Is Abortion Ethical? Since the 1900’s abortion has been one of the topics on the hot seat of debate in our nation. Abortion has been a reoccurring debate where Americans ponder whether or not aborting a fetus is an appropriate moral action. On one hand some people feel that abortion should be legal because a woman has the right to choose what she wants to do with her body. On the other hand, some people believe a fetus has the right to life, making it immoral to get an abortion. Many individuals, such as philosopher Mary Anne Warren believe that abortion should be legal without any restrictions on it. However many problems arise with this for me and I believe that we should take a stand against abortion and how it deprives from future
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It had been practiced until about 1880, by which time most states had banned it except to save the life of the women. People such as Mary Anne Warren took the side against this movement and were in favor of abortion. She starts off here debate with the definition of a“human.” Warren takes a traditional argument stating that (1) it is wrong to kill innocent human beings, and (2) fetuses are innocent human beings, then (3) it is wrong to kill fetuses. She argues that one of these premises is question-begging and the word “human” if used in two different senses, then the conclusion will not follow. The moral sense, in which an individual is human enough to where human rights and value and be established, and the genetic sense, the sense in which any member of the species is a human being and no other species could …show more content…
Another problem arises asking if we don’t know which qualities a person needs to be considered human, why do we need these qualities in the first place? There may be other qualities that could classify someone as a person. Also after further research, coming across a book The Moral Question of Abortion by Stephen Schwartz, he explains that Warren is confusing being a person with functioning as a person. Giving a perfect example of someone who is in a deep dreamless sleep, they are not conscious and cannot reason. We still however view her as a human although she lacks the qualities Warren suggests. Schwartz states “killing someone in their sleep would be just as wrong as killing them while they are awake and functioning as a person.” This can then be compared to a fetus, they are not functioning people yet, however they are still a person in that they are showing physical qualities much like a person in a deep sleep and to kill them would be
It had been practiced until about 1880, by which time most states had banned it except to save the life of the women. People such as Mary Anne Warren took the side against this movement and were in favor of abortion. She starts off here debate with the definition of a“human.” Warren takes a traditional argument stating that (1) it is wrong to kill innocent human beings, and (2) fetuses are innocent human beings, then (3) it is wrong to kill fetuses. She argues that one of these premises is question-begging and the word “human” if used in two different senses, then the conclusion will not follow. The moral sense, in which an individual is human enough to where human rights and value and be established, and the genetic sense, the sense in which any member of the species is a human being and no other species could …show more content…
Another problem arises asking if we don’t know which qualities a person needs to be considered human, why do we need these qualities in the first place? There may be other qualities that could classify someone as a person. Also after further research, coming across a book The Moral Question of Abortion by Stephen Schwartz, he explains that Warren is confusing being a person with functioning as a person. Giving a perfect example of someone who is in a deep dreamless sleep, they are not conscious and cannot reason. We still however view her as a human although she lacks the qualities Warren suggests. Schwartz states “killing someone in their sleep would be just as wrong as killing them while they are awake and functioning as a person.” This can then be compared to a fetus, they are not functioning people yet, however they are still a person in that they are showing physical qualities much like a person in a deep sleep and to kill them would be