The view that abortion is, with rare exceptions, seriously immoral has received little support in the recent philosophical literature. No doubt most philosophers affiliated with se
The question of when human life begins continues to be a source of ethical and political controversy. In this debate, the language used by many medical textbooks fosters significan
By “unborn human being,” I mean a living human zygote, embryo, or fetus. I shall defend this somewhat controversial usage later in these remarks. By “direct abortion,” I mean an ac
The ethics of parenthood and procreation apply not only to daily acts of decision-making by parents and prospective procreators, but also to law, public policy, and medicine. Two r
This essay presents a systematic overview of a range of philosophical arguments about the moral permissibility of abortion, distinguishing such arguments from arguments about publi
Is abortion – the ending of a pregnancy via the termination of foetal life – morally permissible? Philosophers, as well as non-philosophers, are torn. One pro-life argument is that
When he presents the heart of his redemptive mission, Jesus says: "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly" (Jn 10:10). In truth, he is referring to that "new" and "
The gift of life which God the Creator and Father has entrusted to man calls him to appreciate the inestimable value of what he has been given and to take responsibility for it: th
Although many human pregnancies end prematurely without human intervention, and others terminate as unintended collateral effects of other procedures, 'abortion' is standardly taken to refer to the termination of a pregnancy with the aim of destroying the foetus. Discussions of the ethics of this have tended to shift from considerations of the ‘sanctity’ of human life as something created by God, to the moral status of the foetus, to the rights of women over their bodies. The traditional argument against abortion involves the claim that it is always wrong intentionally to take the life of a human being. Rejections of this argument hold either that an unborn foetus is not a human being, or though biologically human is not a human person, or that it is not always wrong to kill an innocent human being, as for example when it poses a threat to the life or well being of others. From the 1960s onwards the issue of abortion has become a central feature in political debates between ‘conservatives’ and ‘progressives’.