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Misunderstanding "person" and "human life" obscures the abortion controversy

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Brian Cooney
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The advocates of "abortion on demand without apology" make the same all-or-nothing error as their extreme opponents. They want to believe that the killing of a late-term fetus is no more regrettable than killing the single-celled beginning of a human life. They ignore the greater actualization or closer proximity of personhood in a late-term fetus compared to an embryo. Its personhood is a reality not yet fully actual, nor as actual as in a baby, but nevertheless much greater than in an embryo.

Surely it is reasonable to claim that it's worse to kill a late-term fetus than to kill an embryo, so that the reason for a late-term abortion should be much stronger than in early pregnancy. A late-term abortion may be necessary sometimes, but having one merely as a convenience is massively disrespectful of human personhood. Our laws on abortion should acknowledge these important differences in circumstance of a decision to abort. This leaves a woman's abortion decision without precise and certain guidelines. But this gray zone is a common feature in moral decision making, for instance, in questions of fairness toward others.

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I'm a retired philosophy professor at Centre College. My last book was Posthumanity-Thinking Philosophically about the Future (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004). I am an anti-capitalist.

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