The use of contraception is not immoral because there isn’t an individual to be deprived of a valuable future that early on. A sperm and an egg are two organisms, and before fertilization there is no specific individual organism meaning that it could not be “deprived of its future”. Neither the individual sperm, nor the individual egg, has a future of value. Only after fertilization occurs, does a fetus exist that possesses a valuable future. (Marquis 469) Marquis acknowledges that contraception prevents a possible future of value. However, he does not agree that contraception is morally wrong. He backs up his arguments by stating that, “There are hundreds of millions of sperm, one (released) ovum and millions of possible combinations of all of these. There is no actual combination at all…...This alternative does not yield an actual subject of harm either. The immorality of contraception is not entailed by the loss of a future like-ours argument simply because there is no non-arbitrary identifiable subject of the loss in the case of contraception….” (Marquis
The use of contraception is not immoral because there isn’t an individual to be deprived of a valuable future that early on. A sperm and an egg are two organisms, and before fertilization there is no specific individual organism meaning that it could not be “deprived of its future”. Neither the individual sperm, nor the individual egg, has a future of value. Only after fertilization occurs, does a fetus exist that possesses a valuable future. (Marquis 469) Marquis acknowledges that contraception prevents a possible future of value. However, he does not agree that contraception is morally wrong. He backs up his arguments by stating that, “There are hundreds of millions of sperm, one (released) ovum and millions of possible combinations of all of these. There is no actual combination at all…...This alternative does not yield an actual subject of harm either. The immorality of contraception is not entailed by the loss of a future like-ours argument simply because there is no non-arbitrary identifiable subject of the loss in the case of contraception….” (Marquis