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Abortion revisited

Abortion revisited. Wybo Dondorp; UM, Health Ethics Society Studium Generale 19 April 2011. The abortion debate. Perennial Unusual Ethics / Law Does the fetus have a right to life?. Abortion revisited. Political debate NL Impact 20 week ultrasound New guidelines premature infants

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Abortion revisited

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  1. Abortion revisited Wybo Dondorp; UM, Health Ethics Society Studium Generale 19 April 2011

  2. The abortion debate • Perennial • Unusual • Ethics / Law • Does the fetus have a right to life?

  3. Abortion revisited • Political debate NL • Impact 20 week ultrasound • New guidelines premature infants • New political landscape • Book: David Boonin. A defense of abortion, CUP 2003

  4. Surely if any of us count for anything now, we counted for something before we were born (Liley) Moral status

  5. Conception criteria (1) • Same species: human being • Scientific testimony: human life begins at the time of conception • Select 10 uncontroversial examples of individuals with a right to life

  6. Conception criteria (2) • Sanctity of human life • P1 Fetus is human life from conception • P2 Every human life is sacred • P3 If the life of an individual is sacred, then the individual has a right to life • C fetus has a right to life from conception • Sacred • Religious or secular claim?

  7. Conception criteria (3) • Continuity > denial of our right to life • Conception as non-arbitrary starting point • ‘What to make of somebody who said to rate rational agency as of supreme value, but regarded as expendable any creature whose powers were as yet undeveloped’? (Donagan)

  8. Conception criteria (3) • Continuity > denial of our right to life • Conception as non-arbitrary starting point • ‘What to make of somebody who said to rate rational agency as of supreme value, but regarded as expendable any creature whose powers were as yet undeveloped’? (Donagan) • Existence value or integrity value?

  9. Conception criteria (4) • Potentiality • Essential property: potentiality as identity • ‘…. in all esential respects the individual is whoever he is going to become from the moment of impregnation.’ (Ramsey) • Right to life as essential property?

  10. Conception criteria (5) • Future-like-ours • (Marquis: why abortion is immoral) • A fetus • B infant • C suicidal teenager • D temporarily comatose adult • E You and me

  11. Marquis and Boonin • M: future like ours contains experiences of the sort that one now values or will later come to value (if one is not killed) • B: not present or future but: dispositional or ideal (supervenient on actual desires) • M: conception • B: preconscious-conscious

  12. Postconception criteria (1) • Implantation (14 days) • External human form • Recognizably human after 8 weeks • Perceived movement (quickening)

  13. Postconception criteria (2) • Brain criteria • Having a brain • Initial brain activity (ca 6 weeks) • Organized cortical brain activity (25-32 weeks) • Necess; sufficient? What about newborns? • Solutions? • Lower the standard? • Potentiality again?

  14. Boonin: Modified FLO argument • Missing piece to defend organized cortical activity criterion • Potential of the individual’s brain is morally relevant once the individual first becomes conscious. • 25-32 weeks; gray area

  15. Viability • Boonin: I do not believe that there are any good reasons to accept it

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