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Inrtoduction on abortion
Opposing arguments about abortion
Opposing arguments about abortion
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What is abortion? Abortion is killing a fetus inside a mother’s womb. According to Don Marquis, killing a fetus is morally impermissible. Marquis came up with an argument that views abortion as immoral and only in rare cases is it accepted. There are only a few rare cases that abortion is morally acceptable according to Marquis in his article, “Why Abortion is Immoral.” Marquis’s view on abortion is relatable because I am a woman and seeing as I am able to bare a child, I feel it is a women’s right to decide if abortion is permissible or not because it is her body and she has all the rights to her own body. Later described is FLO, one of Marquis’s arguments proving abortion is morally impermissible. I do not agree with the FLO argument. Marquis makes strong points, which can be agreeable, but in summary of Marquis’s arguments, he needs to have a more valid case of FLO.
Don Marquis created the FLO method and explains it in his article. The FLO method means a “future like ours.” Marquis says that killing a fetus would be denying him/her the opportunity for a future like ours. A fetus is a human being at the time of conception according to Marquis. Aborting the fetus would be taking away future experience’s that are valuable. He proposes strong points that trigger a human’s emotional sensitivity to murdering another human being. It is wrong to deprive a fetus of a life because they have potential futures as persons. From the time of conception a fetus has a potential future.
There are objections to Marquis’s principles such as, fetuses don’t have a future like ours, and they’re only potential. His reply to this particular argument was that, FLO is not used to bridge the gap between fetus and adult. A fetus has the same future pote...
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...ument irrelevant in his argument. I am personally pro- life and do not agree with abortion unless a women was raped and there were extenuating circumstances if the mother’s life was threatened. Marquis FLO argument isn’t valid enough to conduce to his entire theory. Marquis cannot see into the future and determine if a fetus will have a great future. If the pregnancy goes well and the fetus is born, then yes they are entitled to a future, but whether it will be like “ours” is unpredictable making Marquis point of FLO an invalid argument. Abortion is depriving a fetus of a future life in general. If Marquis would have said this instead I would be more willing to agree with his theory. Abortion is morally impermissible because at the end of the day, it is murder. A fetus will grow to be a human with organs and a brain and have some type of future whether good or bad.
In Don Marquis’s essay “Why Abortion is Immoral” he argues that abortion is immoral because he believes that abortion is morally equivalent to killing an adult human being. Marquis’ argument takes the following form:
In Dan Marquis’ article, “Why Abortion is Immoral”, he argues that aborting a fetus is like killing a human being already born and it deprives them of their future. Marquis leaves out the possible exceptions to abortion that include: a threat to the mom’s life, contraceptives, and pregnancy by rape. First, I will explain Marquis’ pro-life argument in detail about his statements of why abortion is morally wrong. Like in many societies, killing an innocent human being is considered morally wrong, just like in the United States. Second, I will state my objection to Marquis’ argument by examining the difference between a human being’s already born future compared to a potential fetus’s future.
6). Even at such a young age the “fetus” has already developed a brain and spinal cord. Most abortions take place right after this time. Just imagine what would be formed on the body of the “fetus” next. “Pro-life Laws Improve Women’s Health … A study published in the British Medical Journal shows that Mexican states with “less permissive” abortion laws experienced lower maternal mortality rates from abortion complications. A Stanford University study shows lower rates of abortion complications for American states with those same types of laws.” (Lindor par.12). Abortion causes a health risk in women afterwards. Not being able to have kids after the procedure is done is one of them. Also, reports have been showed that some women regret their decision after they abort the “fetus.” Everyone is entitled to their opinion as we see with the pro-lifers. “We’re already aware of the racism and discrimination inherent in the institution: blacks and children with disabilities are aborted disproportionately more. More recently, we’ve been made aware of the trafficking of body parts.” (Lindor par. 20). That type of news is sad and quite scary for the most part. Even though, respectively, disabled children do cost more time, energy, money, and patience. It’s still quite unnecessary to abort them just because they
Marquis’s overall argument is abortion is seriously morally wrong because it involves killing. He states this is wrong because it robs a human of a natural property, which is a “future like ours,” or a FLO. It “deprives one of all experiences, activities, projects, and enjoyments that would otherwise have constituted one’s future.” Killing someone is wrong because it inflicts a great loss on the victim. He states describing this as a loss of life can be misleading because a change in a biological state does not make killing wrong, it is the effect of the killing, making one lose all of the experiences which would otherwise have been possible. The activities are valuable and are the means to something else, like a potential life, which would make ...
Don Marquis is a philosopher arguing that any form of abortion is immoral. His original thesis states: In the overwhelming majority of cases, deliberate abortions are seriously immoral. He begins by stating why killing is wrong in three statements. He states, “killing is wrong because it brutalizes the killer, it is a loss to others, and it robs the victim of all the experiences, activities, projects, and enjoyments that would otherwise have constituted one’s future” (68). The first two statements do not address the fetus, but the last statement is very arguable, so Marquis emphasizes his argument on this premise. Depriving anybody of their future has many consequences. Some parts of a person’s future are valued now and some parts could be valued later. Therefore, it is wrong to kill any adult human because it is a loss of future (which has value). He addresses the questions of personhood by stating that fetuses have the potential to be humans. Therefore, killing a fetus is depriving the fetus of having a
Why Abortion is Immoral by Don Marquis is an essay that claims that abortion is morally wrong, and uses one argument in particular to explain why. He argues that many of us would agree that it is wrong to kill a human, and if you believe that then you should also have that view on abortions. If you think killing is wrong then you think all killing is wrong and the persons biological state, whether it is when a person is a fetus, one years old, or thirty years old, makes no difference. He then explains that killing is wrong not only because it is immoral, but wrong because it deprives the victim of life and the enjoyments one would have otherwise experienced; which Marquis believes is the greatest lost one can suffer (Marquis, 189). Given certain circumstances Marquis agrees there are cases where killing is acceptable, but nonetheless it is immoral.
Marquis believes abortion to be extremely immoral. However he mentions that there are exceptions in rare but certain circumstances where abortion is acceptable. We can infer that these instances would include situations that would put the mother or child at serious risk by keeping the fetus. He is frustrated that this idea has received minimal support recently. As a result he wants to influence change in society in hopes of receiving the support and publicity this topic deserves. Marquis’ primary argument stems from the idea of killing in general. He explains it is immoral to kill an adult because it prematurely deprives the human of something they may have valued at the time they were killed, as well as something they may had valued in the future. Although the victim may not realize it at the time of their death, they certainly had a valuable future ahead of them to experience which has been cut short. We are the only ones who can decide what is valuable to them; in this case we value some things more than others, and this concept differs from person to person. For example, in the present I value the life I am given and the opportunity I have to earn my degree at Villanova University while also valuing my future as well knowing that I have a chance to be successful in the future. Although I have not succeeded yet, I still value that opportunity I have and the life I’m capable of achieving through earning a degree. Therefore, he connects this same theory to the life of a fetus. By killing the fetus the result is the same, we are depriving it of its futur...
In my opinion, Marquis’ argument for why abortion is morally wrong has a couple of flaws, it’s biased towards the fetus and makes some unreasonable assumptions. Specifically, Marquis' account of why killing an adult human is wrong can potentially lead to some controversial conclusions. Marquis also doesn't consider any consequences on the lives of the potential parents of the fetus. Due to the nature of the topic of abortion, it really only applies to women who are thinking of getting an abortion, and as such, we cannot make the standard assumptions that we will have with normal fetuses. In this essay I will explain Marquis' argument, and try to show that his argument cannot conclude that abortion is morally wrong.
To conclude, Marquis’s argument that abortion is wrong is incorrect. Thomson gives many examples of why Marquis is wrong, including that the mother’s right to her body
Don Marquis primary argument lays on the fact that a fetus possesses a property, the possession of which in an adult human being is sufficient to make killing an adult human being wrong, makes abortion wrong (Gedge & Waluchow, 2012, p224). This property is the right to a valuable future. Marquis argument defends the position that abortion is morally wrong against pro-choice arguments, including the irrationality of a fetus, the lack of a fetus desire to live, and the fetus not being considered a victim.
So if we all agree that killing an adult who has a future of great values is morally wrong, then the action of abortion to kill a fetus who has the same valuable future like ours is morally wrong as well. That being said, abortion is permissible only if the same circumstances in which killing adult’s life is permissible. If we killed adult human beings, all our activities, such as experiences, projects, enjoyments, etc., in the future will be deprived. That he calls, the “natural property” which apply to adult human beings in the same manner that it does to fetuses. Since the reason and our awareness that are sufficient to explain why it is wrong to kill human beings is a reason that also applies to fetuses, it jumps to the conclusion that abortion is prima facie seriously morally
Marquis is not specific in his arguments in regards to when life begins, but rather a “majority of deliberate abortion is seriously immoral.” While Marquis is not taking the typical stance on pro-life, “It is always wrong to take a human life,” he does feel this viewpoint is too broad. Marquis enters his argument from a different angle than typical pro-life arguments. His primary argument is killing is not an act that is acceptable on any level. Additionally, when someone is killed, they are basically robbed of their future. What if the person killed was to have been the person who would have found a cure for cancer? Then the death of this person would be costly to society. This includes the case of an abortion where we basically are robbing the future of this unborn child. The unborn child taken because of an abortion could very well be the person that would have cured
Abortion by definition means the way of ending pregnancy by removing fetus from the womb before it is able to survive independently. Abortion is an extremely debatable issue because while some people are completely against it, others believe that a woman should have the right to choose. Abortion decision is like killing own child or killing an innocent human life before coming out from uterus. I will explain how a human life is being destroyed, the process in which they destroy the fetus, and how to avoid this situation all together I believe that abortion is morally impermissible.
Abortion is the operation to end a pregnancy by removing a fetus or an embryo from the womb. This topic has been one of the most prominent controversies in the United States. A human’s life is special in all stages and should not be taken away for any reason. The robbing of someone’s life at any point is morally wrong and is a crime according to religion and the law regarding murder. If one cannot assume the responsibilities of taking care of a human until they are able to survive on their own, then intercourse is not recommended.
Abortions have always been a very controversial topic. Over the years we continue to fight for or against it. One can say that is one of the most talked and argued topic in the United States. An abortion is when a woman terminates her pregnancy before the fetus is viable using various of methods. Some argue that abortions should be illegal and considered murder, while others, from a religious point of view, say that no one has the right to take away the life of a person, in this case the fetus. However, others insist, that abortions are a basic women’s right.