Abortion and the Ways We Value Human LifeIn Abortion and the Ways We Value Human Life, Jeffrey Reiman argues that an overlooked clue to the solution of the moral problem of abortion lies in the unusual way in which we value the lives of individual human beings-namely, that we value them irreplaceably. We think it is not only wrong to kill an innocent child or adult, but that it would not be made right by replacing the dead one with another living one, or even several. Reiman argues that there are only a limited number of facts that could justify such valuing, with the result that human children and adults have the fullest right to protection of their lives, infants have a lesser but substantial right to such protection, and fetuses do not qualify at all. Leading up to this argument, Reiman presents a survey of Western attitudes and laws about abortion from Hammurabi's Code to Roe v. Wade, and a critical analysis of all the major philosophical arguments on the issue, pro and con. The book is written in straightforward, jargon-free language that makes it accessible to college students at all levels and to the educated lay reader as well. |
Contents
The Asymmetric Value of Human Life | |
Prolife and Prochoice | 5 |
Humans and Persons | 6 |
Overview | 7 |
Abortion from Hammurabis Code to Roe v Wade | 11 |
to Roe v Wade | 32 |
A Limited Defense of Roe v Wade | 39 |
The Main Abortion Arguments and Why They Fail | 47 |
Continuity and Gradualness | 69 |
Intrinsic Values Intentions and Double Effects | 70 |
Physical Identity | 75 |
The Sacredness of Life | 79 |
Loss of a Future Life like Ours | 80 |
Abortion Infanticide and the Ways We Value Human Life | 83 |
Values Objective and Subjective | 88 |
Ways of Valuing | 90 |
Arguing around the Fetus | 48 |
Viability | 49 |
Owning Ones Womb | 51 |
Virtue Theory | 53 |
Arguing about the Fetus | 55 |
Species Membership and Uniqueness | 56 |
Potentiality | 59 |
What It Looks Like | 63 |
Higher Mental Capacities | 64 |
The Conventional Meaning of Personhood | 66 |
The Logic of Rights | 67 |
Wanting Loving Respecting | 92 |
Respect as Reasonable Asymmetrical Valuing | 93 |
The Morality of Abortion | 97 |
Persons and EndsinThemselves | 98 |
Love Infanticide and Fetuses | 100 |
The Stages of Human Being and the Ways We Value Life | 104 |
Abortion and Liberal Discourse | 109 |
Index | 113 |
123 | |
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Common terms and phrases
abor Abortion Debate Abortion in America Abortion Law argue argument Aristotle asymmetric value aware Benn Blackmun capacity claim conception consciously cared Constitution continuous entity contraception Court David Luban decision doctrine of double Don Marquis double effect Dworkin embryo emphasis in original ends-in-themselves ensoulment existing human Feinberg fetal fetus fetuses Fourteenth Amendment Garrow genetic code Hammurabi's Code implies individual Infanticide intrinsic value Joel Feinberg Kant kill a human liberal Liberty and Sexuality lives loss Luker Mary Anne Warren Mohr moral right Morowitz and Trefil normal Olasky person personhood Philosophy physical identity Platt Politics of Motherhood possession potential pregnant woman pro-choicers pro-lifers Problem of Abortion procreate reason Reiman replaced respect sentience speciesism subjective value Survey of Abortion things tion traits University Press value human value of human viability virtue theory vulnerability to murder Wade woman's right women wrong to kill zygote