Term
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Definition
| The intentional termination of fetal life. |
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Term
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Definition
1. Abortion may not be denied prior to fetal viability (usually at 20 weeks, the fetus is able to survive on its own).
2. After viability it is up to the state whether or not abortion is permissible. |
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Term
| In abortion, there is a serious argument between waht should be done legally vs. what should be done morally. Compare consequentialist vs. rights-based arguments |
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Definition
Consequentialist:
Pro abortion: Mother's quality of life affected, emotional stability may be affected, child's quality of life, overstretching social or natural resources
Con abortion: Child's potential contributions to society, emotional burden on mother and family, loss of child's potential happiness
Rights-based:
P1. Abortion kills innocent persons.
P2. Intentional killing violates our rights to life.
P3. Abortion violates the right to life of an innocent person.
P4. Violating rights is morally wrong.
C: Abortion is morally wrong.
Objection to P1: Fetuses are not real people. |
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Term
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Definition
| Something we feel moral entitlement to do (or not do). Rights dominate and guide what is permissible and not permissible in society. |
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Term
| What are grounds for personhood? |
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Definition
Birth: Separation from mother, you are legally considered a person.
Viability: Able to exist separate from mother (can live outside uterus)
Brain activity: there is sentience, consciousness
Conception: Life, humanity, potential for a valuable future
Conception- commits to a slippery slope argument:
-A newborn is a person and the difference between a fetus and a person cannot provide reason for thinking that one is a person and the other is not. This then commits to the fact that a zygote is a person entitled to moral rights. Should we then give zygotes rights in modern society? |
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Term
| Argument that the right to life is acquired at conception (D. Marquis) |
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Definition
P1. Killing deprives people of future good experiences.
P2. From conception the fetus is capable of future experienes.
C. Killing a fetus is wrong.
Objection to P1: Contraception deprives individuals of future good experiences but is not morally wrong.
Objection to P2: The fetus is just a clump of cells and is incapable of future experiences. Also, even if the fetus does have a right to life, it should not be permitted when there is a conflict with the mother's life (right to life, self-defense and autonomy over own body).
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Term
| Argument against priority of a fetus' right to life (Judith Jarvis Thomson) |
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Definition
P1. No one can use another's body without consent.
P2. A fetus does not have right to life at expense of another's control of body without consent.
C. Fetus does not have right to life at expense of mother's control of body.
Objection to P1: We ought to do morally whatever we can to save others' life if costs to ourselves isn't too great.
->Just because we OUGHT to do something doesn't mean "He has a right to..." |
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Term
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Definition
| Thought experiments are cases that help us look at relevant variables and help us screen off irrelevant considerations so we can form clear judgments about the relationships between the variables. |
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Term
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Definition
Discrimination can be classified by 1. differences on which it is based 2. purposes for which it is applied
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Term
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Definition
| Action undertaken to increase proportion of under represented group of people from disadvantaged group in competitive positions. |
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