Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice

COVER......Page 1
HALF-TITLE......Page 3
DEDICATION......Page 4
TITLE......Page 5
COPYRIGHT......Page 6
CONTENTS......Page 7
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 9
INTRODUCTION Who and What Are We and Can We Know It?......Page 13
PART I: Moral Reasoning, Law, and Politics......Page 19
1 Abortion and Moral Argument......Page 21
Moral Relativism and Moral Discourse......Page 22
Arguments for Moral Relativism......Page 23
Argument from Cultural and Individual Differences......Page 24
Argument from Tolerance......Page 29
Reasoning about Moral Matters......Page 32
Conclusion......Page 35
What the Court Actually Concluded in Roe......Page 36
The Court's Reasoning in Roe: How It Found a Right to Abortion......Page 39
Were Anti-Abortion Laws Meant to Protect the Unborn?......Page 41
Is the Unborn a Person under the Fourteenth Amendment?......Page 44
After Roe......Page 49
3 Abortion, Liberalism, and State Neutrality......Page 60
Simmons and the Religious Liberty Argument......Page 61
Abortion and Viability......Page 62
Abortion and Metaphysics......Page 65
Thomson's Argument......Page 74
Critique of Thomson’s Argument......Page 75
Conclusion......Page 80
PART II: Assessing the Case for Abortion Choice and Against Human Inclusiveness......Page 81
A Human Being Begins at Conception......Page 83
The Facts of Fetal Development......Page 84
Objections......Page 91
Abortion Methods......Page 101
Most Frequently Used Methods......Page 102
Lesser Used Methods......Page 104
Conclusion: Tying It All Together......Page 110
Arguments from Pity......Page 111
Argument from the Dangers of Illegal Abortions......Page 112
Argument from Economic Inequity......Page 113
Argument from Population, Poverty, and Financial Burden......Page 114
Argument from the Unwanted Child and Child Abuse......Page 116
Argument from the Deformed and Handicapped Child......Page 118
Argument from Interference in Career......Page 122
Argument from Rape and Incest......Page 123
Argument from Pity for the Women Prosecuted, Convicted, and / or Sentenced for Murder if Abortion Is Made Illegal......Page 126
The Social Necessity of Abortion for Women's Equality......Page 129
Abortion Rights, Arguments from Pity, and the Supreme Court......Page 131
Argument from Religious Pluralism......Page 133
Argument from Imposing Morality......Page 136
Argument against a Public Policy When There Is Deep Disagreement......Page 137
Argument from the Impossibility of Legally Stopping Abortion......Page 138
Argument from "Compulsory"  Pregnancy......Page 140
Argument from Tolerance for the Woman's Privacy......Page 141
Ad Hominem Arguments......Page 142
Why Don't Pro-Lifers Adopt the Babies They Don't Want Aborted?......Page 143
Aren’t Pro-Lifers Inconsistent if They Support Capital Punishment?......Page 144
Men Don’t Get Pregnant......Page 145
Conclusion......Page 146
6 The Nature of Humanness and Whether the Unborn Is a Moral Subject......Page 148
The Substance View of Persons......Page 150
AEA Cannot Account for Some Apparently Clear Cases of  IVHB......Page 152
Critique of Responses......Page 154
Stretton’s Argument......Page 158
The Desire-Interest Arguments......Page 161
Agnostic Approach to Justify Abortion Choice......Page 167
Human Appearance......Page 170
Birth......Page 171
Brain Waves......Page 172
The SLED Test......Page 177
Other Objections to the View That a Human Person Is a Substance That Comes to Be at Conception......Page 178
Does Not the Pro-Life View Entail ‘Speciesism’?......Page 179
Wouldn’t Your Position Mean That Certain Abortifacients, Used Exclusively for Birth Control, Would Have to Be Made Illegal?......Page 180
Isn't an Unborn Human, at Least in Its Earliest Stages of Development, Like an Acorn That Is Only a Potential Oak Tree?......Page 181
Isn’t the Unborn, at Least in Its Earliest Stages of Development, Just a Blueprint, or “Information Code,” of a Human Being?......Page 182
Doesn’t a “Life of the Mother” Exception Involve a Contradiction?......Page 183
Is a Zygote Equal to a Mature Adult Woman?......Page 184
If the Unborn Were Considered Legal Persons, Would Not This Result in Chaos in Our Legal and Social Structure, Such as Census......Page 186
The Fire in the IVF Clinic Scenario......Page 187
If the Unborn Is Considered a Moral Subject under the Law, Would It Not Follow That Pregnant Women Would Be Prohibited......Page 188
If the Unborn Is Considered a Person under the Law, Would Not All Miscarriages Be Suspect and Would Not Women Have to Prove......Page 189
Thomson's Argument......Page 190
A. Metaphysical Problems......Page 193
Ethical Problems......Page 199
Conclusion......Page 217
Part III: Extending and Concluding the Argument......Page 219
8 Cloning, Bioethics, and Reproductive Liberty......Page 221
What Is Cloning?......Page 222
Embryo Cloning......Page 223
Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer ( SCNT ) Cloning......Page 224
The Cloning Controversy : Legal and Political Reactions......Page 225
Reproductive Reasons......Page 228
Nonreproductive Reasons......Page 229
Objections against Cloning......Page 230
Is There a Constitutional Right to Clone?......Page 236
Conclusion......Page 242
9 Conclusion: A Case for Human Inclusiveness......Page 244
NOTES......Page 249
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 305
INDEX......Page 309