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Jonathan Glover Abortion

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The controversy of the ethics of abortion is more complex than it seems, as pro-life supporters want the freedom of the fetus and the pro-choice supporters freedom of women. In the book review titled “Matters of Life and Death”, Jonathan Glover uses the analysis of three books to discuss the debate of abortion. Glover takes a more pro-choice stance in the matter, concluding that a fetus has the right to life only when he or she develops a minimal level of self-consciousness; in the process, he promotes the freedom of women to make their own decisions. Freedom is seen as an essential part in society, especially to Americans. Abortion arises so much debate due to social issues ranging from feminism to the potential parenthood of an infant. …show more content…

After establishing the difficulty of creating boundaries regarding the status of a fetus, Glover argues that one must be self-conscious in order to be considered a person. With this in mind, infants will not be considered human beings until the age of two or three years of age. It appears to be a horrifying thought that infanticide can be justified when denying the right to life. Only during rare cases where the infant has abnormalities can infanticide be defended (2, Glover, CC 2015 p. 0162). Glover believes that a person has a right to life only when one becomes self-aware, but infanticide can never happen due to moral judgement and the emotions that develop. Infanticide has a dehumanizing effect in people; moral feelings develop between the parent and infant. Once the infant is out of the womb, he or she cannot be morally considered as disposable material (3, Glover, CC 2015 p. 0164). However, with the definition of personhood explained by Glover, no person actually dies in an act of abortion. Glover concludes that the act of forcing women to endure pregnancy and restricting women of their freedom to choose not only involves a degree of misery, but can be seen as morally evil (4, Glover, CC 2015 p.

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