The moral significance of spontaneous abortion. Issue 2 (June 1985)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Murphy, T F
• Is Part Of: Journal of medical ethics. Volume 11:Issue 2(1985)
• Page Start: 79
• Page End: 83
• Publication Date: 1985-06
• Subjects: Medical ethics -- Periodicals; 174.2
• DOI: 10.1136/jme.11.2.79
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0306-6800

Abstract

Abstract : Spontaneous abortion is rarely addressed in moral evaluations of abortion. Indeed, 'abortion' is virtually always taken to mean only induced abortion. After a brief review of medical aspects of spontaneous abortion, I attempt to articulate the moral implications of spontaneous abortion for the two poles of the abortion debate, the strong pro-abortion and the strong anti-abortion positions. I claim that spontaneous abortion has no moral relevance for strict pro-abortion positions but that the high incidence of spontaneous abortion is not (as some claim) eo ipso any sort of justification for voluntarily induced abortion. Secondly, I show that if the strict anti-abortionist position is to be taken seriously in its insistence that prenatal life has a right to be protected by virtue of its being conceived, then it seems necessary to take measures to prevent spontaneous abortion and its presumptive causes, and this as a matter of moral obligation.