Abortion: A Permissible Choice

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the issues of abortion and its moral and legal obligation and ramifications. It further assesses the issue of abortion based on certain factors ranging from consciousness of the fetus to the obligation of sustaining human life.

From the Paper:

"Many conservatives oppose abortion based on three premises: 1) Killing an innocent human being is wrong 2) Fetuses are innocent human beings 3) It is therefore wrong to kill a human fetus. By examining what 'human being' entails, it is clear that the definition comprises of two notions: "being a member of the species Homo sapiens, and being a person" (Singer 150). Homo sapiens are beings that have chromosomes that are the same as our own species. Persons on the other hand are a "rational and self conscious being" (87). The latter are those who are capable of acknowledging their own existence, while the former can be anything from a zygote to a one month old infant. Singer points out that those who believe fetuses are Homo sapiens and oppose abortion can be accused of 'speciesism'; which is a preference over another being based on species."

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