PHIL 164 Lecture Notes - Lecture 22: Sentience, Therapeutic Abortion, Curettage
24 Aug 2016
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Abortion = the intentional termination of a pregnancy through drugs or surgery. Therapeutic abortion: abortion performed for the sake of the woman"s health, serious risk of death or injury if the pregnancy continues. Non-therapeutic abortion: elective, performed for other reasons such as, career plans, financial hardship, not a planned pregnancy. Person: a person is a full member of the moral community, a person if that kind of being that has rights, primarily moral/legal category, depends on capacities and attributes of the being in question. Human: a human is a member of the species homo sapiens, purely biological category. 13: it is wrong to kill an innocent person. 15: sub-conclusion: therefore, it is wrong to kill the unborn. 16: abortion is the killing of the unborn. Issue: depends on whether the unborn are persons. Proposals: biological criterion: human dna, sentience: consciousness/ability to feel pleasure and pain, viability: independence.
