The Argument from Viability for the Immorality of Abortion

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 An M.A. student of philosophy at Mufid University

2 An assistant professor and a faculty member at The Islamic Culture and Sciences Research Center.

Abstract

Abortion is one of the controversial issues in medical ethics. This operation has come across many for or against answers each of which has some arguments for its view. One for-argument says that because the fetus does not have a personality, i.e. personal characteristics, it is not considered as a person; rather it is merely a potential person. Thus destroying the fetus is morally right.
   Stephan Schwarz is among those who have argued against abortion; he has directed attention to the difference between being a person and having personal functions. Thus considering functional capabilities, the fetus is a person. He holds that from the very moment of conception the fetus becomes a person with its moral right and position; it may not function as a person, though. 
    One of his arguments that the fetus is a person comes from viability (continuance of existence). In what follows, the authors have examined this argument. Due to the similarities between this argument and those of species essence and slippery slope -considered identical by some people- they have differentiated that argument from these two ones .

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

  1. آل‌بویه، علیرضا (1392). «سقط ‌جنین و استدلال ذات نوعی». نقد و نظر. 2 (2).
  2. ــــــــــــــ (1391). «سقط‌ جنین از منظر الاهیات اخلاقی». پژوهش‌های اخلاقی. ش9و10.
  3. ــــــــــــــ (1390). «حق زن بر کنترل بدن خود». نقد و نظر.  16(62).
  4. آل‌بویه، علیرضا؛ جوادی، محسن (1390). «استدلال از طریق بالقوگی بر عدم جواز سقط‌جنین». اخلاق زیستی 1 (2).
  5. آل‌‌بویه، علیرضا؛ گودرزی، مریم ( 1396). «سقط جنین و آغاز فعالیت مغز». نقد و نظر. 22. (3).
  6. 6. ابن‌سینا، حسین‌بن‌عبدالله (1383). رساله نفس. مقدمه و حواشی و تصحیح موسی عمید. همدان: انجمن آثار و مفاخر فرهنگی و دانشگاه بوعلی سینا.
  7. 7. سهروردی، یحیی‌بن‌حبش (1375). مجموعه مصنفات شیخ اشراق (ج 1، 3). به تصحیح و مقدمه هانرى کربن و سیدحسین نصر و نجف‌قلی حبیبى‏. تهران: مؤسسه مطالعات و تحقیقات فرهنگى‏.
  8. صدرالدین شیرازی‏، محمدبن‌ابراهیم (1360). الشواهد الربوبیة فی مناهج السلوکیه. چاپ دوم. مشهد: المرکز الجامعی الناشر.
  9. ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ (1981م). الحکمة المتعالیة فی الاسفار العقلیة الاربعة (ج6، 8). چاپ سوم. بیروت‏: دار احیاء التراث‏،.
  10. عبودیت، عبدالرسول (1391). درآمدی به‌نظام حکمت صدرایی (ج3). تهران: انتشارات سمت.
  11. وال، ژان (1380). بحث در مابعدالطبیعه. ترجمه یحیی مهدوی. تهران: انتشارات خوارزمی.
    1. Boonin, David (2003). A Defense of Abortion. Cambridge University Press.
    2. Brody, Baruch (1989). “The Morality of Abortion” in: Tom L. Beauchamp and Ieory Walters (eds.). Contemporary Issues in Bioethics. Wadsworth Publishing Co Inc:3 ed.
    3. “Drama of Life Before Birth” (1965). Life Magazine, photography by Lennart Nilsson. Vol. 58, No. 17, April 30.
    4. Joyce, Robert E (2oo8). “When Does a Person Begin?” in Clark, David K; Rakestraw Robert V. Reading in Christian Ethics Issues and Application. Baker Academic the United States of American.
    5. ------------------- (1978). Personhood and the Conception Event. Philosophy Documentation Center E-collection. The New Scholasticism. Vol. LII, 1, Winter.
    6. Kaczor, Christopher (2011). The Ethics of Abortion Women’s Rights, Human Life, and the Question of Justice. Routledge University Press.
    7. Schwarz, Stephen (1990). The Moral Question of Abortion. Loyola university press.
    8. Schwarz, Stephen, Latimer, Kiki (2011). Understanding Abortion: From Mixed Feelings to Rational Thought. Lexington Books press.
    9. Singer, Peter (1993). Practical Ethics (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
    10. Thomson, Judith Jarvis (1971). A Defense of Abortion. Philosophy & Public Affairs. Vol. 1, No.1.
    11. Tooley, Michael (1972). Abortion and infanticide. philosophy and public affairs, vol. 2, no. 1.
    12. Warren, Mary Anne (1989). The Moral Significance of Birth. Ethics & Reproduction. Indiana University Press. Vol. 4, No. 3 p. 46-65.
    13. ــــــــــــــــ (2002). “On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion”, in Hugh Lafollette (Ed.). Ethics in Practice An Anthology (2nd. ed.), Blackwell Publishing.
    14. Wertheimer, Roger (1971). understanding the abortion argument. philosophy and public affairs, vol. 1, no. 1.

     

     

     

     

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 21 September 2017
  • Revise Date: 14 April 2018
  • Accept Date: 27 May 2019

Share

How to cite

Statistics