The Moral Aesthetics of Compulsory Ultrasound Viewing and the Theological Future of Abortion

By law, women seeking abortions in some US states must undergo compulsory ultrasound viewing. This article examines the moral significance of this practice, especially as understood by pro-life religious groups, in light of Foucault's recently published lectures on 'The Will to Know'...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Studies in Christian ethics
Main Author: Hovey, Craig 1974- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Sage [2019]
In: Studies in Christian ethics
IxTheo Classification:KBQ North America
NCH Medical ethics
TK Recent history
VA Philosophy
Further subjects:B Disgust
B moral aesthetics
B MacIntyre
B Abortion
B Foucault
B visual bioethics
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Description
Summary:By law, women seeking abortions in some US states must undergo compulsory ultrasound viewing. This article examines the moral significance of this practice, especially as understood by pro-life religious groups, in light of Foucault's recently published lectures on 'The Will to Know' and the place of the aesthetic. How does the larger abortion-debate strategy of 'showing' and 'seeing' images-whether of living or dead fetuses-work as an aesthetic form of argument that intends to evoke a moral response in the absence of reason-giving? The article draws on recent, parallel debates regarding disgust before concluding with a theological response to the priority of will over knowledge and vision over action as commentary on the future of abortion debate and law, especially in the United States.
ISSN:0953-9468
Contains:Enthalten in: Studies in Christian ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/0953946818761245