Why the Difference?
	CONTINUE ON	Review Related Ideas and then Return Here

If you want to argue that the older fetus can have rights but the embryo cannot, you must say why. What features of the fetus are relevant? Is it the fact that at some point the fetus is viable outside its mother's body? Is it the fact that eventually the fetus develops those parts of the brain required for such higher brain functions as reasoning and self-consciousness? Is it greater sensitivity to pain? A more developed nervous system? A bodily form more like that of an infant?

Is there a point at which the moral status of the fetus changes? Is there a stage during which it changes? Or is there a continuous development toward stronger rights?

Ariadne Home	Abortion Bibliography	Abortion Home