Mary Anne Warren: The Morality Of Abortion

Morality of Abortion

Mary Anne Warren argues that abortion is morally permissible because a fetus is not a person and so does not receive the rights a person would normally receive. She argues this by saying that a fetus is not a person because it does not meet the criteria of personhood and while it may have the potential to meet the criteria, that potential does not mean it has rights. In her conclusion she states that a fetus is not a person and therefore does not have the right to life and that the potentiality for a fetus to become a person and with rights does not outweigh the fact that women already have these rights. I will also argue that abortion is morally permissible based on Warren’s argument because it is logical that if a fetus cannot be considered a person

Warren then goes on to say that one does not need all of these characteristics to be considered a person because some people may have difficulties fulfilling one of the requirements. There are many people who do not have all six of these characteristics but are still considered persons. Warren argues that the fewer the characteristics something has, the less likely it is to be considered a person, and if that something has none of these characteristics then it certainly cannot be considered a person. However, Warren also argues that we have to take into consideration how similar a fetus looks to a person. Warren says that it is possible that the more the fetus develops and starts to looks like a person the more of the six characteristics it gets, but these characteristics are still not as strongly present as they might be in a young infant. Given that as a fetus develops it gains more of the six characteristics Warren argues that late-term abortions should be taken more seriously than early abortions. Lastly, when Warren speaks of the potential for a fetus to become a person she states that the right a potential person has to life is cannot be more important than a