Our argument was based on the following ideas: (a) that a fetus has full moral status, (b) that parents have special obligations to their offspring, fetus or not, and (c) that this special obligation is to protect them. The result is the conclusion that abortion restrictivists cannot also consistently deny that organ donation should be compulsory.

Type
Discussion
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , April 2024 , pp. 290 - 295
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

Notes

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