A Critical Introduction to the Ethics of Abortion: Understanding the Moral Arguments
Ebook
A Critical Introduction to the Ethics of Abortion addresses some of the most prominent and influential arguments to the abortion debate. These include the Being a Person verses Functioning as a Person Argument, women's rights vis-à-vis the rights of the foetus, personhood as an essentially contested concept, and a virtue ethics approach. Also covered are central bioethical issues concerning prenatal screening, stem cell research and cloning. Based on a critical assessment of the evidence, the book offers an impartial view and draws on the importance of critical thinking and the logic of argumentation. Providing an overview of the legal history of abortion in the United States, it discusses five of the most influential Supreme Court cases on abortion law during the past fifty years and examines the current state of abortion law, politics and the main trends.
Presenting a balance between ethical concepts, views and arguments, A Critical Introduction to the Ethics of Abortion is an up-to-date introduction to the choice of abortion illustrating the importance of evidence, clear thinking and good arguments for supporting one's ethical beliefs.
An impartial overview of some of the most influential moral arguments that have been advanced in the past 50 years on the ethics of abortion.
A comprehensive compilation of the most significant and influential arguments on the ethics of abortion published during the past 50 years
Considers anti-abortion and pro-choice arguments equitably based on evidence and arguments
Examines the current state of abortion law, politics and the main trends
Serves as a guide to critical thinking and the logic of argumentation
Introduction
1. Personhood Arguments for the Moral Permissibility of Abortion
2. Personhood Arguments for the Moral Wrongness of Abortion
3. What If We Cannot Determine the Concept of Personhood?
4. Women's Rights
5. The Ethics of Killing: The Deprivation Argument
6. A Virtue Approach to Abortion
7. Feminism and Abortion
8. Prenatal Screening and Human Genetic Ethical Issues
9. Abortion and the Law
Bibliography
Index
One of the best books I have ever read on the issue of abortion.
A timely, balanced, and comprehensive examination of the abortion controversy. As an introductory text, it does everything right: it presents the material in a clear and engaging manner, it makes explicit the premises underlying the various positions, and it models good philosophical practice by evaluating those positions in an even-handed and objective manner.
This book is a refreshing teaching resource, bringing rigour and nuance to an often stale and gratuitously-polarised debate. Cantens is determined that readers should make up their own minds, and accordingly equips them in the basics of logic and normative ethics, empowering them to be active, critical participants in adjudicating the major arguments with an eye to their social context.
- Title: A Critical Introduction to the Ethics of Abortion: Understanding the Moral Arguments
- Author: Bernie Cantens
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
- Print Publication Date: 2019
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781350055889, 9781350055872, 1350055875, 1350055883
- Resource ID: LLS:9781350055889
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-04-08T21:23:42Z
Bernie Cantens is Professor of Philosophy at Moravian College, USA.