Preview

When, If Ever, Is Abortion Permissible?

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1692 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
When, If Ever, Is Abortion Permissible?
One of the most controversial issues present in today's society is abortion. Abortion is the termination of a fetus done purposely to prevent the birth of a child. Since abortions are now easier, less dangerous and more accessible than they once were; they have become the target of debate in every aspect of our lives. The issue of abortion has caused many heated debates in politics, religion and society in general; yet both sides seem to only see one side of the picture and avoid the issue as whole. One way of examining whether abortion is right or wrong is to look at whether or not the fetus is a person or not. This evaluation is done by Mary Anne Warren, in which she determines a set of criteria that both pro-abortionists and anti-abortionists can agree upon. Warren states that in order to be considered a fetus must: "have consciousness of objects and events, reasoning, self-motivated activity, capacity to communicate and the presence of self-concept and self-awareness." Using these criteria, Warren determines that the fetus has not reached personhood and therefore, is not guaranteed the right to life. Thus, she believes that at least until birth the fetus has no moral status and a lacks a right to life. (Warren)
Warren's argument may seem a bit flawed because her criteria do not provide a clear cut way to distinguish between the fetuses in the stages of pregnancy or perhaps even the infant himself. According to her criteria, a newborn infant would not have a significant right to life, either; however, according to her, killing it would be wrong because there are people willing to care and provide for it's well being. But what about a baby that is aborted, are there not people willing to adopt and care for it? Another argument that she makes is that to be considered a person a human must have rational thought. Clearly a fetus does not have rational thought, but how would it compare to others in very compromising conditions. For example, individuals that are

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Mary Anne Warren Thesis

    • 1518 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Warrens view on pro-life is incorrect because although the fetuses aren’t capable of consciousness, reasoning, self-motivation, communication or self-awareness; the fetus is still a human. Although a fetus is not able to think for itself, that does not mean that it won’t have the five traits Warren was examining. By terminating a fetus, you are restraining a human from a life, where he or she will be able to reason, and prove consciousness, etc. It is unfair to say that a fetus is not a person, the unborn child has a genetic code, making him or she unique and the potential to be its own individual. There is potential for this fetus to mature and it is unfair to restrain it because it hasn’t reached its full level of…

    • 1518 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The goal of Judith Jarvis Thomson in her defense of abortion is to sway the ideas of those who are against abortion by challenging the arguments they give for thinking so. She begins by stating a premise. “For the sake of the argument” a human embryo is a person. This premise is one of the arguments most opponents of abortion use, but as she points out, isn’t much of an argument at all. These people spend a lot of their time dwelling on the fact that the fetus is a person and hardly any time explaining how the fetus being a person has anything to with abortion being impermissible. In the same breath, she states that those who agree with abortion spend a lot of their time saying the fetus is in fact not a person. Either way, no argument is really formed. No reasons are given. For sake of challenging an actual argument, she is disregarding this issue. With this premise out of the way, she addresses the basic argument the pro-choice campaign believes. “Every person has a right to life. So the fetus has a right to life. No doubt the mother has a right to decide what shall happen in and to her body; everyone would grant that. But surely a person’s right to life is stronger and more stringent than the mother’s right to decide what happens in and to her body, and so outweighs it. So the fetus may not be killed; an abortion may not be performed.” The remainder of her paper is a series of analogies meant to challenge the basic argument mention above. When looking at the analogies separately, they are in no way related to the abortion topic, but the conclusions drawn from each can be applied. Because these examples aren’t directly related to the debate, our emotions won’t necessarily be involved and we can clearly think about what is the “right” thing to do for each specific scenario.…

    • 1957 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the big issues today is Abortion. Abortion is defined as: Termination of pregnancy and expulsion of an embryo or of a fetus that is incapable of survival. The two sides of this issue are Pro-life and Pro-Choice. My goal is to give you and introduction to both sides of the issue, a few views form supporters of both sides, and finally my personal views and feelings. This is not intended to influence you to make a a decision one way or the other, but instead to enlighten you to judge for yourself.…

    • 937 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Secondly, another ethical argument in favour of abortion is consciousness. Many people would agree that abortion is completely acceptable under most circumstances as long as the human has no signs of consciousness or presence of rationality. Examples of this are the ability to develop complex language and make tools. Similarly to viability, this point of consciousness is later on in the foetus’ development and growth, as even though all the DNA is there, the fact that there's no higher brain activity strongly suggests that there's no consciousness. Even the later presence of a heartbeat and of primitive streak do not imply consciousness or preciousness, as there is no higher brain activity or self-awareness. Therefore, this argument supports…

    • 645 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Warren states that there is no limitation to abortion and it is always justifiable. A fetus or infant are not considered persons. To Warren it is wrong to kill an innocent human being but a fetus is not a human being, so therefore, it is not wrong to kill a fetus. A fetus or infant has not reached personhood due to the five traits which Warren describes makes a person. The traits that make a person, according to Warren are: consciousness, reasoning, self-motivated activity,…

    • 313 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Paper #2: Jane English and the Analogy of the Hypnotized Attackers Mario P. Martinez November 6,1997 For our next paper I plan on discussing abortion as a social issue. I want to do this in the form of a critical paper This seems to be a very sticky subject and is one of the topics we had in our class that was very interesting to me with a lot of room for interpretation as to when it is or is not o.k. to abort the fetus if it should ever be done at all. The argument I plan to discuss is Jane English's analogy of the hypnotized attackers which was not one of our readings, but one I came across in some research I did for this upcoming paper.…

    • 2630 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The assertion: “But even if a potential person does have a prima facie right to life, such a right could not possibly outweigh the right of a woman to obtain an abortion, since the rights of any actual person invariably outweigh those of any potential person, whenever the two conflict,” is very significant. Here, Warren claims…

    • 731 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Ultimately, she argues that the fetus are not human beings therefore, we should not worry about if we should be able to kill them. She states that the fetus is genetically human, but she claims that research has shown that a fetus is not morally a human. Genetically human is known as a member of the homo sapiens species and being morally human can be summed up by saying one that gives us traits that make us have moral rights. She compiles a list of attributes that make a human morally human: consciousness, reason, self-motivated activity, communication, and self-awareness (not necessarily all of them). She concludes that because the fetus is not morally a human until around the third trimester, so the fetus is not a human until that point, which makes an abortion acceptable any time before the third trimester, or around twenty or so weeks. However, she doesn’t agree with allowing the individual to have an abortion done after reaching the state where the fetus is morally…

    • 1859 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    The right to life, still, does not allow an abortion in this case. This runs into another point Thomson makes where the pregnancy would shorten the mother’s life. Some still say abortion is impermissible even to save the mother’s life. Both people, mother and fetus, have a right to life. Presumably their right to life is equal.…

    • 1676 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mary Anne Warren argues the position that abortion is morally permissible because the fetus is not a person therefore has no rights therefore not immoral to be killed. I shall argue that Warren’s position is invalid since her argument “appears to justify not only abortion, but infanticide as well.”…

    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    While I am pro-choice like Warren, I do not agree with the entirety of her argument. Her qualifications for personhood exclude several groups from the moral community, such as infants and young toddlers. Through her reasoning, there would be just as little harm in killing an two year old child as in killing a three month old fetus. Therefore, I don’t think her qualifications to be included into the moral community are acceptable. I do agree with her point about a fetus’ potential rights, though- that they have some rights, but not full rights, and therefore the woman’s right to her own body override…

    • 1359 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The rights of the mother exceed the rights of the unborn child, because she has spent (however many years) getting to wherever she is in life therefore, why should her life be taken away because of one mistake she has made, by something that does not know who she is or what her situation may be. By saying that the rights of the unborn child are greater, is saying that the creator of the life is inferior to the life itself and that makes no sense…

    • 726 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As abortion continues to become a widely spread controversial issue around the world, people have begun to openly choose their side of the infamous debate. Abortion or the early termination of a birth has grasped the minds and hearts of many people around the world since The Supreme Court declared the act legal four decades ago. There are many various ways people have attempted to either argue or approve the subject, making it a sensitive topic in church, schools, and even homes around the world. The topic has become so sensitive that numerous professors do not allow students…

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Abortion Distortion

    • 636 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Rebecca’s rights as a woman. Given that the fetus exists inside a womens body and a women has…

    • 636 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Abortion is a topic that many feel is controversial. It can not be easily agreed upon for many reasons. The fight for pro-life has to do with religion and the morality of taking a life. On the other hand, pro-choice involves women’s rights as well as a woman’s well being. These two ideas make abortion a subject that is…

    • 883 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays