Thesis: Is Abortion Morally Permissible?
Abortion
Thesis: Abortion is morally permissible in which a fetus is not a person which deprives the fetus to its right to life, circular reasoning is an ineffective to oppose abortion, abortion only risks the fetus not society, and deprivation from a fetus's future and suffering of a loved one has no affect on the argument towards anti-abortion. Mary Anne Warren in On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion stated the characteristics which are central to the concept of personhood which are “sentience, emotionality, reason, the capacity to communicate, self awareness, and moral agency” (Cahn 193). In Warren’s requirements, adults are placed in the “persons” category. On the other hand, fetuses are not “persons” since fetuses do not abide to Warren’s characteristics. Fetuses therefore do not have the right to life. When a person has a “right,” it indicates that the person is justified to do something. For example in a legal stance, every United States citizen has the right to vote. Therefore no one can prevent a United States citizen from voting, since the citizen is justified to vote according to United States law. In a moral stance, since an adult has a right to life and not a fetus, my mother, technically if ever placed in a situation for choosing between my mother and a fetus, deserves to live not the fetus. In addition, a “fetus” is the zygote formed upon conception. The zygote is not a person. Even though the zygote will become an adult, at this point the zygote has no rights since the zygote does not fulfill Warren’s requirements. Therefore, abortion i¬s justified since the fetus is not a “person.” Circular reasoning leads abortion to be morally justified. Circular reasoning is “an attempt to evade the burden of proving one of the premises of an argument by basing it on the prior acceptance of the conclusion to be proved” (A Companion to Epistemology 277). Basically, circular reasoning supports a premise with a premise rather than a conclusion. For
Thesis: Abortion is morally permissible in which a fetus is not a person which deprives the fetus to its right to life, circular reasoning is an ineffective to oppose abortion, abortion only risks the fetus not society, and deprivation from a fetus's future and suffering of a loved one has no affect on the argument towards anti-abortion. Mary Anne Warren in On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion stated the characteristics which are central to the concept of personhood which are “sentience, emotionality, reason, the capacity to communicate, self awareness, and moral agency” (Cahn 193). In Warren’s requirements, adults are placed in the “persons” category. On the other hand, fetuses are not “persons” since fetuses do not abide to Warren’s characteristics. Fetuses therefore do not have the right to life. When a person has a “right,” it indicates that the person is justified to do something. For example in a legal stance, every United States citizen has the right to vote. Therefore no one can prevent a United States citizen from voting, since the citizen is justified to vote according to United States law. In a moral stance, since an adult has a right to life and not a fetus, my mother, technically if ever placed in a situation for choosing between my mother and a fetus, deserves to live not the fetus. In addition, a “fetus” is the zygote formed upon conception. The zygote is not a person. Even though the zygote will become an adult, at this point the zygote has no rights since the zygote does not fulfill Warren’s requirements. Therefore, abortion i¬s justified since the fetus is not a “person.” Circular reasoning leads abortion to be morally justified. Circular reasoning is “an attempt to evade the burden of proving one of the premises of an argument by basing it on the prior acceptance of the conclusion to be proved” (A Companion to Epistemology 277). Basically, circular reasoning supports a premise with a premise rather than a conclusion. For