In the 2005 article “Most Abortions Are Morally Legitimate,” Bonnie Steinbock puts forward an argument stating that abortion is in fact morally justified in most cases. Steinbock begins by declaring that her belief on the morality of abortion is based on two considerations which are the moral status of the embryo and the fetus and the burdens imposed on women through pregnancy and childbirth. Steinbock also puts forward the interests view, which limits moral status to people who have interests in their future and restricts the possession of interests to people who are conscious of the world around them. Following the logic presented by the interest view, Steinbock argues that fetuses are not conscious enough to understand their interests and that it is not morally wrong to kill a fetus when there is an adequate reason for doing so. Steinbock further discusses the view on abortion possessed by Don Marquis and argues that it is wrong because it attempts to claim that a fetus is a conscious living being and that it would be immoral to kill an unborn child even though they have no awareness of their interests and the outside world.
4 comments:
Link doesn't work.
I put the link into the paragraph itself.
That works.
The primary problem with her argument is that it implies the same human individual is a 'non-sentient being' at one time and a 'sentient being' at another time. In fact all human individuals are at times 'sentient' and at times 'non-sentient' they are not separate beings. This is a form of misdirection, either intentional or not, which allows people to deny they are killing people. They are only killing a 'non-sentient' thing.
An unconscious adult individual has precisely the same interest in his future as an unborn individual, presumably none. So, regardless of her ad hoc counter argument, killing people in their sleep would logically be allowed in her moral framework.
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