Abortion is a topic that all persons will deal with at one time or another in their life through ethical debates, political stances, and personal thoughts. Abortion is an ethical issue that is constantly under scrutiny and thus far, there does not seem to be one debate more logical than the next. In the articles that I chose to read, each of the authors has their own varying opinions, each proposing commentary for and against the topic. It is interesting to note that each author takes a different approach to describing when a fetus is a person, or if they are a person at all. Each also have opinions on woman's rights when it comes to abortion, third party intervention, if it is acceptable at all, and rape.
Judith Thomson states in her article that she regards a fetus as 'person' from the moment of conception. Yet, it is nearly impossible to draw the line that states 'before a certain point, this "thing" is not a person, and after a certain point, "it" is a person'.
Gestational age may determine which abortion metho...
Photo from the 2004 March for Women's Lives, taken...
This is am image of a fetus about to be vacuumed o...It is difficult to state a specific "point-of-person", just as Thomson points out; "we do not consider an acorn an oak tree, why would we consider a fetus a person". Warren on the other hand, has specific person-hood criteria which constitute humanity in the "moral sense"; she feels the criteria are a necessary component of determining whether a person is a person or not. Warren states that the Moral Community determines that these five person-hood traits must be present for a "human" to become a "person"- a part of the moral community. Once these five criteria including i) consciousness, ii) reasoning, iii) self-motivated activity, iv) capacity to communicate, and v) presents of self concepts are present, then full moral rights are present. This is...