Philosophy 224

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Philosophy 224

• Moral Persons Warren on Persons and Abortion

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Reading Quiz

• In a short paragraph, answer the basic moral
  question of abortion supplying reasons supporting
  your answer
• Is abortion ever morally permissible?

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Fetal Development

• Abortion is an issue for which it is important to
  develop a shared vocabulary.
• One important factual element of the discussion
  is the biology of fetal development.
• Fertilizationzygote implantationmorula, Weeks
  2-4embryo, Weeks 8-Birthfetus.
• Obviously, a key stage is that of viability
  (Week 21).

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Defining Abortion

• The most important term to define is abortion.
• A first definition is the termination of a
  pregnancy before viability (Timmons, Disputed
  Moral Issues, 269).
• A key to any acceptable definition is that it
  distinguishes between spontaneous abortions
  (miscarriages) and induced ones.
• 40 of pregnancies end in miscarriage.
• What this definition doesnt capture is the
  category of spontaneous or induced termination
  after viability.

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Another Definition

• Spontaneous abortions after viability are called
  premature births. On occasion, such births will
  be induced to protect the life of the mother or
  fetus.
• A more morally problematic class are those
  abortions after viability which encompass the
  death of the fetus.
• Abortion (in its morally contentious form)
  refers to all cases in which a pregnancy is
  intentionally interrupted and involves (as part
  of the process or aim of interruption) the
  intentional killing of the fetus (Timmons, p.
  270).

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Why is it Morally Contentious?

• Disagreements over the moral status of abortion
  are typically grounded in disagreement about the
  moral standing of the fetus.
• Moral Standing a measure of somethings moral
  worth, of how it should count in our moral
  evaluation.
• Direct Moral Standing possession of properties
  in virtue of which it counts morally.
• Indirect Moral Standing counts morally only
  relative to something with DMS.

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Does a Fetus Have Moral Standing?

• It is relatively uncontentious to argue that a
  fetus can have IMS. What about DMS?
• Depends on what properties it is thought DMS
  depends and when the fetus achieves them.
• Candidates include immortal soul, human genetic
  code, personhood, sentience, brain activity,
  being a potential person, having a future like
  that of an adult human being, viability, birth.

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Reasons for Having Abortions

• Another important consideration in evaluating the
  morality of abortion is the reason(s) which a
  person might have for seeking one.
• Common reasons include
• Therapeutic health of pregnant woman
• Eugenic related to fetal abnormality
• Humanitarian in cases of incest or rape
• Socioeconomic related to family size, poverty,
  stigma
• Personal related to preferences, plans, etc.

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Where do you stand?

• With all of this terminology in place, we can
  refine the basic moral question concerning
  abortion to
• At what stage of fetal development (if any) and
  for what reasons (if any) is abortion ever
  morally permissible?
• We have tended to divide the field of evaluation
  up very simply into pro-life and pro-choice
  camps, but that grossly oversimplifies the
  complicated range of opinions that exist.
• A better distinction is between Liberal, Moderate
  and Conservative views.

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Liberal, Moderate or Conservative?

• The Liberal view is that abortions are always
  morally permissible at any stage of fetal
  development, for any reasons.
• The Conservative view is that abortions are never
  morally permissible at any stage of fetal
  development, and there are never any mitigating
  reasons.
• The Moderate view is that some abortions are
  wrong and some are morally permissible depending
  on the stage and reasons.
• It is important to acknowledge that for each of
  these views, a range of alternatives is possible.

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Abortion as a Legal Matter

• Since 1973, due to Roe v. Wade, many abortions
  have been legal in the U. S.. The decision was a
  balance between the acknowledged right to privacy
  that a woman is presumed to have and the
  interests of the state in promoting and
  protecting human life.
• In 1992, in the case Planned Parenthood of
  Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, the SCOTUS,
  upheld the basic principle of Roe, but changed
  the terms, making viability the stage at which
  state interests can overwhelm the privacy rights
  of the pregnant woman.

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Warren on Abortion

• Warren begins by granting to the opponents of
  abortion rights something which they take to be
  definitive the fetus is a human being.
• What she goes on to argue is that the biological
  identity of the fetus is not whats relevant when
  we are trying to determine its moral status.
• The question she thinks is relevant is, Is the
  fetus a person?

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The Moral Community

• For Warren, the question of personhood is crucial
  because she assumes that membership in the moral
  community comes with personhood.
• Only when we have determined if a fetus is a
  member of the moral community does it become
  possible to talk about rights (moral or legal)
  that the fetus may have (220c2).

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Genetic vs. Moral Humanity

• A common line of anti-abortion argument assumes a
  blurring of the distinction that Warren is
  insisting upon.
• If it is wrong to kill innocent human beings, and
  if fetuses are innocent human beings, then
  abortion is wrong.
• The question which is begged here is whether or
  not human beings is used in the same way in
  both of the first two statements.
• If we assume that genetic humanity determines
  personhood then the answer is Yes, but should
  we make that assumption?

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Moral Humanity

• Warren is clear about where she stands on this
  question, the moral community consists of all
  and only people, rather than all or only human
  beings (221c1).
• She thinks that this position is self-evident, at
  least when we consider what makes something a
  person.
• Warren does not claim that these characteristics
  are exhaustive or even necessary, but she insists
  that something which meets none of these criteria
  cannot be considered a person in the moral sense.

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Its the Trait(s) that Make a Person

• Consciousness and the capacity to feel pain
• Reasoning (as a developed capacity)
• Self-motivated activity
• Capacity to Communicate
• Self-awareness (222c1).

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Whats it all Mean?

• One obvious and important implication of Warrens
  account of personhood is that some human beings
  are not people and some people are not human
  beings.
• A fetus clearly is not a person, it is not a
  member of the moral community and thus lacks
  direct moral standing. Therefore, abortion is not
  (absent other morally relevant concerns) immoral.
• A thought experiment try to ascribe moral
  predicates to an entity that lacks the traits of
  personhood.

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Two Other Questions

• At what level of fetal development should a fetus
  be considered a person? Warren insists that we
  should not let superficial similarities to
  confuse the issue (223c2).
• What about the potential of the fetus to be a
  person? Though Warren does not deny the
  significance of this potential, she does insist
  that the rights of potential persons in no way
  outweigh rights of an actual person (225).

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Postscript on Infanticide

• To the objection that the personhood criteria
  enumerated in the article would seem to lead to
  the conclusion that there is nothing morally
  wrong with infanticide, Warren points to the
  value that children have to other people
  (indirect moral standing).
• To the counter claim that these sort of concerns
  also suggest that abortion is wrong, Warren notes
  that there is a difference. In the case of
  infants, the mothers rights to
  self-determination are not impacted (the child is
  independent). But forcing a woman to carry a baby
  does impact her rights.