ipl-logo

Analysis Of The Essay 'Why Abortion Is Immoral'

667 Words3 Pages

Future Like Ours
The two essays I will discuss are “Why abortion is Immoral”, by Don Marquis and “Killing Embryos for Stem Cell Research, by Jeff McMahan. I will illustrate the dispute of when we begin to have a future like ours between Marquis and McMahan. Marquis argues that we stay equal as a fetus to the being we are later. However, McMahn argues that we are numerically distinct from the time we are a fetus to the human being we become.
The source of disagreement between Marquis and McMahan is about FLO when we start to become a human with moral status. Marquises main argument is that we have FLO from the very start of our existence. He explains that losing one’s life is considered the ultimate loss one can encounter. In particular, he explains that it deprives someone of future experiences …show more content…

McMahan believes that we start to exist in late pregnancy when we start to develop consciousness. We start to have moral status at this time. McMahan response to Marquis would be until this point, there would be no sense to talk about a fetus having a FLO. McMahan’s answer depends on the distinction between killing a being and preventing one from existing. McMahan explains that a sperm and ovum are not developed as a human like us, therefore, we are not killing a being only preventing one from existing. The fetus is not the same human organism that we are this is why killing it would not be morally wrong. HESC (harvest embryonic stem cells) research shows that people do not see the embryo as having the same moral rights as we do. In other words, fetuses are not believed to have an equivalent moral status compared to adult humans, but we do not act this way. Furthermore, embryos are used for assisted conception leaving many of them frozen preventing them from existing or being killed off (McMahan, 188). It restricts the scope of the FLO argument against

Show More
Related

  • Pros And Cons Of Don Marquis

    886 Words  | 4 Pages

    That said, I welcome others to reply with counterarguments. First of all, Marquis argued that in order to understand wether or not abortion is wrong, one must analyze why killing is wrong instead of who counts as killing. It seems to me though that you can't disregard who counts as killing when discussing topics such as abortion. I understand that this makes the debate easier for Marquis,

    Read More

  • Dan Ridge's Abortion Is Murder

    233 Words  | 1 Pages

    Daily Inventory #4 In his article, “Abortion is Murder”, Dan Ridge argues that people focus on children that are born and do not focus on those who are in the womb. Ridge supports his argument by saying that an unborn baby in the womb is still a child, has a unique DNA, and that he or she should be valued as a human being. His purpose is to tell people that getting an abortion is wrong because you are still killing a human being in order to get people to think about the life they are carrying in their womb before having an abortion.

    Read More

  • Review Of Abortion Won The Day, But Sooner Or Later That Day Will End

    451 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “Roe v. Wade-- Abortion Won the Day, But Sooner or Later That Day Will End,” by Frederica Matthew-Green, the author describes how abortion is changing the way society values human life. The writer goes on to explain that at the time abortion was being legalized, they could not comprehend how high the rate of abortions would go up, from the perspective that it would be a last resort measure. She claims that once abortion is made an option, it then becomes the most convenient choice that could be made in that situation, rather than parenting or adoption. In the article, Frederica Matthew-Green goes on to refute the argument that life does not begin at conception, by describing how the zygote is formed. The writer made the connection between abortion and death very clear, saying, “How could I think it was wrong to execute homicidal criminals, wrong to shoot enemies in wartime, but all right to kill our own sons and daughters?”

    Read More

  • Examples Of Marquis Future Of Value Principle

    1450 Words  | 6 Pages

    Skill 3 Part 1: Explication of Marquis’ future of value principle In my essay, I will explain why Marquis thinks that the future of value principle provides a compelling view regarding the impermissibility of killing humans of all ages, aliens and fetuses. Then, I will explain why Marquis and McPhersan believe that the future of value principle applies to fetuses and animals respectively and that I agree with both of them. Finally, I will defend my argument against the future of value principle since I believe the principle is not adequate to explain the impermissibility of killing. I will use termination and killing synonymously in my essay.

    Read More

  • Mary Anne Warren's Rights Of Abortion

    794 Words  | 4 Pages

    Mary Anne Warren establishes a belief that a fetus’s right to live is overruled by an expecting mother’s right to an abortion because it is not a technically a true person until it is born. Warren supports her argument by saying that a nearly full-developed fetus is no more significant than a small embryo because “…it is not fully conscious… it cannot reason or communicate message… and has no self-awareness” (Warren, page 499). In contrast, our text states that “…some fetuses develop the capacity to survive outside the womb…” after nearly being two-thirds fully developed; this means that a fetus is ultimately capable of communication and awareness through it’s movements (Munson and Lague, page 469).

    Read More

  • Don Marquis Abortion Ethos Essay

    1441 Words  | 6 Pages

    Marquis is an ethics and medical ethics philosopher. Marquis is currently professor of philosophy at the University of Kansas. His field works and advanced degree is enough for him to gain more trust from his audience. To bolster the credibility of his claims, Marquis quotes fellow experts and scholars throughout his article. For example, he quotes George Robert who stated that, “In the case of ordinary sexual reproduction, the life of an individual human being begins with complete fertilization” (188).

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Essay On Don Marquis

    1739 Words  | 7 Pages

    Marquis takes his contention at an alternate edge. While most will contend whether a fetus is a person or not, Marquis argues the wrongness of killing. Marquis main principle is that what makes abortion wrong is its immediate results on the casualty, or that the executing denies the casualty of an important future, this Is acknowledged except for uncommon cases. The creators proposition is "abortion, aside from uncommon occurrences, is truly wrong". Marquis' motivation for exemptions or uncommon cases is to wipe out those cases that could be considered morally questionable, for example, cases like fetus removal after assault or abortion amid the initial fourteen days after conception.

    Read More

  • Is Abortion Morally Permissible

    632 Words  | 3 Pages

    The debate whether abortion is morally permissible or not permissible is commonly discussed between the considerations of the status of a fetus and ones virtue theory. A widely recognized theory of pro-choice advocates can be thought to be that their ethical view is that fetus’s merely are not humans because they lack the right to life since they believe a fetus does not obtain any sort of mental functions or capability of feelings. Although this may be true in some cases it is not in all so explaining the wrongness of killing, between the common debates whether a fetus does or does not obtain human hood, should be illustrated in a way of a virtuous theory. The wrongness of killing is explained by what the person or fetus is deprived of, such as their right to life; not by means of a heart beat or function of one’s body, but by the fact that it takes their ability of potentially growing into a person to have the same human characteristics as we do.

    Read More

  • Nagel's Argument Analysis

    327 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nagel follows the view that death is “timelessly bad” for the one who dies, considering death as an evil which deprives one of the benefits of living. This key assumption within Nagel’s notion links closely with the view of Marquis, who believes that killing a human being deprives one of the value of our future, what we have now and what we possibly could have had. Similarly to Nagel’s view on death, Marquis looks at a future-like-ours argument: depriving a being of a future like ours makes killing wrong, and killing a foetus deprives it of a future like ours, so therefore killing a foetus is wrong. However, Nagel considers some objections within his assumption.

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of Abortion Essay

    863 Words  | 4 Pages

    People who think it is bad say that the fetus is something alive, a human being who is partly formed and to do abortion is to kill it and commit murder. The people who think it is ok say that it is not murder until and unless the child is born. I think that abortion has to be seen about which stage the fetus is in. If it is in the very early stage, then it is

    Read More

  • Essay On Why Abortion Is Wrong

    992 Words  | 4 Pages

    A second reason why abortion is wrong is because it deprives the fetus from his future. When we decide to kill a fetus then we are taking away from him a future like ours. The argument is as follows : (1) it is impermissible to kill humans, who if lived, would have a future like ours, (2) if abortion is not done, the fetus would have future as we do have, (3) so it is wrong to kill the fetus (4) therefore abortion is impermissible. A similar argument was given by Don Marquis in his article “Why Abortion is Immoral”. He stated that what makes killing wrong is neither the effect on the murder, nor the effect on the victim’s relatives or friends, but the effect is on the victim himself.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Abortion

    1663 Words  | 7 Pages

    One of the furthermost essential issues in biomedical ethics is the controversy around abortion. There’s a long history on this controversy and it is still critically debated among researchers and the public in both terms of morality and legality. Some of the basic questions argued that may perhaps characterize the importance of the issue: Is abortion morally justifiable? Does the foetus/embryo/zygote have any moral and legal rights? Is the foetus a human being and, if so, should it be protected?

    Read More

  • A Defense Of Abortion By Judith Jarvis Thomason

    484 Words  | 2 Pages

    Abortion is one of the most controversial topics discussed in our world today. Millions of fetuses never got a chance to be born because a mother chose to abort them. Although I do not believe in abortion, I believe a woman should have the right to decide whether to have a baby or not. Our textbook presents views and arguments on the issues. The article from our text on “A Defense of Abortion” written by Judith Jarvis Thomason states the right to have an abortion should be the pregnant woman’s decision.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Speech On Abortion

    1227 Words  | 5 Pages

    Therefore, stopping the life of a fetus is unethical and wrong. If a person kills a pregnant women they are charged with two counts of murder. If abortion is not murder then why in the United States would the murderer of a pregnant women be charged with two counts? The same should go in abortion cases. Just because the biological mother decides to terminate the pregnancy what is the difference if a murder takes that decision into his or her own hands?

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay Against Abortion

    1085 Words  | 5 Pages

    The termination of pregnancy by removing a fetus or embryo from the womb before it can survive on its own is called abortion. Nowadays, abortion is so common that more than forty percent of all women will perform abortion at some time of their reproductive lives. While this numbers are scary, what is more troublesome is that several countries support this dreadful act. Society is now considering this act of murder each day more normal, and position the mother 's rights before the baby´s rights. Killing an adult is no different than killing a fetus, both are genetically unique and were made by God.

    Read More

More about Analysis Of The Essay 'Why Abortion Is Immoral'

Open Document