ipl-logo

Peikoff On Abortion

1273 Words6 Pages

The controversy behind the conversation of abortion has spanned a great multitude of years. Some arguments are based out of the sake of personal outlooks, some out of science discussions, but some are rooted in the philosophical questions and stands that the human race takes in this. The late Pope John Paul II wrote on this Evangelium Vitae in 1995, which was responded to by Leonard Peikoff in his article “Abortion Rights Are Pro-Life” in the Huffington Post in 2013. Peikoff challenges with his own philosophical outlook the Pope’s conclusion on abortion that he has arrived at using two premises, using the argument that religious dogma cannot be used as evidence of life. Pope John Paul II’s approach to the conversation is to, rather than with …show more content…

By extension, he does believe in the human soul in embryos as well. John Paul II does, however, note his view to be based in fideism. John writes, “Even if the presence of a spiritual soul cannot be ascertained by empirical data, the results themselves of scientific research on the human embryo…” (Paul II, 1995, page 4) and he also quotes Tertullian: “… it makes little difference whether one kills a soul already born or puts it to death at birth…” (page 4) The Pope can maintain this view solely because more than half of his arguments are based on beliefs, rather than scientifically proven evidence. This author finds no fault in this aspect of his arguments thus, as he is allowed to believe what he may believe, when science cannot back either side of the sole soul …show more content…

Right from the beginning of Peikoff’s article, Peikoff writes, “Abortion rights advocates should not cede the terms ‘pro-life’ and ‘right to life’ to the anti-abortionists… Does she have the right to choose murder? That’s what abortion would be, if the fetus were a person.” (Peikoff, 2013) He does not find fault in the Pope’s decision to back the sixth commandment, rather, with the argument that a fetus is an innocent living being. Peikoff again strikes at the Evangelium Vitae’s points with the idea that during the first trimester, the embryo is not yet human, but is simply a lump of cells. He declares, “… only the mystical notions of religious dogma treat this clump of cells as constituting a person.” (Peikoff,

Show More
Related
1431 Words | 6 Pages

By failing to define the terms ‘fetus’ and ‘standard fetus’, he leaves open for interpretation not only the moral significance of the terms, but also their strength in relation to his argument. Marquis assumes that the fetus has a future that is just as valuable as that of an adult yet fails to grant the fetus the same moral status as an adult. This lack of consistency along with the falsity of his claims weakens his argument and leaves a large piece of the abortion question unanswered. Because many of his premises are false, I altered them to be correct which in turn resulted in an illogical sequence of evidence for Marquis’ original conclusion; rendering his argument invalid. After altering the conclusion to follow the revised premises, it only gave a suitable claim for some abortions, rather than the overwhelming majority of abortions.

Read More
745 Words | 3 Pages

Darrow insists that, if existing, the soul, which he explains is often thought of as synonymous with identity, consciousness or memory, would have to appear sometime during a person 's conception. Conception begins with one cell which, when fertilized by another cell, will divide and multiply and eventually lead to a person 's birth. (42) We cannot reasonably say, claims Darrow, that the original cell has a soul. This

Read More
273 Words | 2 Pages

Patrick Lee and Robert George assert that abortion is objectively immoral. One of Lee and George’s main reason for coming to this conclusion is that human embryos are living human beings. This essentially validates that abortion is indeed the process of killing a human. Another main point said by the two is a rebuttal to a common argument used in favor of abortion, which states that a potential mother has full parental responsibilities only if she has voluntarily assumed them. The rebuttal to this was that the potential mother does indeed have special responsibilities to raise the child.

Read More
802 Words | 4 Pages

In “A Defense of Abortion” by Judith Jarvis Thomson, she argues for the claim that even if a fetus is a person from conception (and has a full right to life), a pregnant woman still has the right to have an abortion even if she is characterized as self-centered. There is a case where she should not choose to have an abortion because it is seen as morally wrong (435). The opposition to abortion relies on the idea that a fetus is a human being from the moment they are conceived, instead of explaining how that makes abortion wrong. The opposition to abortion would argue that everyone has a right to life, including a fetus, and the mother does have a right to her body, but a person’s right to life is more important, so the fetus should not be killed

Read More
247 Words | 1 Pages

His outlook on the matter is, if we as humans believe that killing another human being (i.e., adult, child) is wrong, but we do not understand why, then why is it acceptable to kill a fetus when we do not know if it is considered a living being (Jones & Kooistra, 2011). Judith Jarvis Thomson, another

Read More
1070 Words | 5 Pages

In “A Defense of Abortion,” Judith Thomson argues with a unique approach regarding the topic of abortion. For the purpose of the argument, Thomas agrees to go against her belief and constructs an argument based on the idea that the fetus is a person at conception. She then formulates her arguments concerning that the right to life is not an absolute right. There are certain situations where abortion is morally permissible. She believes that the fetus’s right to life does not outweigh the right for the woman to control what happens to her own body.

Read More
2021 Words | 9 Pages

Joseph Fletcher’s list of human characteristics goes as follows, “self awareness, a sense of time, self control, capability of relating to others, the ability to communicate, a concern for others, control over existence, and a balance of rationality and feeling.” The fact that many people lack some of the qualities associated with being ‘human’ must mean that we are not ‘human’ in the fullest sense of the word. This claim causes the reader to sympathize with the fetus on the basis that they themselves may not be considered ‘human’ in all senses of the word. The reader is now distracted form the main argument of abortion and rights and focused on the definition of being ‘human’.

Read More
338 Words | 2 Pages

However, on the other hand, Bonnie Steinbock in her article “Most Abortions Are Morally Legitimate”, she says that abortions and morally acceptable because fetuses are not living beings, hence they are unconscious and don’t have any moral status because they are unaware about their interests and doesn’t feel pain or anything. She says fetuses does not have any human being rights and it depends on the mother what she wants for her body and she has all the rights to decide whether she wants to be pregnant or not because she is a living being.

Read More
794 Words | 4 Pages

Mary Anne Warren establishes a belief that a fetus’s right to live is overruled by an expecting mother’s right to an abortion because it is not a technically a true person until it is born. Warren supports her argument by saying that a nearly full-developed fetus is no more significant than a small embryo because “…it is not fully conscious… it cannot reason or communicate message… and has no self-awareness” (Warren, page 499). In contrast, our text states that “…some fetuses develop the capacity to survive outside the womb…” after nearly being two-thirds fully developed; this means that a fetus is ultimately capable of communication and awareness through it’s movements (Munson and Lague, page 469).

Read More
502 Words | 3 Pages

Although many liberals, such as Judith Jarvis Thomson, in “A Defense of Abortion” believe that fetus become humans, they believe there is a cut off line. Jones(2002), believes that because “By the tenth week(mark), for example, it already has a face, arms, and legs, fingers and toes; it has internal organs, and brain activity is detectable”(Pg.39), that ten weeks into pregnancy is cut off line. That the fetus before ten weeks is just a clump of cells without soul or life. However, according to Jane English(1975), in “Abortion and the Concept of a Person”, she states that “Animals, for example, are not persons,yet to kill or torture them for no reason at all is wrong. ”(Pg.233)

Read More
1044 Words | 5 Pages

However they believe that everyone deserves equal freedom including the embryo because they are still a growing human being, therefore they deserve the right to life as much as the rest of the human race does. Catholics believe that God will bless you with the gift of a child in the right time and you should not take that for granted by terminating the baby. Catholics have always believed that abortion is the wrong thing to do and that a child is a blessing. However Pope Francis has recently gave other priests and bishops the power to forgive abortions as he wants to build a more forgiving and inclusive roman catholic church. He says “I resate as firmly as I can that abortion is a grave sin, since it puts an end to an innocent life" but "there is no sin that God's mercy cannot reach and wipe away when it finds a repentant heart seeking to be reconciled with God”.

Read More
845 Words | 4 Pages

Dorothy E. McBride (2008) explains that in the eighteenth century, when the Constitution was outlined and established, there was a common conviction that it was probable for the developing embryo to have a soul as early as during the second trimester of the pregnancy. This trimester, also called quickening, was thought of as a time where something significant changed in the pregnancy. The fetus was now viewed upon as independent life and was no longer simply a clump of cells; it was a baby. As a result it soon became justifiable to punish whoever aborted a quick fetus, as it was the equivalent of killing a baby. Prevailing U.S. law is, in this context, considerably comparable to the abortion law that was created more than 300 years ago — both

Read More
632 Words | 3 Pages

The debate whether abortion is morally permissible or not permissible is commonly discussed between the considerations of the status of a fetus and ones virtue theory. A widely recognized theory of pro-choice advocates can be thought to be that their ethical view is that fetus’s merely are not humans because they lack the right to life since they believe a fetus does not obtain any sort of mental functions or capability of feelings. Although this may be true in some cases it is not in all so explaining the wrongness of killing, between the common debates whether a fetus does or does not obtain human hood, should be illustrated in a way of a virtuous theory. The wrongness of killing is explained by what the person or fetus is deprived of, such as their right to life; not by means of a heart beat or function of one’s body, but by the fact that it takes their ability of potentially growing into a person to have the same human characteristics as we do.

Read More
1259 Words | 6 Pages

Mary Anne Warren In her seminal article “On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion,” argues that because neither the embryo nor fetus nor infants possesses the cognitive traits of personhood, they are akin in moral value to a fish and have no more moral rights than a newborn guppy. 2. Judith Jarvis Thomson In her influential article “A Defense of Abortion,” Judith Jarvis Thomson argues that, even if we fully grant fetuses the status of persons, akin to that of any other person, this alone does not necessitate the moral impermissibility of abortion.

Read More
683 Words | 3 Pages

In the Michael Moore's movie Capitalism: A Love Story, there is great use of pathos. An example of pathos would be, In the film the author highlights the idea that the concept of the so-called American dream embodied in the limitless devotion to capitalism and how it was responsible for the economic decline. Considerable deterioration of life conditions of average Americans and global crisis, Michael Moore asserts that capitalism presented by deceitful politicians. As the ideal social order that allows everyone to realize one’s desires and potential turned out to be an powerful weapon. That weapon made possible a situation when less of 1% of the American population accommodates its financial resources and in this way they rob others and earn money on their grieves.

Read More

More about Peikoff On Abortion

Open Document