Don Marquis’s purpose to his essay is to set out to prove that abortion is seriously wrong. He is addressing that abortion is morally wrong and should not be permitted except in certain cases. The authors thesis is “Abortion, except perhaps in rare instances, is seriously wrong”(Marquis, 754). Marquis’s purpose for exceptions or rare instances is to eliminate those instances that could be considered ethically controversial such as cases like abortion after rape or abortion during the first fourteen days after conception. Marquis provides another exception in the form of a pregnancy that could endanger a woman’s life and abortion when the fetus is anencephalic. An anencephalic is a condition with “the absence of all or a part of the brain
If human have their own experience, they must think the experience which they have is valuable, so that the feeling of continuing their life exists. Other reason is human have their fundamental and strong desire of being alive. (Marquis,1987), therefore Fe thtus are not strongly connected with these two arguments of immorally killing. This two rivals accounts also have problem. The desirability is not necessary condition for the side that abortion is moral. The victims are not only the people who suffer a “real” disaster, or crimes, fetus can also be a victim. Though victim is not a sentience being, and they apparently fail to the requirement of mentation. Empathy faces the risk of ending of life, they directly do harm on them. For more, contraception is an attempt to question future-like-ours theory. The essay does not analysis the contraception as immoral and wrong. Contraception is still a problem of preventing a potential future of a value of life. If consider the process of contraception. There are for stages of subjects (sperm, ovum, sperm ovum separately, and sperm ovum together), so there are a lot possible that harm too many futures that may occur. The question on contraception seems to challenge the future-like-ours arguments given by the essay. This is a misleading question, because the amount of sperm is quite large, and contraception does not create a combination. There is no obvious losing of
Dr. Seuss once said that “a person's a person no matter how small.” So by aborting a baby you are killing a person and how is that no different from murder. There is no different. You are making a mental decision to kill someone and that someone is your own baby. We were once in our mother’s womb even though we don’t remember. While in our mother's womb we did not have any choice to do anything but what if your mother's decided to abort you, then you would've never came into
Any ethical person would say that it is morally wrong to kill any human being. An abortion involves killing a fetus. A fetus is a human being. Therefore, shouldn’t everyone agree that abortion is wrong? Natural Law Theory states that we discover the highest principle of natural law by looking at aspects of our human nature. Natural Law Theorists would agree that abortion is morally wrong and that it should be impermissible. First, Natural Law Theory believes that the body has a purpose, or “telos”, to reproduce. If someone were to have an abortion, they would be terminating the purpose of reproducing. That alone would make abortion morally wrong. Next, according to natural law theorist, Thomas Aquinas, we have a natural inclination to preserve
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. The loss of life is a great lose one can suffer from. The loss of life deprives the individual from experiences, projects, activities and enjoyments that would have been part of his/her future. So killing is wrong because it deprives the individual from his future. Therefore abortion is impermissible because it will deprive the fetus from his/her future.
Don Marquis, on the other side of the abortion debate begins his essay “Why abortion is immoral” through the frustration of little support being given to the thought. This essay was written to show the falsified belief that an anti-abortion stance is nothing other than irrational religious dogma or a conclusion generated by a seriously confused philosophical argument. The argument is set forth throughout that abortion is, except in rare cases, seriously immoral. This essay sets forth the belief that abortion is in the same category as killing an innocent adult human being. Don Marquis argues with rare exceptions such as a life-threatening pregnancy, all cases of abortion are seriously wrong and are not much different than killing an adult
Marquis’ thesis is as follows “That abortion is, with rare exceptions, seriously immoral.” Prima facie is defined as “based on the first impression; accepted as correct until proved otherwise.” Marquis is saying that abortion, at first glance, is seriously wrong but in some cases, it can be proven morally permissible. These exceptions include rape, when the woman’s life is in danger due to the pregnancy or if the fetus is anencephalic (a congenital condition in where the fetus has some or all of the developing skull leaving brain matter exposed). I like the fact that Marquis takes into account congenital anomalies, because the fetus would most likely suffer and to be taken to term would cause the fetus pain and a very short life span. Marquis first states that killing an adult is wrong. What makes the act of murder immoral is, not losing the physical aspect of being alive, or the pain caused to our family and friends, but because we are completely eradicating their future, robbing them of their future of value, that they would’ve experienced had they not died, and that is what makes it unjust. “The loss of ones life deprives one of all the experiences, activities, project’s, and enjoyments that would have constituted ones future.” He then applies the same thought process to abortion saying that the reason abortion is wrong is because the fetus will never have a future of value. I believe Marquis’ view on abortion is very different to other philosopher’s views on abortion. Not only because he is pro-life and many philosophers are pro-choice but because he focuses on the potential future of value. He is comparing a human who actually has a future of value, to a fetus, which has not yet begun life. I think that Marquis argument is a very strong pro-life argument, however to say that abortion is wrong solely because the fetus has not fulfilled his potential future
I will start off by outlining Marquis’ argument against abortion. In his first premise, he states that “Killing me (or you, reader) is prima facia seriously wrong” (Marquis 190). His second premise is “For any killing where the victim did have a valuable future like ours, having that future itself is sufficient to create the strong presumption that killing is seriously wrong” (Marquis 195). The third
Today I will talk to you about three main non-religious reasons as to why abortion should not be legal.
Abortion remains one of the most controversial issues in our society today. Pro-life supporters are those who are against abortion and who believe abortion is in all cases wrong. Pro-choice supporters are those who are in favor of abortion and who believes that whatever a woman does with her body is her choice. Patricia Bauer and Don Marquis are both scholars who wrote in depth articles explaining their views on abortion in an effort to spur their audience into action. Even though the both share same views, they use different and strong rhetorical strategies, mainly logos, ethos, and pathos, to get their message across their audience and to show the effectiveness and seriousness of their arguments.
Throughout Don Marquis’s article on why abortion is immoral, it is clear that he stands at a third party view on this controversial idea. Marquis is neither anti-abortion nor pro-choice, and he states different reasons why he thinks this throughout his article. Some of the reasons are that anti-abortionists’ views are too broad and pro-choicers’ views are too narrow, not enough research or factual information of the topic of abortion, and then towards the end he talks about how it may or may not be different with animals.
Abortion is the ending of pregnancy by abolishing a fetus or embryo before it can survive outside the uterus. Abortion is a very controversial topic, for example, one side of this topic believes abortion is cruel and committing murder, while the other side believes that since the fetus or embryo isn 't developed enough to be considered a living human being yet, that abortion is not commiting murder. Despite this information, there is a lot more to abortion than the opinion of it being “right” or “wrong”.
As stated in the paragraph above, the fetus is believed to be a person and killing is thought to be one of the most immoral crimes. Those who believe life begins at conception feel that the unborn child deserves protection. Some would argue that adoption is an alternative to having an abortion. Everyone should be familiar with the law that allows for children to be dropped off at churches, fire stations, and police departments. Why not use this route as an alternative to
Some believe that the removal of a fetus is murder, but scientifically that is not true. Many members of the medical community would argue that “[t]here is a difference between killing or destroying something and preventing something from coming into existence… Abortion is inherently different from other procedures because no other procedure involves the purposeful termination of potential life.” There is a difference between the destruction of an already living human being, and the termination of potential life. In one case, the mother’s life can be ruined or made much more complex, or take away from some aspects of their life. But, with a fetus, it hasn’t been able to go and start a life. The fetus hasn’t begun living outside of the womb, and while it may have potential for some sort of success, that can be true about many things. Ethically, it is acceptable for an abortion to occur. It is a medical procedure, an autonomy, and it is ultimately the decision of the mother. At the stage of acceptable abortion, the service is ethical, and it is removing simply a cluster of developing cells. The actual service of an abortion is completely acceptable, and the choice should be made by the mother and not the
In the world today, morality is not black and white anymore, it has developed into a gray area in which can scarcely be defined. The dictionary definition of morality is stated as "the quality of being in accord with standards of right or good conduct." Be that as it may, everyone has a contrasting opinion or view of right and wrong. This disagreement of opinion on what is moral causes controversy, such as the topic of abortion. Since abortion is simply put as the killing of an unborn child, why are women that kill their children convicted as murders when women who abort their children are not convicted as murderers? In fact, abortion is destroying the life of a child; therefore, it should be expressed as morally wrong, except when circumstances