nathannobis and Kristina Grob

CONTENTS

1 Introduction

2 Defining “Abortion”

2.1 “Murdering Babies”

2.2 “Termination”

2.3 “Killing”

3 Fetal Consciousness & Facts about Abortions

3.1 Fetal Consciousness

3.2 When Most Abortions Occur

3.3 Why Most Abortions Occur

4 Bad Arguments: “Question-Begging” Arguments & “Everyday” Arguments

4.1 “Question-Begging” Arguments

4.1.1 “Against” Abortion:

4.1.2 “For” Abortion:

4.2 “Everyday” Arguments

4.2.1 “Against” Abortion

4.2.1.1 “Abortion ends a life.”

4.2.1.2 “Abortion kills babies and children.”

4.2.1.3 “Abortion is murder.”

4.2.1.4 “Abortion kills innocent beings.”

4.2.1.5 “Abortion hurts women.”

4.2.1.6 “The Bible says abortion is wrong.”

4.2.1.7 “Abortion stops a beating heart.”

4.2.1.8 “How would you like it if . .?”

4.2.2 “For” Abortion

4.2.2.1 “Women have a right to do whatever they want with their bodies.”

4.2.2.2 “People who oppose abortion are just trying to control women.”

4.2.2.3 “Men shouldn’t make decisions about matters affecting women.”

4.2.2.4 “Women and girls will die if abortion isn’t allowed.”

5 Better Arguments: Philosophers’ Arguments

5.1 Arguments Against Abortion

5.1.1 Fetuses are human

5.1.2 Fetuses are human beings

5.1.3 Fetuses are persons

5.1.4 Fetuses are potential persons

5.1.5 Abortion prevents fetuses from experiencing their valuable futures

5.2 Arguments that abortion is often not wrong

5.2.1 No good arguments that it is wrong

5.2.2 Early fetuses aren’t conscious & feeling: personhood and harm

5.2.3 The right to life & the right to someone else’s body

5.2.4 “What ifs”: rape and later-term abortions

6 Conclusion

7 For Further Reading

8 Discussion Questions

License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Thinking Critically About Abortion Copyright © 2019 by nathannobis and Kristina Grob is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.22595/mc.ir.fac.pub:2019_nobis_book

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