Chris Meyers 'The Morality Of Abortion'

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Morality of Abortion
Abortion has always been a controversial subject. Pro-life advocates, as well as pro-choice advocates, argue that their respective views about abortion are the correct beliefs. However, after reading The Fetal Position written by Chris Meyers, I have come to the realization that no matter what argument there may be regarding abortion, there is always a counter argument. In this paper I will be discussing the future-like-ours argument. This argument is a more refined form of the potentiality argument. The potentiality argument is the focus on the potential of the fetus. The future-like-ours argument was proposed by a philosopher named Don Marquis. Marquis’ view on abortion is in nearly every textbook regarding the ethics …show more content…

He states that it is our future that has value because we currently want to live out our future (128). For example, I am currently in college and want to graduate with my degree; I want to find a career that I enjoy; I want to get married to a man who I love; and I want to have children. These are all plans that I have for myself and for my future, that I want to see fulfilled. Someone who is pro-choice would argue that I only value my future because these plans are current desires for my conscious future life. If that view is applied to a fetus, then how could a fetus have current wants for its conscious future life when the fetus is not aware of itself or aware that it even has a future? Therefore, if a future is only valued when we have current desires for our future life, then a fetus must have no future, since he or she has no current …show more content…

After reading about the future-like-ours argument, I would say this argument pushed me towards agreeing with pro-life advocates. From reading, I cannot help to think that killing someone, even a fetus, is morally wrong because it would be robbing them of their future. But then again, do we value our future now because we have desires for it currently or do we value our future even when we do not currently have desires for it? The pro-choice advocates argue that in order to value our future; we must have current desires for our conscious future life. Therefore, a fetus cannot value its future life because the fetus is unaware of itself. In addition to not being aware of itself, the fetus does not possess the capability to have current desires for a conscious future life. The pro-life advocates argued that you can still value your future even while unconscious such as sleeping. I knew that I agreed with the pro-life side because of this argument. For example, I know that I still value my future when I am sleeping regardless if I can make plans for my future in that moment of unconsciousness. If you can still value your future while being in an unconscious state such as sleeping than a fetus can still value his or her future as

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