Abortion Objection Essay
Abortion Objection Essay
In the midst of many different positions on abortion encompassing the world today Don Marquis in his paper “Why Abortion Is Immoral,” hits sound reasons why he believes that abortion is morally wrong. He starts with an assumption that he believes that everyone will in fact agree with, stating that it is morally wrong to kill us. Marquis explains that the reason that murder is wrong is not because of the effect that will placed on the family and friends of the person that is killed, but because the person will be deprived of a viable future. They are then deprived of the experiences that life has to offer, activities and the enjoyments that life could have brought them. Under the same circumstances it would be morally wrong to kill a child because they are identically capable of having a fulfilling future, and killing them would deprive them of any such activities. Murder is also said to be wrong if the person is biologically human. However, Marquis does not disagree with active euthanasia because any person who will be subjected to a life of unbearable pain will not be losing anything if in fact they are killed. So if killing them would help them to avoid further suffering and pain, and they have nothing to live for in life, then euthanasia should be acceptable. When this all comes together towards the end of the second section of Marquis’ paper he explains that if a fetus were to be killed, then that fetus would be deprived of a valuable future. “The future of a standard fetus includes a set of experiences, projects, activities, and such which are identical with the futures of adult human beings and are identical with the futures of young children (Marquis, 192).” In clear words he explains that the fetus has a right to life and a right to the possibilities of it’s future, therefore abortion, the massacre of this fetus, would be morally wrong. Marquis does not only say that because it would be wrong to kill us it would be wrong to kill the fetus, in fact he infers that it is based on the fact that any human with a viable future like ours deserves the chance at that future. Marquis believes that to conclude that abortion is prima facie seriously...