Abortion Rights And Wrongs

Personhood Unknown?

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If you can't decide whether an embryo is a person, you may still be able to come to a conclusion about abortion if you can prove that personhood isn't the crucial issue after all.

Here's one possibility: Suppose you could show that abortion is permissible or impermissible in either case. For example, suppose you could show that abortion is acceptable if the embryo is not a person and then go on to show that it is also acceptable if the embryo is a person? If you could do this you wouldn't have to decide the issue of personhood after all. (You might look at Judith Thomson's article for help.)

The same sort of argument could be used if you can't decide whether an embryo has the same rights as an adult person.


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