Marquis Abortion Analysis

What is Marquis’s stance on the abortion issue?

Marquis believes that abortion is immoral. He compares abortion to the killing of an adult human. Killing an adult human is wrong because of its effect on the victim. The victim is denied future “experiences, activities, projects, and enjoyments (Marquis, D., 1989).” Furthermore, since depriving an adult human of a valuable future is what makes killing wrong, then aborting a fetus deprives it of a valuable future. Therefore, killing a fetus is wrong.

Many have objected that on Marquis’s grounds, it would be wrong to kill a sperm cell or an egg, for they too have a human future. How might Marquis respond?

Many have objected Marquis argument that abortion is immoral because it deprives fetus

Most other arguments focus on personhood, but the difficulty with those arguments are the struggle to determine specifically when a fetus becomes a person. Marquis position is far more simplistic and direct. A fetus may not be aborted if it has a valuable future. And to take that future away would be morally wrong. However, one plausible flaw to Marquis position is to argue that to have a valuable future, one must take interest in their future. A fetus lacks this ability, so they do not have a valuable future. Hence, it is morally permissible to kill them. Nevertheless, Marquis could strengthen his argument by comparing a fetus to an adult on life support. An adult human on life support has no interest in their future either, but to consider killing them is morally wrong. So to is to consider killing a fetus.

Marquis uses the words “prima facie” morally wrong several times throughout his writing. An action that is “prima facie” wrong is not always wrong; it is accepted as correct until proven otherwise. Its wrongness can be overridden by other factors. For example, lying is “prima facie” wrong, but its morally permissible to lie to save someone’s life. The same can be said about