Abortion Is Immoral Analysis

One major point of controversy within the United States presently concerns whether or not a woman has the right to abort her fetus if need be. The debate consists of two sides: the “pro-choice” movement (which claims that a woman has ultimate autonomy over her own body) and the “pro-life” movement (which believes that abortion is unethical and akin to homicide). As a liberal who firmly stands behind the “pro-choice” agenda, I am often guilty of concluding that all anti-abortionists are all overzealous fundamentalist Christians who blatantly disregard the notion of freedom of choice to support “irrational religious dogma” (223). However, in the essay “Why Abortion is Immoral,” philosopher Don Marquis attempts to remove this negative stigma

Since unborn fetuses are also the possessors of worthy futures, “it follows that abortion is prima facie seriously morally wrong” (229). In support of his thesis, he makes reference to two points. The first of these considerations states that the “deprivation of a future” theory clearly spells out why “we regard killing as one of the worst of crimes” (227). When someone is, for example, robbed or raped (though both awful occurences in their own right), they still have a valuable future to which they look towards as a means as inspiration and support. When someone dies, their future is gone, lost to the world of unrealized potential and we, as humans, often spend a great deal of time abhorring the notion of “what could have been.” The second of these considerations states that the theory is in line with the thought process of the terminally ill who “believe that the loss of a future to them that they would otherwise have experienced is what makes their premature death a very bad thing” (227). As another means of corroboration, Marquis states additional points which he believes to be the “implications” of his theory which are worthy of praise: 1) the supposition challenges the notion that only human life “has great