Abortion and Infanticide

Abortion and Infanticide

Over a decade has passed since Roe v. Wade, yet the abortion controversy has not subsided. In many respects, it has intensified. The moral issue is as unresolved as ever, while the political lines are even more sharply drawn. The controversy has so many ramifications-medical, legal, social, political, and philosophical-that it is difficult to get it clearly in view. We should not be surprised t...

Self - ownership , abortion and infanticide

Doctors have been placed in an anomalouis position by abortion laws which sanction the termination of a fetus while in a woman's womb, yet call it murder when a physician attempts to end the life of a fetus which has somehow survived such a procedure. This predicament, the doctors' dilemma, can be resolved by adopting a strategy which posits the right to ownership of one's own body for human be...

MICHAEL TOOLEY Abortion and Infanticide '

This essay deals with the question of the morality of abortion and infanticide. The fundamental ethical objection traditionally advanced against these practices rests on the contention that human fetuses and infants have a right to life. It is this claim which will be the focus of attention here. The basic issue to be discussed, then, is what properties a thing must possess in order to have a s...

Infanticide

I if When I visited the hospital I knew that the birth had taken place about a week before, so I went prepared to see an almost completely recovered young mother, to admire the baby and chat hilariously about the shocks and indignities of the labour ward. It was normal visiting hours so it did not occur to me to ask a nurse if I could see her. Knowing the number of her room, I went straight up ...

Infanticide and Moral Consistency