Abortion is incommensurable with fetal alcohol syndrome. (1st December 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pickard, Claire
• Is Part Of: Bioethics. Volume 34:Number 2(2020)
• Page Start: 207
• Page End: 210
• Publication Date: 2019-12-01
• Subjects: abortion -- consequentialism -- impairment argument -- personhood -- pregnancy; Bioethics -- Periodicals; 174.957
• DOI: 10.1111/bioe.12697
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0269-9702

Abstract

Abstract: A recent article argued for the immorality of abortion regardless of personhood status by comparing the impairment caused by fetal alcohol syndrome to the impairment caused by abortion. I argue that two of the premises in this argument fail and that, as such, one cannot reasonably attribute moral harms to abortion on the basis of the moral harms caused by fetal alcohol syndrome. The impairment argument relies on an inconsistent instantiation, which undermines the claim that personhood is irrelevant, and it does not fulfill its own ceteris paribus clause, which demands that no additional benefit be gained from abortion that would not be gained from causing fetal alcohol syndrome.