Mary Anne Warren Abortion Analysis

Abortion. To have life or not. Imagine a young girl, no more than the age of nine, raped by a close family member and unfortunately now pregnant. Is this little girl capable of giving birth to offspring with such a small frame and such a fragile mentality. Imagine another instance. A more well off woman, with money, a stable lifestyle, and a nice husband. She also got pregnant. Nothing prevents her from having a baby. Nothing stands in the way, no financial trouble, no health issues, no relationship, nothing. However, she simply does not want to give birth and go through the pregnancy and gain the weight. Now, with these two cases side by side, one might argue for the moral permissibility in one of them, notably the first case, more so than
The act itself should not be morally permissible in any context because it violates individual rights and does not bring about the most good for the most people. The act of abortion is morally impermissible and should not continue mainly in regards to Kantian Theory, treating the individual, the baby, as a mere means instead of an end in him or herself. Most arguments concerning abortion stem against this notion with each arguing the baby is not a true human and therefore does not count in the moral community. In On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion, Mary Anne Warren defines personhood, what defines a human being, with five concepts and the need to meet the majority of them(SOURCE). Warren affirms consciousness, reasoning, self-motivated activity, the capacity to communicate, and the presence of self- concept as the five components of personhood. Furthermore, she claims if an entity does not possess one of the five it should not be extended the moral rights as a person. Not all human beings are people. Warren labels the fetus as not a person with these criteria. On the contrary, a fetus meets more than one of the five elements, establishing him or her more so a person than others. As for the first one, the ability to detect if another being experiences pain renders itself a difficult task
A simple way to display this formulation is through a basic pro and con list. While an abortion may seem like the easy route, it does not provide many benefits with one of the only ones being sheer convenience. It would be convenient not to have a baby for the financial aspect, relationship aspect, and possibly your health aspect, but convenience cannot make something right. It would be more convenient for an individual to keep walking instead of holding the door; is that the morally right thing to do? No. With utilitarianism in mind, more good would arise if he or she held the door since a relationship would have formed, other good deeds could spread, and simply the door was held upon for everyone versus the door was held open for one with some convenience factor. It is evident how this adds up. Now going back to abortion, it was concluded the benefits are convenience in a multitude of ways. But let us take a look at the cons associated with this. One, murder. Two, neglects an opportunity for adoption with parents who are not fortunate enough receive the gift of life within them. Three, does not allow for the experience to empower women to overcome impediments. Four, does not give women responsibility. Five, does not allow the child to experience life, limiting so many societal possibilities, some cliches being he or she could find the cure to cancer or develop into our next