PHI 237 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Abortion Debate, Necessity And Sufficiency, Fetus
13 Aug 2017
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He sees the debate as being at a standoff Both sides appeal to plausible facts and plausible principles. Facts: fetus is a person; life beings at conception. Principle: prima facie (pro tanto?) wrong to kill person. Facts: fetus not a person (or rational, etc. ) Principle: being a person (or rational, etc. ) necessary for moral value. Pro-life too inclusive with wrongs (cells, potentiality) Pro-choice too exclusive with wrongs (infanticide, geriatricide) Provide an account of wrongful killings (wrongful killings = a sub set type of killing) Tells us if abortion counts as a wrongful killing. X and y are both killings (all wrongful killings are killings) If abortion has that feature, then abortion will be wrong. Deprivation principle: a killing is pro tanto seriously morally wrong if and only if it deprives a being of a future of value. Except in rare cases, abortions deprive the fetus of a future of value.
