Bioethics 33 (2):245-253 (2019)
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Abstract |
Much of the discussion surrounding the ethics of abortion has centered around the notion of personhood. This is because many philosophers hold that the morality of abortion is contingent on whether the fetus is a person - though, of course, some famous philosophers have rejected this thesis (e.g. Judith Thomson and Don Marquis). In this article, I construct a novel argument for the immorality of abortion based on the notion of impairment. This argument does not assume that the fetus is a person - indeed, I concede (for the sake of argument) that the fetus is not a person - and hence the morality of abortion is not contingent on whether the fetus is a person. I finish by answering a plethora of objections to my argument, concluding that none of them are successful.
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Keywords | abortion fetal alcohol syndrome person moral status of the fetus the impairment argument |
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Reprint years | 2018, 2019 |
DOI | 10.1111/bioe.12533 |
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References found in this work BETA
Wandering in Darkness: Narrative and the Problem of Suffering.Eleonore Stump - 2010 - Oxford University Press.
View all 12 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
Fetuses, Newborns, and Parental Responsibility.Prabhpal Singh - 2020 - Journal of Medical Ethics 46 (3):188-193.
My Body, Not My Choice: Against Legalised Abortion.Perry Hendricks - 2022 - Journal of Medical Ethics 48 (7):456-460.
Fine-Tuning the Impairment Argument.Bruce Philip Blackshaw & Perry Hendricks - 2021 - Journal of Medical Ethics 47 (9):641-642.
Against the Impairment Argument: A Reply to Hendricks.Joona Räsänen - 2020 - Bioethics 34 (8):862–864.
Abortion is Incommensurable with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.Claire Pickard - 2020 - Bioethics 34 (2):207-210.
View all 21 citations / Add more citations
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