Abortion: Warren and McMahan Philosophy 203

Abortion: Warren and McMahan

Introduction

• The morality of abortion involves questions about the nature and moral status of the fetus, including its rights and how they compare to those of adult persons.
• Key questions include defining abortion and its relation to murder, and understanding the rights of the pregnant person in relation to the fetus.
• The morality and legality of abortion should be kept distinct.

Mary Ann Warren

• Warren's argument:
  1. It is wrong to kill an innocent human being.
  2. Fetuses are innocent human beings.
  3. Therefore, it is wrong to kill fetuses.
• Warren distinguishes between the moral and genetic senses of "human being."
  • Moral sense (personhood): intrinsic worth, rights, protected moral status.
  • Genetic sense: merely being genetically human; tissue masses are genetically human but not persons.
• Characteristics of being a human being in the moral sense:
  1. Consciousness
  2. Reasoning
  3. Self-motivated activity
  4. Capacity to communicate
  5. Presence of self-concepts
• Warren argues that a being must meet a minimum threshold of these criteria to have moral status. Fetuses do not meet these criteria, thus abortion is permissible.

Problems with Warren's Argument

• Many adults with mental and physical challenges, as well as small children and babies, may not meet the majority of Warren's criteria.
• Some non-human animals meet several of these criteria, potentially displaying greater capacities than some human persons, which complicates assigning moral status based on these characteristics alone.

McMahan

• McMahan focuses on how differences in capacity affect moral worth, especially between early and late-term abortions.
• He questions who is harmed by an abortion.
• He suggests that early abortions do not harm anyone because the early fetus lacks identity.
• McMahan cites data suggesting no real fetal consciousness before 20-24 weeks.
• He equates killing an early fetus with certain forms of contraception if the early fetus is just something without being someone.
• He defines the wrong of murder as destroying a victim’s ability to pursue their time-relative interests.