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Abortion Ethics Religion Philosophy Topic Index

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Is abortion morally acceptable?

At a certain stage in a human's development, terminating that human's life is equivalent to murder. Today, in most countries, that stage is at the latest any point during or after birth, but in the past infanticide has been acceptable. In the U.S., that point, legally, is when the fetus becomes viable outside the mother's womb. The fundamentalist Christian position is that life begins at conception, and destroying a fertilized egg (a single cell called a zygote) is morally equivalent to murder.

Implications to Other Questions

Should abortion be legal?
Is abstinence-only sex education effective?

	Do we have an immaterial soul?
	Is the value of a life proportional to its level of consciousness?
	Is abortion wrong because it destroys the potential for life?
	Can you put a price on life?

Experts and Influencers

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Agree

Experts In Ethics

Judith Jarvis Thomson Philosophy Professor

Mostly Agree

I propose...that we grant [for the sake of argument] that the fetus is a person from the moment of conception. How does the argument go from here? ...let me ask you to imagine this. You wake up in the morning and find yourself back to back in bed with an unconscious violinist...

The Hypothetical World Pitch

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30 Aug 1971 Source

Experts In Philosophy

Peter Singer Philosophy Professor

Agree

When a woman has an abortion, the fetus is alive, and it is undoubtedly human – in the sense that it is a member of the species homo sapiens. It isn't a dog or a chimpanzee. But mere membership of our species doesn't settle the moral issue of whether it is wrong to end a life. As long as the abortion is carried out at less than 20 weeks of gestation – as almost all abortions are – the brain of the fetus has not developed to the point of making consciousness possible.

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25 Aug 2007 Source

Sub-Arguments Of This Expert:
Is the value of a life proportional to its level of consciousness?
   Agree
Is abortion wrong because it destroys the potential for life?
   Disagree
Can you put a price on life?
   Agree

Experts In Seduction

Roissy in DC Pickup Artist

Agree

Why I Love Abortion: 1) Abortion is a handy dandy escape hatch for men. 2) Abortion is eugenic 3) Abortion is the cure for what ails ya ... (I have nothing but seething hatred for those parents who willingly allow the births of babies with torturous afflictions). 4) Abortion will spur anti-aging research. 5) Abortion keeps a woman’s body looking hot.

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04 Jun 2008 Source

Experts In Feminism

Jessica Valenti Feminist Activist

Agree

It isn't that anti-choicers don't understand why women get abortions - it's that they care so little about women's lives that any reason given to obtain an abortion is seen as "convenient." Some things that are convenient: Providing for your existing children. Going to college. Having enough money to eat, pay rent, keep the electricity on. Not dying.

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16 Apr 2010 Source

Disagree

Experts In Ethics

Don Marquis Philosophy Professor

Mostly Disagree

No doubt most philosophers affiliated with secular insitutions of higher education believe that the anti-abortion position is either a symptom of irrational religious dogma or a conclusion generated by seriously confused philosophical argument. This essay sets out an argument that purports to show...that abortion is, except possibly in rare cases, seriously immoral, that it is in the same moral category as killing an innocent adult human being.

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30 Apr 1989 Source

Sub-Arguments Of This Expert:
Is abortion wrong because it destroys the potential for life?
Agree

Experts In Politics

Sarah Palin Former Governor of Alaska (Republican)

Disagree

[The Alaskan gubernatorial candidates were pressed on their stances on abortion and were even asked what they would do if their own daughters were raped and became pregnant. Sarah Palin said she would support abortion only if the mother's life was in danger. When it came to her daughter, she said] I would choose life.

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03 Nov 2006 Source

Sub-Arguments Of This Expert:
Can you put a price on life?
Disagree

John McCain U.S. Senator, Republican

Mostly Disagree

The exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother are legitimate [to an outright ban on abortions].

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31 Jan 2000 Source

Ron Paul U.S. Politician, Libertarian

Disagree

I strongly believe that a fetus is a human life, and that a fetus deserves the same legal protections afforded to all Americans.

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30 Apr 2001 Source

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1 Point fburnaby 04 Apr 2010 Stance on Question: Mostly Agree

To what do we assign moral value?

I certainly have no moral respect for "objects with fingernails", whatsoever. We kill these sorts of things all the time for our convenience; unless you're a strict vegan, this is a terrible argument against abortion.

Presumably, what we value about other humans is their "souls" or conscious experiences. A fetus starts out as a ball of cells, and ends up a person some time later. It will be conscious, and therefore morally valuable eventually, assuming that we don't intervene, but that doesn't make it so now. The moral value of the fetus is a fuzzy quantity, it goes from being worthless, to being an equal over a gradual, indivisible period of time. It follows that the moral acceptability of abortion is also fuzzy, contingent in part upon what stage of development the fetus is in.

Since most abortions are early-term, or are the result of a rape, it seems like there's not much to get hung up on.

0 Points Benja 05 Apr 2010 General Comment

It sounds like your view is based on the linked question Is the value of a life proportional to its level of consciousness?.

The Catholic Church disagrees that a ball of cells (or even a single cell - the fertilized egg) is worthless. They describe the cell as "sacred". If they were to not say this, then they would have to admit that a person starts out as a purely scientifically phenomenon. There's no way they're ever going to agree to that. Is their belief absurd? Yes. Can you see the belief is absurd without a basic understanding of science? No. And that's also why the Church is desperate to get into the science room. Science undermines faith. The Church's political position is that science cannot touch faith, whilst doing everything it can do defend itself from the onslaught of reason.

0 Points JCBartlett 04 Mar 2009 Stance on Question: Agree

What if a woman was raped?

Should she have to suffer the ordeal of a baby growing inside her as a result from that horrifying experience? should she have to raise it? could you?

what if you have sex and used protection but by unfortunate chance,
the girl still got pregnant?
what? too bad? bad luck?

I believe under certain circumstances it is acceptable for an abortion.

0 Points adr 08 Oct 2008 Stance on Question: Disagree

Babies have finger nails in the womb, your killing a life form