Related Ideas

Review these ideas and then use the BACK key on your browser to go back to the page you were on.

Baruch Brody has raised some interesting questions about abortion to save the mother's life. Assume that we can prevent the death of one person only by killing someone else who is innocent and not in danger. Would you agree that we are justified in doing so? If not, how do we justify abortion to save the mother when the fetus is not in danger. What differences might be relevant?

On the other hand, what if two innocent people (A and B) were about to die and we could save A by killing B, but not B by killing A. Would you agree that it is permissible to kill B? If so, it seems that abortion to save the mother is justified when both mother and child would otherwise die. But what if we could save A or B but not both? Would we be justified in always choosing A? Why not use a random method to decide whom to save?