RT Article
T1 The impairment argument for the immorality of abortion: A reply
JF Bioethics
VO 33
IS 6
SP 723
OP 724
A1 Blackshaw, Bruce P.
A2 Hendricks, Perry
A2 Hendricks, Perry C.
LA English
PB Wiley-Blackwell
YR 2019
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1727506111
AB In his recent article Perry Hendricks presents what he calls the impairment argument to show that abortion is immoral. To do so, he argues that to give a fetus fetal alcohol syndrome is immoral. Because killing the fetus impairs it more than giving it fetal alcohol syndrome, Hendricks concludes that killing the fetus must also be immoral. Here, I claim that killing a fetus does not impair it in the way that giving it fetal alcohol syndrome does. By examining the reason why giving a fetus this condition is wrong, I conclude that the same reasoning, on common pro-choice accounts, does not apply to killing the fetus. Accordingly, Hendricks's argument does not succeed in showing abortion is immoral.
K1 Abortion
K1 fetal alcohol syndrome
K1 impairment argument
K1 Personhood
DO 10.1111/bioe.12576