Avoiding the Personhood Issue: Abortion, Identity, and Marquis's ‘Future-Like-Ours’ Argument

One reason for the persistent appeal of Don Marquis' ‘future like ours’ argument (FLO) is that it seems to offer a way to approach the debate about the morality of abortion while sidestepping the difficult task of establishing whether the fetus is a person. This essay argues that in order to sa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bioethics
Main Author: Reitan, Eric (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Wiley-Blackwell [2016]
In: Bioethics
IxTheo Classification:NBE Anthropology
NCH Medical ethics
Further subjects:B Ethics
B Future Like Ours
B Contraception
B Abortion
B Personal Identity
B Personhood
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
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Summary:One reason for the persistent appeal of Don Marquis' ‘future like ours’ argument (FLO) is that it seems to offer a way to approach the debate about the morality of abortion while sidestepping the difficult task of establishing whether the fetus is a person. This essay argues that in order to satisfactorily address both of the chief objections to FLO - the ‘identity objection’ and the ‘contraception objection’ - Marquis must take a controversial stand on what is most essential to being the kind of entity that an adult human being is. Such a stand amounts to a controversial account of personhood. To the extent that FLO's success depends on accepting such a controversial metaphysical view, one apparent attraction of FLO proves illusory.
ISSN:1467-8519
Contains:Enthalten in: Bioethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/bioe.12211