In this paper, I will investigate the right to life for embryo based on Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan’s article “Abortion: Is it Possible to be both “Pro-life” and “Pro-Choice”?” My conclusion is an embryo is a potential person thus it has the right to life. Sagan and Druyan argue that embryo does not have human characteristics; therefore it is acceptable to abort it. I will show that embryo is at least a potential person, so it has the right to life.
First, I want to convince embryo may not be a person. If “person” here, means biologically a member of human beings, then after 14 days when primitive streak or after 16 days when gastrulation (Damschen, Gómez-Lobo and Schönecker), an embryo is certainly a person, because at this point, the process of individualization is irreversible. At this time, the embryo can be determined as an individual human being. From this I believe that an embryo is a person in biological meaning after 14 or 16 days. However, the definition of “person” given by Boethius is “naturæ rationalis individua substantia” (Boethius 74). What it means is that if someone who does not have rational yet or permanently loses it, it is uncertain that is the one a person. Form Boethius’s view, I argue that embryo may not be a person. It may be a potential person. On the other hand, if “person” means a person who has personhood, the problem is another matter. Mary Anne Warren suggests the concept of personhood (Warren):
1) Consciousness (of objects and events external and/or internal to the being), and in particular the capacity to feel pain;
2) Reasoning (the developed capacity to solve new and relatively complex problems);
3) Self-motivated activity (activity which is relatively independent of either genetic or direct exte...
... middle of paper ...
...ng, this does not exclude essential changes in some individuals, make it from something becomes something else, perhaps, more appropriate and less likely to cause misunderstanding of expression should be “has the potential to develop into a person.”
In conclusion, I have argued that an embryo has the potential to develop into a person. Hence an embryo is a potential person, but not a person yet. Therefore, an embryo has the right to life.
Works Cited
Boethius. Liber Contra Eutychen et Nestorium. Turnhout: Brepols, 2010.
Buckle, Stephen. "Arguing from potential." Bioethics 7 1988: 227-253.
Damschen, Gregor, Alfonso Gómez-Lobo and Dieter Schönecker. "Sixteen Days? A Reply to B. Smith and B. Brogaard on the Beginning of Human Individuals." Journal of Medicine & Philosophy April 2006: 165-175.
Warren, Mary Anne. On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion. 22 03 2004.
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“How far along in a pregnancy is it until the unborn child is considered human? At what point does it receive basic rights?” These propositions have been the topic of one the most controversial discussions of the century. Based on the research I have completed on this topic, it has been made indisputable to me that life begins at the moment of conception.
Abortion is defined as a procedure that is done to remove an embryo or fetus from the uterus of its mother in order to prevent its birth (Roth, 2005). Abortion is categorized as a bioethical issue because it relates to the morals of biomedical advances, policies and research. Abortion is a difficult subject that can involve personal morals and beliefs, legality and religious values. The issue is often viewed from either the side of pro-life, which places emphasis on the fetus and its right to life or pro-choice, which emphasizes the rights of the mother to decide the appropriate action (Roth, 2005). This brings the ethical question of should the government have the right to outlaw abortion into debate. The two viewpoints of pro-life and pro-choice explore the two main moral issues concerning abortion (Roth, 2005).
The ethics of abortion is a topic that establishes arguments that attempt to argue if abortion is morally justified or not. Philosopher Judith Jarvis Thomson wrote a pro- choice piece called “A Defense of Abortion.” In this paper, she presents various arguments that attempt to defend abortion by relating it to the woman carrying the fetus and her right in controlling her body. On the other side of the spectrum, philosopher Don Marquis wrote a pro- life paper called “Why Abortion Is Immoral.” Ultimately, Marquis argues that abortion is immoral with rare exceptions because it is resulting in the deprivation of the fetus’s valuable future. He supports his paper by creating the future-like-ours argument that compares the future of a fetus to the