PHIL 164 Lecture Notes - Zygote, Fetus, Rationality
Document Summary
He feels that abortion is almost never permissible. Even in cases of rape or if the mother"s health is at risk then it is still morally wrong. Rationale for premise one: if the fetus is a person then it is subject to all of the moral rights all living persons are entitled to (must define person first) Rationale for premise two: 1) the vagueness argument: there are no non-arbitrary way of judging where personhood begins, so personhood must begin when human life first begins when the sperm meets the egg. Since the boundaries are vague between zygote and adult human being, a zygote is already a person. 2) pure potwntiality argument: even the youngest human embryo already has the biological capacity appropriate to supporting specifically human operatio. Most people agree that under most circumstances killing a person is wrong. Some exceptions may be self-defense, capitol punishment and mercy killings. Being a person has a moral weight to it.
