Don Marquis's 'Why Abortion Is Immoral'

Philosopher Don Marquis’ article “Why Abortion is Immoral” articulates the future-of-value principle, which is an intriguing view on the wrongfulness of killing. This ethical principle suggests that what makes killing wrong is not the harm or pain it causes to the victim and the victim’s relations, but rather one of “the greatest possible losses on the victim” (Marquis, p. 4), which is the loss of the potential future experiences that the victim would have had (Marquis, p. 4). Therefore, the future-of-value principle entails that killing is wrong as it “deprives one of the greatest losses one can suffer” (Marquis, p. 4), which are all the “experiences, activities, projects, and enjoyments” that would have made up their future and are what make life valuable and worth living (Marquis, p. 4). In this paper, I will apply and critique the

1). Marquis believes that the future-of-value principle applies to fetuses because they have the potential to develop into fully conscious human beings with their own experiences and accomplishments (Marquis, p. 5). Marquis further emphasizes that abortion is “presumptively very seriously wrong” (Marquis, p. 8), however, the killing can be justified in compelling reasons, such as when the mother’s life is at stake due to being pregnant (Tiffany, Lecture, w. 8). Therefore, his argument stands that it is prima facie morally wrong to deprive a being of a future-of-value, and since aborting a fetus deprives a being of a future-of-value; abortion is prima facie morally wrong (Tiffany, Lecture, w. 8). Many people may not have the same view as Marquis when this principle is applied to fetuses; I will argue that Marquis’ future-of-value principle assumes that the value of a fetus is derived only from its potential future and fails to sufficiently consider the autonomy and bodily rights of the pregnant