FYS 043 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Francis J. Beckwith, Fetus, Egg Cell
12 Dec 2017
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Cases of special obligations - pregnant woman gives birth and father has to pay child support regardless of whether he wanted the child or not. Fetus had a natural prima facie right to the mother"s body- not an absolute right, if the mother"s life is in danger the fetus" right to life doesn"t outweigh the mother"s. Difference between killing and withholding treatment that would lead to death. There is no necessary and sufficient condition for capturing the concept of a person- really difficult to settle on the conditions that are necessary to be a person or precisely when a fetus becomes a person. If we assume the fetus is a person: May have self defense justifications for abortion- killing is sometimes permissible in cases of self defense- but the argument for self defense in cases of abortion doesn"t always work. Hard to draw the line as to the harm or risk to the woman.
