Can one be a Cartesian dualist and consistently hold that abortion is immoral? It seems to me that such a position, though tenable, makes arguing against abortion significantly harder. This is because according to the Cartesian dualist, I am not a body, but an immaterial soul that has a body. My body is something [...]
Tags: Abortion, applied ethics, dualism
(HT: Midas Vuik). Sharon Elizabeth Berry, a Havard graduate student in philosophy, has written a short essay which argues that it would in fact be immoral to withhold life-support from the violinist in Judith Jarvis Thomson’s famous paper. The violinist thought experiment, for those who are unaware, is considered to be one of the key [...]
Tags: Abortion, Pro-choice, pro-life, thomson, violinist
It turns out the average advocate for abortion choice holds beliefs which implicitly make then pro-life, even though they might not recognize it. The following argument is easy to articulate to others in a conversational setting. All you need to do is ask questions. The advantage of this argument is that it avoids the extended [...]
Tags: Abortion, Identity, personhood
Suppose I grant the pro-choice argument that the fetus is a parasite (There are good reasons for believing this to be mistaken, but they will not be covered here). Because parasites are generally detrimental to the host organism, it would follow that pregnancy is harmful to the health of the mother. Assuming further that one should [...]
Tags: Abortion, Parasite, Pro-choice
Alexander Pruss has a novel argument against abortion here (And a more technical version here) that is based on “simple considerations of the metaphysics of identity.” Let me briefly summarize and articulate a shortened and modified version of it. The argument is a simple one that carries with it a lot of intuitive warrant. Ask [...]
