The Ethics of Abortion: Women's Rights, Human Life, and the Question of Justice (Routledge Annals of Bioethics)

257 Pages·2010·1.66 MB·English

by  Christopher Kaczor

The Ethics of Abortion
Appealing to reason rather than religious belief, this book is the most
comprehensive case against the choice of abortion yet published. The
Ethics of Abortion critically evaluates all the major grounds for denying
fetal personhood, including the views of those who defend not only
abortion but also infanticide. It also provides several (non-theological)
justifi cations for the conclusion that all human beings, including those
in utero, should be respected as persons. This book also critiques the
view that abortion is not wrong even if the human fetus is a person. The
Ethics of Abortion examines hard cases for those who are pro-life, such
as abortion in cases of rape or in order to save the mother’s life, as well as
hard cases for defenders of abortion, such as sex selection abortion and
the rationale for being “personally opposed” but publically supportive
of abortion. It concludes with a discussion of whether artifi cial wombs
might end the abortion debate. Answering the arguments of defenders of
abortion, this book provides reasoned justifi cation for the view that all
intentional abortions are morally wrong and that doctors and nurses who
object to abortion should not be forced to act against their consciences.
Dr. Christopher Kaczor is Professor of Philosophy at Loyola Marymount
University in Los Angeles.
Routledge Annals of Bioethics
Series Editors:
Mark J. Cherry
St. Edward’s University, USA
Ana Smith Iltis
Saint Louis University. USA
Regional Perspectives in Bioethics (2003)
Edited by Mark J. Cherry and John F. Peppin
Religious Perspectives on Bioethics (2004)
Edited by Mark J. Cherry, Ana Smith Iltis, and John F. Peppin
Research Ethics (2005)
Edited by Ana Smith Iltis
Thomistic Principles and Bioethics (2006)
Jason T. Eberl
The Ethics of Genetic Engineering (2007)
Roberta M. Berry
Legal Perspectives in Bioethics (2007)
Edited by Ana Smith Iltis, Sandra H. Johnson, and Barbara A. Hinze
Biomedical Research and Beyond: Expanding the Ethics of
Inquiry (2007)
Christopher O. Tollefsen
Practical Autonomy and Bioethics (2009)
James Stacey Taylor
The Ethics of Abortion: Women’s Rights, Human Life,
and the Question of Justice (2010)
Christopher Kaczor
The Ethics of Abortion
Women’s Rights, Human Life,
and the Question of Justice
Christopher Kaczor
First published 2011
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
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This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.
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© 2011 Christopher Kaczor
The right of Christopher Kaczor to be identifi ed as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now know nor here after
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be
trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
identifi cation and explanation without intent to in fringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Kaczor, Christopher Robert, 1969–
The ethics of abortion : women’s rights, human life, and the question of justice /
Christopher Kaczor. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Abortion—Moral and ethical aspects.
2. Abortion—Law and legislation. 3. Women’s rights. I. Title.
HQ767.15.K33 2010
179.7'6—dc22
2010018225
ISBN 0-203-84116-6 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN13: 978–0–415–88468–6 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–88469–3 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–203–84116–7 (ebk)
Dedicated to
Chad Roper and Jeff Petruska

Contents
Acknowledgments x
1 Introduction 1
1.1 How Should We Talk About Abortion? 2
1.2 Loaded Language 6
1.3 Women and Abortion 8
1.4 Moral Goodness and Human Flourishing 11
2 Does Personhood Begin After Birth? 13
2.1 Persons vs. Human Beings 14
2.1.1 Not All Human Beings Are Persons 15
2.1.2 Potentiality Is Irrelevant 16
2.2 When Does Personhood Begin? 17
2.3 Critical Responses to Justifi cations of Infanticide 20
2.3.1 Is Species Morally Irrelevant? 20
2.3.2 Potentiality and the Symmetry Principle 23
2.3.3 Curious Exceptions to the Rule 27
2.4 Defi ning Personhood 27
2.5 Seriously Ill Newborns 33
2.6 Arbitrary Limits? 35
3 Does Personhood Begin at Birth? 38
3.1 Distinguishing Humans from Persons 38
3.2 Abortion Yes, Infanticide No 40
3.3 Critiquing the Conventional View 42
3.4 Is Personhood a Matter of Location? 48
3.5 What is Partial Birth Abortion? 51
3.6 Reconsidering Warren’s Account 52
4 Does Personhood Begin During Pregnancy? 56
4.1 What Characteristic Grants Personhood? 56
viii Contents
4.1.1 Conscious Desires/Interests 57
4.1.2 Viability 68
4.1.3 Quickening/Fetal Movement 71
4.1.4 Sentience 74
4.1.5 Human Appearance 78
4.1.6 Brain Development 79
4.1.7 Implantation 81
4.2 The Developmental View 83
4.3 A Critique of the Developmental View 85
5 Does Personhood Begin at Conception? 91
5.1 Are All Human Beings Persons? 91
5.1.1 Personhood as Endowment or Performance? 93
5.1.2 Humans are Rational Animals 97
5.1.3 The Lessons of History 102
5.2 When Do Humans Begin to Exist? 102
5.3 The Constitutive Property Argument 105
6 Does the Human Embryo Have Rights? 121
6.1 The Acorn Analogy 122
6.2 Size 125
6.3 Twinning 127
6.4 Embryo Fusion 129
6.5 High Embryo-Mortality Rate 131
6.6 Hylomorphism 133
6.7 Anti-Abortion, Anti-Contraception 136
6.8 Living Human Cells Are Not Persons 137
6.9 Embryo Rescue Case 139
6.10 The Bag of Marbles Analogy 139
6.11 Cost–Benefi t Analysis 142
6.12 The Uncertainty Argument 143
7 Is it Wrong to Abort a Person? 145
7.1 The Violinist Analogy 145
7.2 The Burglar Analogy 147
7.3 The “No Worse Off” Argument 150
7.4 Critical Analysis of the Violinist Analogy 150
7.4.1 The Misunderstood Samaritan 150
7.4.2 The Bodily Integrity Objection 151
7.4.3 The Consistency Objection 154
7.4.4 The Intention/Foresight Objection 157
7.5 Critical Analysis of the Burglar Analogy 162
7.6 Special Duties to Care for Children? 165
Contents ix
7.7 The Comparative Burdens Objection 168
7.8 Does Killing Make a Being “Worse Off”? 176
8 Is Abortion Permissible in Hard Cases? 177
8.1 Hard Cases for Critics of Abortion 178
8.1.1 Diffi cult Circumstances 178
8.1.2 Fetal Deformity 179
8.1.3 Abortion for the Child’s Good 181
8.1.4 Cases of Rape and Incest 183
8.1.5 Abortion to Save the Mother’s Life 185
8.2 Cases of Conscience 191
8.3 Hard Cases for Defenders of Abortion 193
8.3.1 Murder of Pregnant Women 193
8.3.2 Sex Selection Abortion 194
8.3.3 Abortion for Frivolous Reasons 200
8.3.4 Safe and Legal, but Why Rare? 200
8.3.5 Why Personal Opposition? 202
8.3.6 Prenatal Bonding with “Our Baby” 206
8.3.7 Morally Permissible vs. Morally Objectionable 209
8.3.8 Intermediate Moral Worth of the Human Fetus 210
9 Could Artifi cial Wombs End the Abortion Debate? 215
9.1 Artifi cial Wombs and Ardent Defenders of Abortion 215
9.2 Artifi cial Wombs and Ardent Critics of Abortion 219
9.2.1 The Artifi ciality Objection 219
9.2.2 The IVF Objection 220
9.2.3 The Deprivation of Maternal Shelter Objection 220
9.2.4 The Birth Within Marriage Objection 222
9.2.5 The Integrative Parenthood Objection 223
9.2.6 The Surrogate Motherhood Objection 225
9.2.7 The Wrongful Experimentation Objection 226
9.2.8 The Objection from the Right of a Child to
Develop in the Womb of the Mother 227
9.3 An End to the Abortion Debate? 230
Bibliography 231
Index 243