Abortion - the Moral Landscape

 

MORAL STATUS

 

A living things is said to have moral status if there are moral restrictions on killing it or using it for our own purposes which are grounded in the nature of the creature. In other words, if it is wrong to use or kill the creature because of what it is, then it has moral status. Different organisms may have different levels or degrees of moral status. They might have:

• No moral status: There are no restrictions on killing or using it (such as grass, insects or bacteria).
• Partial moral status: There are some restrictions on killing or using it, (Such as Elephants, Dolphins, Gorilla's)
• Full moral status: there are many stringent conditions on killing or using it (such as include you and other people).

 THE 'FUTURE LIKE OURS' ARGUMENT

1. One of the reasons it would be gravely wrong to kill a person like you is that doing so would deprive you of a very valuable future.
2. Killing an embryo or foetus deprives it of a future like yours, one with similar human goods and experiences.
3. Therefore, it would be gravely wrong to kill an embryo or foetus.

THE 'HUMAN DIGNITY' ARGUMENT

1. The right to life, or dignity, is the most fundamental right a creature can have. If a creature has it, it must be by virtue of what the creature most fundamentally is.
2. We all agree that you have a right to life.
3. What you most essentially are is an individual human being.
4. 'Embryo' and 'foetus' are stages in the life of an individual human being.
5. Therefore the human embryo or foetus has dignity, or a right to life.

SENTIENCE AS A CONDITION OF MORAL STATUS

1. Moral status is about protecting a creature's interests.
2. Interests are things a creature can take an interest in.
3. Creatures need sentience to take an interest in something.
4. A necessary condition of having moral status then, is the presence of sentience, of being aware of things.
5. Applied to early human life: the foetus has no moral status until it has the capacity for sentience or consciousness, which is about half way through gestation.

 THE GRADUAL DEVELOPMENT OF MORAL STATUS

1. A newly fertilized egg or an embryo is a partial realization of a fully-fledged human being.
2. According to gradualism, just as early human life develops in to a fully human being, slowly, step-by-step, early human life's moral status develops in to full moral status slowly, step-by-step, over the course of pregnancy.

SUMMARY:

1. A FUTURE LIKE OURS: early human life has full moral status, because embryos and foetuses have a future full of human good.
2. HUMAN DIGNITY: Humans in the early stages of development have full moral status simply because they are human beings.
3. SENTIENCE: early human life has partial moral status because only conscious beings have any moral status and embryos and early foetuses are not conscious.
4. GRADUALISM: early human life has partial moral status because moral status grows gradually along with foetal development.

THREE PERMISSIVE VIEWS OF ABORTION:

1. THE STRONGEST POSITION: Abortion up through the mid-point or so of pregnancy is always morally permissible because early human life has no moral status.
2. THE MODERATE POSITION: Even early in pregnancy, the embryo or foetus has partial moral status. Given this value, abortion is only morally permissible if continuing the pregnancy will significantly diminish the woman's well being (or for any reason, the pregnancy did not result from voluntary actions).
3. THE DOMINION POSITION: Even if abortion is the destruction of something with partial moral status, aborting is always morally permissible because of the dominion rights women have over their bodies and/or reproductive lives.



DEONTOLOGICAL APPROACH: Kant's categorical imperative would say not killing is a universalizable moral action.

 

Sources:

 

Margaret Little, Director, Kennedy institute of Ethics.

 

https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-bioethics-georgetownx-phlx101-03x

Train like Bane



Out of all Batman's adversaries I connect most with Bane:

'He read as many books as he could get his hands on, spent most of his spare time body building in the prison's gym, and learned to fight in the merciless school of prison life.

 

He apparently received a classical education.'

 

3 simplistic rules of life:

1. Read everything you can
2. Use the gym consistently
3. Learn how to fight!

Unless you have some sort of seriously debilitating illness that prevents you, the vast majority can commit to those 3 simple rules to life.

 

Before you knock it, try it and see how much your life changes.

Healer or money maker?



But tell me, your physician . . . is he a moneymaker, an earner of fees, or a healer of the sick?” - Socrates.

 

During a period of unemployment, I paid a visit to my dentists surgery. I couldn't get to see my regular dentist and acceded to seeing another dentist. At the end she rattled off lots of treatments I 'needed' then asked how I would like to pay.

 

Her assistant told the dentist I do not need to pay as I am currently unemployed, to which the dentist backtracked and said that in that case I should be ok for another 6 months, just come back next week for a cleaning.

 

For two weeks she was on the sick, by the third week I was told she had left the practice. Whether sacked for gross misconduct or left from shame/guilt I do not know.

 

The question Socrates asks of a physician is a valid one, whether doctor, dentist, optician, et al, are they a moneymaker, an earner of fees, or a healer of the sick?

 

The temptation for a professional healer to make more money from their patients is great. We have no way of knowing if we are being lied to or the truth is being bent in order that our healers can extract more money from our purse.

 

Even with an ethical code of practice, even if swearing the Hippocratic oath, how can we be sure these people do not succumb to temptation when taking money from us, or the state for that matter. How can two dentists in the same practice at the same level of qualification find one with many faults and another with none?

 

The healing profession demands a far higher level of virtue from us as people, something that should be considered before entering the profession, rather than seeing it as a cash-cow. Yet how many of us can truly say we put the pursuit of wisdom and virtue before material trifles and financial gains?

 



Why I gym

Yesterday I asked the question of a friend, "Why Gym?" (or any form of exercise really). Why put ourselves through the pain and torture of getting some magical term of 'fit'? The reply was a genuine "I enjoy it". That's great for those that genuinely derive pleasure from vigorous exercise, but if exercise is for life, I honestly don't feel like going down the gym when I'm 77 years old, hammering away at the cross trainer. I'm struggling to stay motivated for my 'fit for 40 challenge' never mind life!

 

Of course I always keep in the back of my mind what Aristotle said (Maybe Socrates or Marcus Aurelius, certainly someone from the classical period), that we must be of both healthy body and healthy mind. To neglect the exercise of either would be detrimental to our health.

 

'Rather Socrates dissatisfied than a pig satisfied' I totally accept that, but killing yourself with vigorous exercise in the vain attempt to clutch a few straws of life, so we can stay trapped here on earth for a few more years in old age, that's a lot harder to handle. Sure I do understand the benefits at core, but it's no way as motivating as the Socrates quote is for self education.

 

I hold my hands up, I love the cross trainer, but I hate the treadmill with a passion. In fact me and running just don't get along at all, however, have a raw steak hanging out of my back pocket and a 3 day starved German Shepherd let off it's leash, no doubt I could run far and run fast!

 

So we need to find our personal motivation and for me it has to be 'heart healthy' over vanity of looks any day. Sure I want them to have a fit dad they can run around the park with, a Dad that can be around 'healthily' not crippled and diseased expecting my children to look after me because I couldn't be bothered to take care of myself. No doubt I can spare an hour or 2 a day to get 'fit', whatever your personal definition of that word is.

 

And the best thing about technology is, you can listen to your favourite radio 4 podcasts or numerous audiobooks as you work out, combining the best of both worlds and tipping your hat to the greatest the classical period had to offer us.