PHLA11H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Judith Jarvis Thomson, Abortion Debate, The Way Forward
Document Summary
Week 10 lecture #17: tuesday march 8, 2016. Next tuesday: judith jarvis thomson, in defense of abortion. Arthur accepts moderate principle: people are required to help others when doing so would not mean significant reduction in their own or their families" level of happiness. Singer: moderate principle is enough to require a great change in our way of life . Pro-choicers insist on a right to life" principle that excludes fetuses. Define personhood in terms of psychological capacities (e. g. self-consciousness, rationality) All persons have the right to life. Anti-abortionists insist on a right to life" principle that includes fetuses. Biologically human principle: anything that is alive and human has the right to life. To make progress in the abortion debate we need an account of what makes killing wrong in general. Abortion is, except possibly in rare cases, seriously immoral. It is in the same moral category as killing an innocent adult human being. (p. 365)
