PHI 115 Lecture 4: 2/8/17 - Abortion/Reagan (2/3)
Document Summary
In method ii, we focus on fetal development and our main goal is to find out what kind of being is it to have a moral status or have moral rights. We have more of an ontological point of view in this method! Being human: according to this point of view, being human counts as having moral status. With this view point, some people might argue that having human dna and 46 chromosomes is enough to be considered a human being, which therefore gives the fetus a moral status. On the other side of the argument, some people might say that this group of cells can become absolutely anything a heart, lung, etc. And that the fetus doesn"t have any structural parts nor brain yet. On the other side of the argument, some people might say that it is not what species belong to, but what individual characteristics you possess that forms the basis of the moral status.
