1. The Ethics of Abortion When, if ever, is Abortion morally permissible?
When, if ever, should Abortion be legal?

2. Do we believe in Universal Moral principles?
1. Absolutism – Yes. There are Universal moral rules (e.g. don’t murder), and they are the same regardless of circumstances.
2. Relativism – No. There are no moral rules that are universal. There are just difference cultural practices.
3. Situation Ethics – There are universal principles (e.g. respect human dignity) but they must be applied differently in different situations.

3. What about our Labels? Pro- Life Pro -Choice
The fetus has full moral status and abortion is immoral and ought to be illegal from conception onward
The fetus does not have full moral status, at least not before the age of viability. An abortion is morally permissible and should be legal, at least until the third trimester.

4. Standard Arguments Anti-Abortion Pro-Abortion Rights
P1: It is always wrong to kill an innocent human being P2: A fetus is an innocent human being from conception onward C: It is always wrong to abort a fetus
P1: It is always wrong to kill an innocent human being P2: A Pre-viable fetus is not a human being in the moral sense C: It is morally acceptable to have an abortion prior to viability

5. Moderations Pro-life Moderations Pro-Choice Moderations
Exception for the life of the mother
Exception for rape
Life begins not at conception but at implantation (or heartbeat)
Not in the third Trimester
Not after “viability”
Not once the brain develops to a key point

6. But which right really applies here?
Autonomy
Life
A woman has a right to do what she wishes with her own body
A person has a right to life

7. When does a fetus become a “person”?
Conception?
Implantation?
First Heartbeat?
When it can feel pain?
Viability?
Brain development?
Birth?
First Breath?

8. Roe vs Wade 1973
For the First two trimesters the fetus is part of the woman’s body; therefore, she has a legal right to an abortion. But during the third trimester the fetus is “viable”; therefore, it is up to the states whether they want to ban it all together, or allow abortions for extreme medical reasons.

9. Personhood and the Brain
Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan

10. Sagan/Druyan argument:
P1: Only persons have full moral status P2: A person is a being that has the capacity to think abstractly, communicating in complex ways, make long term free decisions, and have a strong sense of self-awareness P3: Embryology shows us that in order to have the capacity to be a person, the cerebral cortex must be sufficiently developed P4: This does not happen until past the six months P5: So, from P1-P4, the fetus is not a person before six months P6: Since the pre six months fetus is not a person, then it does not have full moral status C2: Therefore, it is sometimes morally permissible – as so should also be legal - for a woman to have an abortion before six months.

11. Potential persons? What rights might potential persons have?
When, along the line of development do we have a morally relevant potential person?
Is every sperm and every egg a potential person?
Is there something unique about conception (or some other point) that makes that potential person more morally special?

12. Contraception?
One major way to reduce abortions is to make contraception widely available and to educate people about using it.
If abortion is wrong because it terminates a potential person, in contraception any different?

13. When might it be morally permissible?
Judith Jarvith Thomson “The Case of the Violinist.”
This case, most obviously, allows for abortions in cases of rape

14. Medical & Therapeutic Reasons?
Life of the mother?
Severe psychological effect on the mother?
Extreme poverty?
Baby born with a serious condition, anencephaly for example?
Incest?
Baby likely to die before term?

15. But what should the law be?
Utilitarian argument for legal abortion
Assume that you are morally against elective abortion (you may be ok with therapeutic abortions)
P1: Making abortions illegal does not substantially decrease the number of abortions
P2: Illegal abortions are far more dangerous. They often kill or seriously harm women
P3: This means that making abortion illegal is more harmful than keeping it legal
C: Women should have a legal right to an abortion

16. What about Religion? Thomas Aquinas Traditional Judaism
Abortion is not permissible.
In the first three months it is not murder, but is a form of birth control. But of course Aquinas forbids birth control.
After three months it has as soul and abortion would be murder
Abortion is permissible to save the life of the mother, or for some other extreme situations.
Abortion is not murder because the fetus is not a person until it is born and takes its first breath.