FYS 043 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Fetus, Unintended Pregnancy, Validity
12 Dec 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Distinction between being a person and functioning as a person. From conception, humans are non-functioning actual persons with the same nature and essence as fully-functioning adult human. Zygote has the basic inherent capacity to function as a person because it has the essential physical structure to a function as a person. The main philosophical argument against abortion can be described as follows: First premise: a prenatal human organism is an innocent person with a right to life. Second premise: the deliberate killing of an innocent person is always forbidden. Need to examine whether the premises are true. To reject the conclusion one must reject one or both of the premises. Not as much as the pro-life position usually agrees. Case of the famous violinist- analogy pointed towards situations of rape/ nonconsensual pregnancy. Burglar- using contraception that doesn"t work- unintended pregnancy. Ex: living with your windows and doors open with no screens if you don"t want people.
