Essay 1a

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Why Abortion is Immoral - Don Marquis

In this essay, I will summarize an article which is entitled “Why Abortion is Immoral.” The article is written by Don Marquis and was published in the year 1989. The abortion debate is one of the most conflicting debates on society. There is a fair number of philosophers and critics who believe that abortion is morally wrong and there is an equally fair number of people who think that there is nothing wrong in abortion. Some of the philosophers consider the issue from the perspective of a fetus, while some other view it from the perspective of the mother to be while claiming that she should have the right to take whatever decision she wants. Marquis has the supported the debate of the immorality of abortion in his article, on the grounds that a fetus has a valued future like the adult human beings and killing the fetus means depriving it of that future, which is morally wrong.

One of the most important points of the anti-abortionist group, as explained by Marquis is that fetus is like a human being and killing a human being accounts as murder and is morally and ethically wrong. On the other hand, the supporters of abortion are of the view that the fetus does not hold the position or title of the human being. The fetus is not conscious, as well as does not have the ability to feel the pain, which can make the process of killing hurting and painful for it, as it is in the case of human beings (Marquis, 190).

The killing of the fetus is morally and ethically wrong on the grounds that it has potential and valued future like the human beings and killing the fetus would deprive it of that future. So, depriving the fetus of the potential, valued future is morally wrong, which implies that the practice of abortion is morally wrong. On the other hand, the supporters of the abortion debate claim that the fetus is only the collection of few living cells and it would not be right to say that it is equal to adult human beings. Presenting the claims that killing human cells which have the future is baseless because of the fact that the culture of cancer cells also have a future, however, it cannot be permitted to continue its existence (Marquis, 195).

There is another side of the claim that fetus has valued future like the adult human beings and it should not be deprived of that. In other words, killing the fetus or the human beings who do not have valued future ahead of them is not morally wrong. There is a number of human beings who are mentally ill and have lost their consciousness; therefore they do not have the valued future ahead of them. Moreover, there are a number of patients in hospital care, who have lost the hope of living, because of the worse condition of their physical organs. They also do not have the valued future ahead of them; however, it cannot be said that killing them does not have any moral pitfall (Marquis, 198).

The debate of abortion is conflicting because of the fact that one side regards the fetus as a potential human being, while the other sides regard it as the collection of a few human cells. On side thinks that killing human life is wrong, while the other thinks that there is nothing wrong in killing the arbitrary humane cells. The debate on abortion is solely dependent on the ethics of life and the status of a fetus. The fetus has the potential of developing into the adult human being, which cannot be denied, so it holds the status of a human being; therefore, it is morally and ethically wrong to kill the fetus.

Taking Life

The Embryo and Fetus - Peter Singer

In this essay, I will summarize the article “Taking Life, The Embryo and Fetus” by “Peter Singer.” The author has argued about the status of embryo or fetus. The anti-abortionists are of the view that the fetus is a child and a potential human being; therefore it has the right to live and should not be killed. On the other hand, the proponents of abortion are of the view that fetus cannot be considered a potential human being because it is still in the early process of fertilization and cannot be declared more than a fertilized egg. The fertilized egg is not self-conscious, like human beings and does not has the ability of feeling pain, which is another reason; it cannot be considered a human being. The author has described the conservative and liberal point of view regarding the status of the fetus, fetus as a sentient being, potential life and the issue of infanticide in his debate. The debate of abortion may depend upon the status of the fetus, being a potential human being or not, which highlights the final stance of it being moral or immoral.

The conservatives have the stance in the abortion debate that there is no significant line dividing the fetus and child. Human development is a gradual process, and the fetus is a human being. The fetus can only be declared as a fertilized egg at the clear point of division where it is not a potential child. The conservatives are of the view that the fetus should be protected as a child, or if you want it to declare as just the collection of human cells, then a child should be not given the high regard of a human being as well. The liberals are of the view that the embryo or fetus is not self-conscious like human beings. Moreover, it cannot feel the pain; therefore, there is no harm in killing it as it cannot be declared a potential human being (Singer, 160).

Sharing the stance about the fetus is sentient, the author has argued that fetus is a conscious being, though not self-conscious. He has argued that there is no way to find out if the fetus can feel the pain or not. However, we can base the argument on the development of mind and nervous system of the fetus. The mind of the fetus starts developing in the eighth week of conception and is fully developed till the eighteenth week. The fetus is conscious at that time and has the ability to know its boundaries and staying secure in them. Therefore, it is morally wrong to kill the fetus, as it is not just the collection of human cells (Singer, 165).

Sharing the stance about a fetus being a potential human life, the author has argued that the fetus has the consciousness, as well as well-developed brain and nervous system, which shows that it is a potential human being. These two points are enough to claim that the fetus is the potential human being, has the moral right of living and it is immoral to kill it. Moreover, in the case of infanticide, there is nothing wrong in the usage of contraception and controlling the birth (Singer, 170).

Fetus holds the status of potential human being, and it cannot be denied because there is no fine division between the status of the fetus and a developed child. In other cases like the killing of the fetus due to abnormal development or due to risk to the life of to-be-mother, or even in the case of aborting the baby, when it is conceived through rape, these are ethically different issues and even allowed to some extent. On the other hand, getting rid of a normally developing fetus is ethically and morally wrong, because it takes the right of living from a potential human being.

Works Cited

Marquis, Don. "Why abortion is immoral." The Journal of Philosophy 86.4 (1989): 183-202.

Singer, Peter. "Taking life: The embryo and the fetus." Practical Ethics (1993): 135-174.