From a modern perspective Locke seems to dance around the concept of abortion with his discussion of an embryo’s lack of a rich inner life. Indeed he compares it to a vegetable:
“he, I say, who considers this, will, perhaps, find reason to imagine that a foetus in the mother's womb differs not much from the state of a vegetable; but passes the greatest part of its time without perception or thought, doing very little but sleep in a place where it needs not seek for food, and is surrounded with liquor, always equally soft, and near of the same temper; where the eyes have no light, and the ears, so shut up, are not very susceptible of sounds; and where there is little or no variety, or change of objects to move the senses”
Such a description …show more content…
By making the distinction between biological humans, and persons he argues that it should be morally permissible to kill humans as long as they are not persons (and as long as killing the human does not negatively affect the persons involved with it). A Person, Singer argues, is only such in that it is “a rational, or self-conscious being” (cite). Singer’s argument is essentially the same as the one that Locke’s ideas seem to so straightforwardly imply: Both seem to think of the fetus as not yet being fully conscious, and closer to a plant/animal than anything else. Both respect the rights of the women to management of her personal property. Both have remarkably similar definitions of personhood that depend on rationality and self-consciousness. Thus Locke (not just the arguments that seem to be implied by Locke’s ideas) could be said to fully agree with Singer’s premises. Singer’s premises, however are the bulk of his argument. After establishing those, his justification for abortion constructs itself quite naturally. Thus Locke’s comment on abortion should be treated as a preliminary voyage into a topic which he had not invested the proper energy into to have made the issue self-consistent with the rest of his works. His response mirrors the initial emotional horror many might feel at the prospect of abortion and serves as a precautionary tale to those who let evolution’s ready-to-order ethical theories obscure the light of
“he, I say, who considers this, will, perhaps, find reason to imagine that a foetus in the mother's womb differs not much from the state of a vegetable; but passes the greatest part of its time without perception or thought, doing very little but sleep in a place where it needs not seek for food, and is surrounded with liquor, always equally soft, and near of the same temper; where the eyes have no light, and the ears, so shut up, are not very susceptible of sounds; and where there is little or no variety, or change of objects to move the senses”
Such a description …show more content…
By making the distinction between biological humans, and persons he argues that it should be morally permissible to kill humans as long as they are not persons (and as long as killing the human does not negatively affect the persons involved with it). A Person, Singer argues, is only such in that it is “a rational, or self-conscious being” (cite). Singer’s argument is essentially the same as the one that Locke’s ideas seem to so straightforwardly imply: Both seem to think of the fetus as not yet being fully conscious, and closer to a plant/animal than anything else. Both respect the rights of the women to management of her personal property. Both have remarkably similar definitions of personhood that depend on rationality and self-consciousness. Thus Locke (not just the arguments that seem to be implied by Locke’s ideas) could be said to fully agree with Singer’s premises. Singer’s premises, however are the bulk of his argument. After establishing those, his justification for abortion constructs itself quite naturally. Thus Locke’s comment on abortion should be treated as a preliminary voyage into a topic which he had not invested the proper energy into to have made the issue self-consistent with the rest of his works. His response mirrors the initial emotional horror many might feel at the prospect of abortion and serves as a precautionary tale to those who let evolution’s ready-to-order ethical theories obscure the light of