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(BU) CAS PH 150 - Introduction to Ethics - Midterm Exam 1 Guide 2024

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(BU) CAS PH 150 - Introduction to Ethics - Midterm Exam 1 Guide 2024(BU) CAS PH 150 - Introduction to Ethics - Midterm Exam 1 Guide 2024(BU) CAS PH 150 - Introduction to Ethics - Midterm Exam 1 Guide 2024

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CAS PH 150

Introduction to Ethics

Midterm Exam

2024

Don Marquis: “Why Abortion is Immoral”

 Thesis: the vast majority of abortions are immoral/wrong
 Argument
o It is wrong to kill “us”
 Us: adult, fully rational, conscious, innocent human beings
o What makes killing adult humans wrong is that it takes away a valuable future (“future
like ours”)
 False Reasons Murder is Wrong
 Murder causes pain
o Painless killing exists (i.e. murdered in your sleep), yet we still
consider it to be wrong
 Murder causes pain to the people who lose the victim
o People can be killed that do not have anyone else in their lives
(ex: hermits), but we would still say killing them is wrong
 Correct reason: “future like ours”
 Future like ours: opportunity to have experiences, successes, failures,
love, projects, contributions, etc.
o Marquis says this is why we find the murder of children
especially wrong, since their futures are cut even shorter than
adults
o A fetus has a future like ours
o Abortion takes away that future
o Therefore, abortion is wrong
 Potential Objections
o Contraception is wrong because you are preventing a future life
 Marquis says contraception isn’t wrong because you aren’t preventing a “future
like ours”
 A sperm/egg on their own aren’t a being with any kind of future
 There are millions of sperm, so what individual future are you

, protecting?
 Exceptions for Marquis
o If the mother’s life is at stake
 You can have an abortion if you would take away the life of another adult
human in a similar circumstance
 Ex: self-defense

Mary Ann Warren: On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion

 Thesis: abortion is not morally wrong
 Two senses of the word “human”
o Genetic/biological

,  Have human DNA, homo sapiens
 Includes adults, comas, infants, fetuses, petri dishes with human tissues, cancer
cells
o Moral
 Personhood
 Five Traits of Personhood
o Conscious and sentient
o Reasoning
 developed capacity to solve new and complex problems
o self-motivated activity
 self-directed choices and goals
o capacity to communicate on an indefinite number of topics
o presence of self-concepts and self-awareness
 she claims that a person needs at least two of these traits to be a
person, and a fetus doesn’t even have one, so they aren’t persons
 Potential Objections
o This argument of personhood makes infanticide acceptable
 Wareen denies this, and says infants have indirect moral status
 Like great works of art, they should be preserved because it would
cause persons with direct moral status great pain
o Fetuses have indirect moral status in some person’s eyes
 Warren says that your right to control your own body is greater than any
indirect status anyone may place on a fetus
 Infanticide does not create the same level of rights conflict because once
outside the womb, it is technically not solely dependent on the mother alone

Judith Jarrod Thomson: In Defense of Abortion

 Thesis: abortion is permissible a majority of the time
o Strategy: grants, for the sake of the agreement, that the fetus is a person, but that
abortion is still okay
 Famous Violinist Example
o You wake up attached to a famous violinist
o The violinist did not seek you out and choose to attach to you. You were kidnapped by
the Society of Music Lovers
o You can only keep the violinist alive if you stay attached to them in order to filter their
blood with your kidneys for nine months
o If you grant that if you choose to unplug, you shouldn’t receive a sanction (ie jail), you
grant that “unplugging” a fetus is not morally impermissible
 Even though the fetus and the violinist have a right to life, that right is
outweighed by your right to choose

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(BU) CAS PH 150 - Introduction to Ethics - Midterm Exam 1 Guide 2024

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