One specific philosopher, Don Marquis, wrote a small excerpt which primarily argues the immorality of abortion. His most predominant reason is that abortions deprive fetuses of their future; he then proceeds to argue, “ When I am killed, I am deprived both of what I now value which would have been part of my future personal life, but also what I would come to value” (Marquis, 1989). In other words, killing someone takes away their values and future experiences; Marquis coined the term “future like ours”, or FLO, to ethically define the wrongness of murder (Marquis, 1989). Although his point is certainly valid for the immoral act of killing a human, it does not apply to a fetus. FLO only applies to a human who has previous experiences and has the desire to gain future experiences. Furthermore, a fetus does not have any memorable situations outside of the womb; therefore, a fetus cannot have any future desires or values. Simply, a person cannot have the desire of something that they do not have any knowledge of. Moreover, he further argues that a zygote (a fertilized ovum) has the genetic code for a human, and therefore must have the same moral standing as a human. Scientifically, he is correct that the zygote contains the genetic sequences for human development, but at this point the zygote is just a group of cells with a genetic sequence with an uncertain potential to be a human. So, at this stage in a pregnancy a zygote has the same moral status as a simple bacteria or stem cell. In other words, a simple genetic sequence does not give a zygote or fetus the same moral standing a
One specific philosopher, Don Marquis, wrote a small excerpt which primarily argues the immorality of abortion. His most predominant reason is that abortions deprive fetuses of their future; he then proceeds to argue, “ When I am killed, I am deprived both of what I now value which would have been part of my future personal life, but also what I would come to value” (Marquis, 1989). In other words, killing someone takes away their values and future experiences; Marquis coined the term “future like ours”, or FLO, to ethically define the wrongness of murder (Marquis, 1989). Although his point is certainly valid for the immoral act of killing a human, it does not apply to a fetus. FLO only applies to a human who has previous experiences and has the desire to gain future experiences. Furthermore, a fetus does not have any memorable situations outside of the womb; therefore, a fetus cannot have any future desires or values. Simply, a person cannot have the desire of something that they do not have any knowledge of. Moreover, he further argues that a zygote (a fertilized ovum) has the genetic code for a human, and therefore must have the same moral standing as a human. Scientifically, he is correct that the zygote contains the genetic sequences for human development, but at this point the zygote is just a group of cells with a genetic sequence with an uncertain potential to be a human. So, at this stage in a pregnancy a zygote has the same moral status as a simple bacteria or stem cell. In other words, a simple genetic sequence does not give a zygote or fetus the same moral standing a