Potentiality View

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Of the four views explored by Hursthouse (1987), I have chosen to analyse and critically examine the potentiality view. The potentiality view is a broad perspective that has elements of both the conservative and the extreme liberal views concerning the moral status of the human foetus. It is guided by the idea that the human foetus is morally unique from the time of conception because it is not like any other known living thing, as it has the potential to become a human being without the actuality of being one. The potentiality view can also cause confusion with the arguments about the consequences of a unique moral status, since it argues both for the conservative and extreme liberal sides, rather than just pointing out a single opinion in regards to abortion and foetal research.

One of, if not the most important arguments that the potentiality view discusses is that every human foetus has the potential to become a human being, therefore they have a unique moral status rather than the moral status of an actual human being because the human foetus itself …show more content…

The premises are true because a foetus is a potential human being rather than an actual human, humans do have a moral status and there is no other living thing that has the potential to become a human like the human foetus has and the conclusion is also true because the moral status of a foetus is different to that of a human. Therefore, the argument is valid based on the principle that if an argument has true premises, then the conclusion must also be true for an argument to be valid. Based on the fact that the argument is valid and the premises and conclusion are true, the argument is also

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