A Defense of Abortion

Abstract

David Boonin has written the most thorough and detailed case for the moral permissibility of abortion yet published. Critically examining a wide range of arguments that attempt to prove that every human fetus has a right to life, he shows that each of these arguments fails on its own terms. He then explains how even if the fetus does have a right to life, abortion can still be shown to be morally permissible on the critique of abortion's own terms. Finally he considers several pro-life arguments that do not depend on claims that the fetus has a right to life and concludes that these too are ultimately unsuccessful. This major book will be especially helpful to those teaching applied ethics and bioethics in philosophy departments or professional schools of law and medicine. It will interest students of women studies and general readers for whom abortion remains a high-profile issue.

Moral Uncertainty in Bioethical Argumentation: A New Understanding of the 'Pro-Life' View on Early Human Embryos

“…Some philosophers have recently discussed a similar type of reasoning in the context of abortion [23,[29][30][31]. In one article by two eminent philosophers, Frank Jackson and Michael Smith, the authors claim that there is a group of Catholics who:…”

A Moralidade Do Descarte E Da Seleção De Embriões

“…A vida humana começa na fecundação (ODERBERG, 2008 O feto é um estágio bastante posterior, quando os órgãos já são identificáveis (MAURON, 2004, 707-712 • teoria do interesse: todo ser que possui interesses tem status moral (STEINBOCK, 2006;SINGER, 1993;SAGAN & SINGER, 2007;HARRIS, 2006;MCMAHAN, 2002;BOONIN, 2002). …”

“…A teoria do interesse propõe que essas características têm valor moral por que são indícios suficientes (embora não necessários) de quem possui interesses e apenas quem os possui pode ter direitos, dado que direitos são proteções a interesses (o que é o direito à vida senão a proteção do interesse em continuar vivo?). Portanto, atribuir status moral a X é levar os interesses de X em consideração (embora seja controverso quando e quais são os interesses que merecem consideração moral (BOONIN, 2002;MCMAHAN, 2002).…”

Hi-Tech Abortion: A Legal Perspective.

“…The issue of acceptability and executing abortions is highly controversial among societies of the world [Bonin, 2003;Pietrzykowski, 2010]. A differentiated approach towards the issue of abortion on both medical and legal grounds is a result of the aforementioned status.…”