Friday, August 11, 2017

Liz Harman: Abortion and Moral Status of Fetus

James Franco and Eliot Michaelson have a YouTube series called "Philosophy Time."

An episode with Liz Harman, a professor at Princeton University, takes on the ethics of early-term abortion.

Harman argues that there are two types of fetuses in terms of moral status.

If the fetus has a future (won't be aborted), it has a moral status because it will grow to become a person.

If the fetus will be aborted, it doesn't have moral status. Since the fetus will never grow to experience being, aborting it is not morally bad.

Moral status of the fetus results by virtue of its future. So, the moral status of the fetus is determined in hindsight.

What?

She's a professor at Princeton?

Wow.

Here's video:


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