While the idea that a fetus is a person or, at least, warrants moral consideration is held by plenty-- this view is largely tied to our inherent emotional feelings about human babies, and has little to no logical standing. Those who ascribe to the belief that a fetus has full moral status by virtue of the fact that it will be a human or that it contains human DNA are negligent of the very characteristics that establish humans as moral patients to begin with. Our self-awareness, self-conscious emotion, and ability to perform higher-order cognitive function and to rise above instinct to a certain degree are what define our personhood. They are all self-evident, undeniable sufficient conditions for having moral status. A fetus does not possess
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This implies that the only reasons women or families choose to have an abortion is simply for the sake of not wanting to raise a child. This is not only dismissive of the fact that women receive abortions for a variety of reasons-- such as to prevent the birth of a child with a severely debilitating defect or disease; or that their own life is danger-- but also ignores how brutal pregnancy is on the female body. If a woman finds herself with an unwanted pregnancy, being forced to raise a child is not the only misfortune she stands to face. Pregnancy may have both physically and emotionally damaging consequences in and of itself, and actually giving birth is even more physically taxing. So while some women may receive satisfaction from giving another family an opportunity to raise a child, it stands to reason that just as many women (and perhaps even a great deal more) may suffer greatly from housing what, symbiotically, amounts to not much more than a parasite for 9 months, only to give it …show more content…
The first and most obvious problem here, is the scenario in which carrying a pregnancy to term threatens the mother’s life or overall health. This problem is also the easiest to solve, as when comparing one person’s life to another, the mother’s life clearly outweighs that of which isn’t even a person yet. More often than not, however, this isn’t the case; which means that the most prominent conflict lie between the fetus’s right to life and the mother’s right to decide what happens in and to her body. This, by the way, is why the moral permissibility of abortion does not suppose that killing a human baby is permissible, too. In the case of an unwanted baby that is already born, a woman’s right to her body is no longer a factor, making the infant’s right to life the only concern of moral significance. Of course, we would then conclude that killing an infant is
This implies that the only reasons women or families choose to have an abortion is simply for the sake of not wanting to raise a child. This is not only dismissive of the fact that women receive abortions for a variety of reasons-- such as to prevent the birth of a child with a severely debilitating defect or disease; or that their own life is danger-- but also ignores how brutal pregnancy is on the female body. If a woman finds herself with an unwanted pregnancy, being forced to raise a child is not the only misfortune she stands to face. Pregnancy may have both physically and emotionally damaging consequences in and of itself, and actually giving birth is even more physically taxing. So while some women may receive satisfaction from giving another family an opportunity to raise a child, it stands to reason that just as many women (and perhaps even a great deal more) may suffer greatly from housing what, symbiotically, amounts to not much more than a parasite for 9 months, only to give it …show more content…
The first and most obvious problem here, is the scenario in which carrying a pregnancy to term threatens the mother’s life or overall health. This problem is also the easiest to solve, as when comparing one person’s life to another, the mother’s life clearly outweighs that of which isn’t even a person yet. More often than not, however, this isn’t the case; which means that the most prominent conflict lie between the fetus’s right to life and the mother’s right to decide what happens in and to her body. This, by the way, is why the moral permissibility of abortion does not suppose that killing a human baby is permissible, too. In the case of an unwanted baby that is already born, a woman’s right to her body is no longer a factor, making the infant’s right to life the only concern of moral significance. Of course, we would then conclude that killing an infant is