Abortion.

Essay by fleckdCollege, UndergraduateB, July 2003

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ABORTION

ABORTION

People are not very comfortable when it comes to the topic of abortion. Some people will get judgmental while others might not even be able to comment on the subject. There is such great emotion concerning the topic of abortion. There are three general views a person takes when asked about abortion. They are pro-choice, pro-life, and moderate views. I'm going to be supporting the moderate view. When we speak of abortion certain questions automatically come up they are: Is abortion morally wrong? Where does life begin? Is abortion murder? I'm going to take a look at these questions, and provide some insight to each of the three views.

Pro-Life

"Defining all abortions as morally wrong except in the case where the fetus cannot possibly satisfy the requirements of personhood set out in list L. This includes cases in which the fetus is conceived through either rape or incest."

According to the abortion book by Selmer Bringsjord, three people discuss the three views of abortion. First they need to constitute what a person is. The list of personhood is as follows: a person is a being who -is conscious, communicates through a language, knows and believes things, is self-conscious, has a will, and reasons. The postulate given for pro-life is as follows: (p1) it is always wrong to harm an innocent person. (P2) Fetuses are innocent persons. (P3) Abortion is an extreme harm. So the conclusion is abortion is always wrong. Proof: if x is innocent and has, or will have-by virtue of a causal chain of events that can be enabled by person y - the capacities given in list L, then it is morally wrong for y to destroy or authorize others to destroy, x, unless such destruction prevents an extraordinary catastrophe that is horribly wrong.