Why abortion is immoral

This essay, written by Don Marquis, attempts to undermine general beliefs that anti-abortionist views are simply based on irrational religious or other beliefs. The essay ignores certain special cases of abortion; and mainly purports its focus onto the general arguments against anti-abortionist views by pro-choice holders. Marquis begins by outlining a common argument of anti-abortionists, in which a fetus is seen as being human enough by possessing a genetic code, and is thus necessary and sufficient for dictating that being as a human. This leads to a common conclusion that if a fetus is a human, it must follow to be understood as it being wrong to kill a human. Secondly, he outlines the argument of a pro-choice advocate; which asserts that fetuses are not rational or social beings, therefore it is not a wrongful killing.

From this point, Marquis attempts to outline common objections to anti-abortionism, and give replies in which may better support his view, by characterizing and defining situations which are commonly brought up in such arguments. Firstly, an anti-abortionist will hold that it is “prima facie seriously wrong to end the life of a baby”, which is a generally obvious position. A pro-choicer would typically respond that it is only seriously wrong to take the life of another member of the human society, which refers to active members and social beings in a community. This leads to a point where it is commonly seen that anti-abortionists hold too narrow of a principle, while pro-choice views are too broad. Thus, it stands that both parties must further elaborate to support their claims. Furthermore, an anti-abortionist will claim, “it is prima facie seriously wrong to end the life of a human being”. However, this do...

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...ice. While I value my experience, as I feel should be commonly held by others and the way in which we interact (killing adults is wrong), I don’t see a strong enough basis for that view to be held for a fetus. As Marquis summarized, the killing of a fetus is essentially arbitrarily choosing a human cell. Although fetuses in first trimester aren’t single celled organisms, they serve no cognitive function or purposes to themselves, so there are no features in which it is being deprived of if it is terminated. The potential life of a fetus is the same as saying there is a potential for any such biological thing, it is simply a scenario, which could happen if given the opportunity. But if an adult human possesses the ability to have goals and desires, they then should be allowed to make the discretion for their best interest to whether an abortion is permissible or not.