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Michael Tooley's Response To Potentiality Argument '

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Essay 1
My goal in this essay is to show that Michael Tooley’s response to the Potentiality Argument fails. I begin with a formulation of the Potentiality Argument. Next, I present Tooley’s response to this argument. Finally, I argue that this response fails.
The Potentiality Argument can be formulated as follows. If a being has the potential to possess qualities like that of a person, for example their psychological capabilities and access to language and thought, then they have a right to life, meaning killing it would be morally wrong. Since a fetus is expected to naturally develop such qualities, it has the potential to become a person. This means a fetus is a potential person. Since a fetus is a potential person, then it is seriously …show more content…

He formulates a hypothetical situation. This situation involves the case in which a kitten could be injected with a chemical that could turn it into a cat that possesses all the potential qualities of a person. It would be able to possess psychological capabilities like that of a human, as well as possess the ability to access thought and language. He creates this situation to then state that kittens with the ability to possess such qualities should have an equal right to life of that of Homo Sapiens. However, Tooley also develops that it is not wrong to refrain from injecting a cat with such a chemical, nor giving an already injected cat a neutralizer or killing it instead. For even if the cat has the potential to possess such qualities, it does not mean that it has a right to life before it takes on these traits of persons. Just because there is some new chance for a cat to possess person like qualities, does not mean that it has any more right to life than it previously had. This means it is not wrong to omit giving a kitten this chemical that allows it to possess human qualities. Nor does he believe it is wrong to kill a cat that has already been injected, thus keeping it from possessing such qualities. The same would follow for a fetus, as it also does not yet possess such person like qualities. Tooley argues that potentiality should not matter. Since a fetus does not have the like qualities of a person, it should be morally okay to omit or act in a manner that could prevent it from obtaining such qualities, such as abortion. This then proves that the potentiality argument is

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